Sunday, November 24, 2024

2024 Yuletide Spirit Reading Challenge and Readathon!


 I'm participating in this Challenge/Readathon, but mostly doing the readathon part. I was going to attempt the bingo challenge but I couldn't figure out what to do with the prompts. I might still try it, but that's TBD at the moment. 

I selected the Mistletoe challenge which is to read 2-4 books this month and I think I'm well on my way! 

This is the bingo card (just in case I decide to give it a whirl!)


Now the last couple of weeks I've been sick with something, probably bronchitis so my energy has been less than zero, but I'm thinking I'm on the mend (woo hoo!) so the last couple of days I've really been digging into reading again!

My Progress: 

Tuesday 26th: The Three Body Problem-88 pages read

Wednesday 27th: The Three Body Problem- 182 pages (finished)

Book 1 Finished!
I haven't been feeling great again, and my energy has been zero so my reading has slowed down a bit but I do plan on reading a whole bunch this weekend!

I'm currently reading 2 books now..well 3 but we'll just count the 2 until there's significant progress in that 3rd one. 



I'm on page 51 of The Dark Forest and just started 25 Days. 

Monday, November 4, 2024

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

 

                                                                look at this creepy ass cover!


The Blurb: (From Goodreads)

It is the story of four seekers who arrive at a notoriously unfriendly pile called Hill House: Dr. Montague, an occult scholar looking for solid evidence of a "haunting"; Theodora, the lighthearted assistant; Eleanor, a friendless, fragile young woman well acquainted with poltergeists; and Luke, the future heir of Hill House. At first, their stay seems destined to be merely a spooky encounter with inexplicable phenomena. But Hill House is gathering its powers—and soon it will choose one of them to make its own.


I've wanted to read this for forever, but always jumped to something else. I started this book in October for Spooky Month, but I finished it up a few days ago. 

My first impression was that I loved how Jackson writes characters. Each one of them felt like real people with real personalities and real quirks. Eleanor is as meek as a mouse and starts off really folded into herself. She feels the call to the house and her great "adventure" and that is what made me love her so so much. 

Luke is just kind of there living his life and experiencing this with a "okay whatever happens happens" kind of mindset. A chill dude. He's funny and seems to be open minded to pretty much whatever the house and the other characters throw at him. 

Theodora is a drama queen, but a seemingly kind-hearted and caring (in her own way) person. She's more about the experience than anything. She seems very interested in understanding how Eleanor works and prodding her a bit to come out of her shell and live life. 

These three work together as a character group to make this story feel like it's unfolding in a way that makes sense. This is obviously a creepy "haunted house" book, but the story is very character driven, especially from Eleanor's perspective. The house itself takes a back seat and there's not that much actual haunting rather than a nice creep factor. 

The book is a quick read (I'm just a slow reader sometimes) and it's gonna drag you in. It doesn't seem like much is happening but if you pay attention to tonal shifts in how character's interact you will enjoy the building up of tension straight to the finale, which is bleak and sad but seemingly inevitable. 

I really enjoyed it and do recommend it for a quick and creepy read. 

Sidebar: 

This book has been made into several movies, bot direct interpretations and indirect. I've watched and enjoyed most of them barring the very old movies. I would suggest reading the book before you delve into the movies/mini series first though. 

Friday, November 1, 2024

Blowing the Dust Off This Blog

 


Hi there! It's been a while! I have made the decision to reopen this blog! I know it's been quite a while but I missed the old girl. We go back a loooong way, my son was a babeh (he's 20 now) and well I kind of miss it. So here I am! I contemplated re-opening it in January but I thought that was dumb..plus I am impatient. 

So I am now finished with school. I have free time again and I have the itch to get back into reading and maybe even doing review tours again (is that still a thing?) For now though, I'll just do my own personal reviews. 

My TBR for November (my birthmonth!) goes as follows: (this is a tentative starting stack) 

  • The Haunting of Hill House-Shirley Jackson -Finish it 
  • Bitten-Kelley Armstrong 
  • Fairytale-Stephen King
  • The 3 Body Problem 
  • Fourth Wing
  • Red Rising
I am excited to blow some dust off this blog and get her going again! 

How are you all doing?