As it turns out, next week is going to be busier than I expected so LRG is going to have to take a Thanksgiving break. However, I did want to leave some festive bookish goodies out for all of you to snack on:
First, if you’re in the mood for a good cozy mystery with seasonal flair, Leslie Meier’s Lucy Stone series is a sure bet for savory fun.
Her small town leading lady of the title covers the holiday and special occasion front (Wedding Day Murder and Bake Sale Murder are just two examples)quite well and in the later books, she often adds a sprinkle of social justice issues to boot.
The two titles that are well suited here are Turkey Day Murder and Turkey Trot Murder, the latter involving a 5K race and obnoxious rich people (take that as you will). What I do enjoy about this series is the sitcom vibes of the setting that offsets the murders rather nicely, strange but true! If you’re looking for some light hearted reading in between recipe planning and TV specials, these turkey tales are certainly worth a taste:
If you happen to be more interested in what’s coming up in next year’s book adaptation at the movies, these new teaser trailer for Sunrise on the Reaping has just been released.
This second prequel for The Hunger Games series follows the gruesome Quarter Quell that future mentor to Katniss Everdeen Haymitch Abernathy (Joseph Zara) had to endure. The casting includes such notables as Maya Hawke, Lili Taylor, Ralph Fiennes, Billy Porter and Glenn Close, with a release for November of 2026.
While I didn’t read the first prequel or see that movie(both of which had mixed reviews), the praise for Sunrise on the Reaping has been strongly solid from day one, making me a little intrigued to check this out, plus Glenn Close’s entrance is cinematic diva gold, if you ask me!:
Also, this upcoming January has an adaptation of Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation due to arrive on Netflix with a trailer already out and about.
Emily Bader and Tom Blyth star as Poppy and Alex, who having been taking vacations together as friends for a number of years. After a serious falling out that divided them for two years, Poppy manages to convince Alex to take one last trip together to see if they can make things right.
This is the first of Emily Henry’s rather popular novels to get the major movie treatment so expectations are quite high to say the least.
While I haven’t read this particular book yet, I did read the novel written by Yulin Kuang(How to End a Love Story)who adapted this screenplay and that book was heartbreakingly good which bodes well for this movie indeed:
With that, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving and look forward to wrapping up the rest of this bizarrely memorable year in December.
Look, I know that it’s hard to relax and just get into the holiday groove these days but we can take a break to recharge and reassess before New Year’s Eve strikes that final chime into a fresh set of twelve months into the unknown.
Yet, we did have a few good things happen along the way and if we give each other the proper emotional support to get us through another round of this, that number of good things might rapidly increase by this time next year. Worth trying for at the very least.
So, do take that well deserved time off and find some fun with a good book, movie or song. Speaking of song, I leave you with this excellent take on a truly trippy classic perfect for a hotel stay on the wild side-enjoy!:
It’s that time of year when book lovers both cheer and lament over the Goodreads Choice Awards, which opened up the voting last week for the long list of categories such as Best Fiction, Best Romance and Best Romantasy(looks like that one here to stay).
The final round of voting, which cuts down the number of contenders, begins on November 25 and the winners to b announced on December 4. While the GR awards are mostly the literary version of the People’s Choice Awards (if you know, you know), they still are useful as a way to go over your current reading for the year.
To that end, I decided to set up a TBR based on the long list of books I need to catch up on by the end of 2025 into the early part of 2026.
Two of these books are Book of the Month club and the other two are Aardvark selections. These are not the only GRCA nominees I have in the unread category but if those others make it to the finals, I might add them in(even one of my Cozy November reads is on the long list!)later. For now, this should be a good starting point:
Aardvark
In the Debut Nivel category, I was thrilled to see Venessa Vida Kelley’s When the Tides Held the Moon and yes, I voted for it right away!
It will be read, I promise. This gorgeously illustrated novel tells the tale of Benny, who used his blacksmith skills in the 1910s to create a unique cage for the sideshow in Luna Park that holds Rio, a merman captured in the East River.
While Benny finds friendship among his new coworkers, his feelings for Rio grow much stronger, leading him to choose between freeing his beloved or becoming another cynical human doing what he can to survive a harsh world.
This book is such a gem to behold in and of itself yet ultimately a book is made to be opened and appreciated for its words as well. Perhaps saving the best for last isn’t such a bad idea after all:
In the Fantasy section, The Devils by Joe Abercrombie was still among the unread on my shelf so I clearly needed to add it here.
I’ve heard nothing but praise about Abercrombie’s offbeat take on the genre and this book certainly sounds like fun. Set in an alternate medieval universe, Brother Diaz is tasked by the female Pope to claim an ancient crown with the help of a motley crew of mystical misfits before her political rivals can get to it first. Adventures, bloody action and a touch of romance follows along the perilous pages.
I don’t know if this is the best book to start reading of this author’s but since this does have The Suicide Squad(James Gunn.version) vibes, it sounds like the ideal one to me:
Book of the Month Club
In Historical Fiction, the latest by Fiona Davis, The Stolen Queen, was to be found and I wonder if being chosen by the Calvi Book Club earlier this season didn’t give this one an extra boost of reader attention.
Set in New York of 1978, museum curator Charlotte Cross must enlist the aid of Anne Jenkins when an Egyptian artifact is discovered missing during the iconic Met Gala, which Anne was organizing.
Charlotte is very familiar with the stolen item as she was on the archaeological team that found it in 1936, with dire consequences that came along with it. Having no other choice, the pair must go to Egypt to reclaim what was once owned by a female Pharaoh whose curse may doom them both.
I’ve enjoyed Davis’ work before, with her solid New York centric settings and well crafted characters. This book might benefit from the recent buzz around the Lourve heist but I prefer the focus on untold feminine rulers all the more:
The Horror section was pretty strong this time around and among the ones that I haven’t gotten to yet, The Posession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Canas stood out strongly to me.
With a demonic force taking over, Alba finds that Elias is her strongest ally in fighting off this particular evil and perhaps their true chance at some form of salvation.
Having read Canas before, it’s great to see her get more recognition for her increasingly good and sinister storytelling that ought to make her the next big thing in this field indeed:
Having a reading plan in motion for this time of yearly transition is good, especially since I will need room for the books I’m hoping to get this Christmas! Also, this gives me a nice focus for my page turning future.
While the Goodreads Choice Awards are far from perfect (having one author with multiple books in one category is way too much) and does need to showcase better diversity in books and authors, it can be a boon to highlighting many titles that could benefit from an extra spotlight here.
At the very least, it’s a worthwhile distraction from the real world chaos we’re dealing with right now and that’s not an excuse for the awards being less than fully representative of their entire audience. All I am saying is that for now, this can be both a rallying cry for change and a welcome relief from our collective anxiety. The two goals are not mutually exclusive.
Think of the Goodreads Choice Awards as akin to the Dundies given out on various seasons of The Office; somewhat well meaning yet awkwardly presented and at the best of times, enduringly amusing. Just don’t get too overwrought about it, find that Pam Beasley balance if you can!:
It may be November but those end of the year round-ups are already starting and with book award season in full swing, what better time to share my LRG Best Books List for this rather tumultuous year of 2025?
This is a basic top five(with some honorable mentions coming up) of books that I read to completion this year and throughly enjoyed. My picks are all fiction (didn’t want to get into too much nonfiction as the daily headlines give me enough to deal with) and for the most part, published this year.
There’s a TBR reading challenge that I’ve been doing this year that will get a separate post of top reads later this month( none of those titles are listed here for that reason), Okay, time to present my literary winners in a somewhat chronological order of when I read them:
Harriet Tubman: Live in Concert: This debut novel from Drag Race superstar Bob the Drag Queen gives us a what if scenario; what if legendary figures from the past just suddenly showed up and decided to use modern day means to talk about their experiences with the rest of us?
As the title suggests, our narrator Darnell is recruited by Harriet and a small number of her historical traveling companions to produce their rap album as well as set up their tour. During this process, Darnell not only gets to work on the project of a lifetime, he also comes away with learning a few truths that could help him get over one of the worst moments of his personal and professional life.
The book is a short ride but filled to the brim with history, humor and heart, plus a couple of songs (added to the audio book edition) that make for a meaningful emotional soundtrack indeed:
Storybook Ending: Moira Macdonald’s charming ode to romcoms is set in a bookstore, of course, with an offbeat love triangle to say the least.
For one thing, two women are trying to romance the same man without each other knowing it along the guy in question!
It starts with April, who leaves a note in a book for handsome store clerk Westley, only he doesn’t read it. Instead, the note is found by Laura, who thinks that Westley wrote it for her.
As for Westley, he’s more interested in the big league indie movie being filmed at the store than anything else and the camera really seems to love him as he takes a small part in the production. A charming sort of chaos soon follows.
This is the kind of novel that makes you wish that Nora Ephron was still with us in order to bring this engaging romantic comedy of errors to vivid cinematic life. For a debut novel, Macdonald shows the steady hand of a seasoned pro when it comes to this type of prose:
The Will of the Many: If I had to sum up this epic book in one Hollywood style pitch, I’d have to say “Hunger Games meets I,Claudius”yet it’s much more than that.
This first entry in James Islington’s
fantasy series introduces us to Vis, once a prince but now alone and orphaned by the empire known as The Hierarchy, which gains its powers by draining people of their actual will power.
Living a rough and tumble existence, Vis is recruited by Ulciscor Telimus, a high ranking official, to infiltrate Catenan Academy, a training ground for young future leaders, to discover the truth behind the mysterious death of Ulciscor’s brother . Having a hidden agenda of his own, Vis takes the offer yet finds that there’s much more that he bargained for here.
I won’t say more than that but I can say that now I understand the immense praise this story has been getting from readers and critics alike.
Granted, I had a rushed reading time with it(had to return it to the library sooner than I expected) but this intense blend of political drama, fantasy and coming of age saga was quite the page turning intoxicating bookish delight that I haven’t had the pleasure of in such a long time.
The second book, The Strength of the Few, was released earlier this month and I don’t know when it will be in my hands but I do know for a certainty that it will be worth the wait and then some:
Love is a War Song: On that same library trip that brought me to Will of the Many, I considered myself blessed by the bookish gods upon finding Danica Nava’s second novel on the shelves as well.
Our leading lady is Avery Fox, a rising pop star whose career has taken a major stumble due to a controversial magazine cover.
To ride out the backlash in private, Avery’s mom/manager sends to Oklahoma to stay at the horse ranch of her grandmother Lottie, whom she’s never met due to unresolved emotional issues. While there, Avery begins to learn more about her heritage and family history as well as clash with Lucas , Lottie’s right hand man who finds her shallow upon first sight.
Having read Nava’s first novel, The Truth According to Ember, not long before taking up this book, it was a treat to see the quick leaps and bounds in storytelling skills that the author has made so far. No doubt about it, Nava is on her way to being a literary chart topper with this riveting romcom that shows love is a battlefield yet worth winning nonetheless:
Lucky Day:
This wild new ride by Chuck Tingle has a number of interesting themes in it, such as the depths of corruption, recovery from trauma and bi erasure, yet the overwhelming universal theme that I found within these pages is facing the utter chaos of life itself.
The novel follows Vera, who lost her mother during a bizarrely tragic occurrence called the Low Probability Event, in which the most unlikely events happened all at once. This LPE lead to massive deaths and emotional aftershocks that even four years later, Vera hasn’t been able to start to recover from.
Having been a devoted statistician, Vera’s faith in stability has been shattered severely but when a government agent asks her to join in an investigation on a suspiciously lucky casino that may hold the answers to what happened that terrible day, she takes him up on that offer and her true journey begins.
To say that the story that unfolds here is unimaginable is an understatement and a compliment all at once. Tingle has an amazing talent in mixing horror, humor and finely tuned emotional depth that is breathtaking to behold. It’s a strong cup of tea to be sure yet worth taking a taste of true literary magic worthy of being seriously savored:
Lucky Day, as it happens, is a nominee in the Horror category of the Goodreads Choice Awards, which started their opening voting rounds today, Yes, I voted for Lucky Day and a few others ( which I plan to post about soon) and hopefully, it will make the finals. Keeping my fingers crossed for sure on that one!
In the meanwhile, here are my honorable mentions, books that are great reads that I highly recommend:
The Build-a-Boyfriend Project by Mason Deaver
Play Nice by Rachel Harrison
Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor
Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher
A couple of those book are also Goodreads nominees but regardless of that , they are definitely awesome books on their own merits. I just didn’t want to overwhelm my post with such massive praise for them!
Here’s to looking forward to more wonderful books in our collective future, despite how fraught our timeline looks at the moment. Yes, it’s hard to deal with these times that we’re going through yet it does help to take a break for simple moments of joy.
This morning, I saw the first snow of the season( snow flurries but still..) and while running my usual errands, discovered to my delight that it was cold enough for my breath to fog up. It happened briefly but that once was plenty enough for a small surprise of fun.
Not much of a thrill, I know, but being able to do that was always a mini magical bit that I have been charmed by since childhood and it’s nice to get that little jolt of bliss from such a mundane thing after all these years.
It may not be much but those tiny things that give you a sense of pure happiness are treasures worth protecting. Whether it’s the weather, a favorite cookie or a good book, those are gifts that no one can take away, no matter how much they try. Happy reading, folks , this and every year to come:
Happy post-Halloween, folks and I hope your seasonal reading was a real treat as was mine for the FrightFall readathon hosted by Michelle Miller over at Seasons of Reading!
Before we begin here, yes, I swapped out a book from my already established TBR for this event(my mood had changed as I shall explain) and yes, the final book was finished on All Saints Day but it was completed before the end of the weekend, which sort of counts, I hope?
Anyway, the first book that I did finish here was Play Nice by Rachel Harrison. Clio, a snarky social influencer, is the youngest of three sisters whose mother Alex gained dubious fame by claiming the house that she and her daughters moved into was demonically possessed.
Clio barely remembered that bizarre period in their lives so when the news of Alex’s death reached her, she had no major qualms about reclaiming the house for a makeover project she could vlog about. This whole move angers her remaining family yet Clio is determined to do this.
Upon cleaning out the place, she discovers a copy of the book her mom wrote about the haunting, a book that she and her sisters swore to their father that they would never read. Driven by curiosity and some of the strange vibes in the house itself, Clio finds herself in a situation where either she’s reliving Alex’s nightmare or making a new one for herself.
This is my first time reading Harrison and I have to say that I really liked it and want to read more from her. The story is supernaturally based but it’s also a smart and savvy look at dysfunctional family dynamics as well as the deadly allure of attention seeking in both private and public life.
Plus, some engaging moments of humor mixed with the emotional tension all make for a storytelling tune you can hum along with in fearsome harmony:
After that, I dove into Sophie Jordan’s Marked by Moonlight , a reissue of the first book in her Moon Chasers series.
Meek and mild schoolteacher Claire has her life turned upside down after an encounter with a large “dog” marks her for death in more ways than one.
According to the new man in her life, Gideon, Claire was bitten by a werewolf and meant to become one herself by the time of the new moon. The secret lycan hunter society that he belongs to has a set protocol for such cases as hers; instant death before that happens.
However, Gideon finds himself moved to try and save Claire from that fate, a difficult task since she doesn’t believe him at first and then later on. finds some enticing advantages to being a were. Heightened strength, speed and a new found confidence are pretty good benefits yet she doesn’t want to lose her soul in the bargain.
While the focus of the book is on the romance between Claire and Gideon, I was much more intrigued by the werewolf cultural norms that cropped up towards the latter half of the story. While it’s a rather alpha male setup, there is an introduction to a werewolf who refuses to be part of a pack and has sworn off attacking humans during his changing times. A good concept that reminds me of Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer(only Oz was way more chill).
No doubt more of that is explored in the other books in this series (plus a couple of characters such as Gideon’s younger sister who wants to a lycan hunter yet is shut out due to being a woman) I might want to check a couple of those entries out as well. For now, this was a fun romp into popcorn page turning moonlit delight:
And finally, I decided to take up T. Kingfisher’s Hemlock & Silver as my last read here. I was still in the mood for supernatural scares and this fairy tale inspired novel has quite a bit of that and then some.
Anja is a poison expert who has been fascinated by the search for an antidote for numerous deadly concoctions almost all her life.
Her talents bring the newly bereaved king to her door, seeking her help in discovering what ails his daughter Snow. Her mother the queen and little sister Rose died under tragic circumstances yet Snow’s wasting away is more than just grief over that loss.
At first, Anja is frustrated at not being able to find not only the possibility of poisoning but any sort of cause for her new patient’s condition. Then one day, the discovery of a strange apple linked to the multitude of mirrors at the remote royal estate that they’re staying at reveals much and yet conceals some terrifying secrets that could doom all involved.
Without getting into more details, this story is a take on the classic Snow White tale yet Kingfisher has an amazing ability to create fresh new fiction from such well known material, embroidering rich character development along side fantastical swatches of creatures both human and otherwise that make up a gorgeous tapestry of fantasy at it’s best.
Yes, there were plenty of scary moments to include this book into this challenge but it’s the heartfelt affection given to these characters that truly is the spine of the story. This reimagining of Snow White and the wicked queen is steady enough to stand on its own and also makes for a welcome addition to that iconic pantheon:
So, this was definitely a good gruesome time and my thanks to Michelle Miller for giving us all the perfect treat basket to put such devious delights in.
In the meanwhile, the holiday season ahead is going to be rough going, given the daily headlines that seem to get worse as we go on. Nonetheless, the best way forward is to help each other out as much as possible and to keep a good thought or two in our hearts.
Hard to do, I know, but finding what comfort you can to revive your spirits is important to your emotional health. For me, one of those things that I take comfort in is a reread of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, which I plan on doing this month.
While Alcott disliked having this book being her crowning achievement in literature (she would’ve rather preferred one of her gothic novels claiming that honor instead), her use of family lore in bringing the March sisters to vivid life was a special kind of magic that couldn’t be ignored by anyone.
It’s also inspired many a reader to have such a loving family to look to in bad as well as good times and no matter how that family has come together, the love, laughter and support is what makes any version of such a story worth revisiting.
A true classic shows both the best and worst of what we have to offer the world and in the case of Little Women, hopefully our best will be good enough for those readers yet to turn that first page:
One of the reading adventures I took this year was trying out Aardvark, the book subscription service that offered rather more offbeat titles than the average book boxes out there.
As much as I enjoyed gathering up some new to me books and authors to engage with, my time with Aardvark had to come to an end due to the limits of my entertainment budget (we all know how the economy is these days..).
So, I was fine with that for the most part as I still had plenty of other affordable book buying options to work with. Yet, I did look in on their latest offerings every now and then, sighing longingly at times. It was nice while it lasted or so I thought!
Thanks to a very tiny windfall that covered the price of a one month gift subscription to Aardvark , my new box of September/October books are on the way!
My must-have title was Chuck Tingle’s Lucky Day, which happens to be a special edition, which looks at the seemingly randomness of the universe and just how random is it? When former statistics professor Vera is recruited by a special government agent to investigate the against the odds success of a certain casino, the stakes for her are quite personal.
The source of the casino’s luck can be traced to a bizarre event four years prior that caused multiple deaths in rather improbable ways(being attacked by a monkey using a typewriter for example and Vera’s mother was one of those casualties.
Her faith in her field of interest shattered, Vera was feeling useless until Special Agent Layne arrived. Given the chance to find out what really happened , along with possibly preventing another such occurrence from destroying more lives, she’s ready to resharpen her skills but can she truly play the game to win?
Tingle’s take on story telling is engagingly strange and emotionally touching, quite the fictional combination to be sure. However, like a top chef, Tingle blends those offbeat flavors into a satisfying plate of page turning delight:
I paired that with Mate, Ali Hazelwood’s follow-up to Bride, that has another paranormal romance in store for some supporting players from the previous novel.
Serena Paris is the first of her kind, a hybrid of human and were. With one foot in each realm and yet not being accepted by either side, her safety is at risk from more than one quarter.
Her best chance for survival is Koen Alexander, a powerful Alpha leader amongst the Weres whose authority is never questioned. Being his mate is an instant guarantee of protection yet the real risks here may be if the heart for them both.
I did like Bride, which I read earlier this year, and while my story telling tastes tend to favor vampires in this category, some heartfelt howling at the moon just feels so right to me these days:
To round things up, my choice was a magical romcom, Witch You Would by Lia Amador.
Penelope is hoping to make her dreams come true by taking part in a spell casting competition show with a huge cash prize at stake and a celebrity partner to boot,
Said partner is Leandro, a viral video magician whose gimmicky tricks may not be enough to get the win. As it happens, Leandro is actually Gil, Penelope’s secret pen pal who took on this goofy online persona in order to raise money to save the charity his grandfather created. Can the two of them cast the ultimate spell for love and victory in more ways than one?
This sounds like fabulous fun and I might even add this magical treat to my Cozy November challenge, we shall see:
With any luck, the Aardvark box should be here by Halloween, giving me the best grown up treat in time for the holiday. Believe you me, I could a little pick me up right about now.
Look, I do know that there are more pressing concerns when it comes to money at the moment and I seriously want to see those we put in charge of such things get their act together and work together to make life better for all concerned.
I do consider myself to be very fortunate in my situation with my loved ones that getting some new books is still a viable option yet it’s also important to realize that this is not even a practical concern for most people here. I want so much for folks to feel safe and secure in their lives when it comes to basic needs and rights and shame on those who are eager to rob them of that.
Taking this opportunity for some extra literary bliss is emotionally healthy for me as the state of the world is scarier than any horror movie marathon playing this Halloween week. Mental health refreshers are important to keep our spirits up and give us the fortitude to fight the good fight as best we can.
So, if you have a moment to yourself (or just make one a priority), eat that treat, watch that silly show or grab a hold of a good book to put your worries away for just a little while. Do what you are able to do for others but don’t neglect yourself in the process.
Also, as a fan of autumn vibes, this book box couldn’t arrive at a more perfect time. With the weather finally getting colder and the leaves on the verge of bursting into seasonal colors, curling up under warm blanket with one or two these Aardvark reads while rewatching Gilmore Girls is a simple joy to be sipped and savored as a cup of hot cocoa indeed:
I know that Halloween is only a couple of weeks away and my current holiday themed readathon is going pretty good at the moment-finished one book, in the middle of another and might swap out the third-yet, it doesn’t feel too soon to make bookish plans for next month.
So, I decided to challenge myself to Cozy November , in which I pick a trio of books off my TBR that are definitely on the lighter side of their respective genres to indulge in. A perfect excuse to settle down under a warm blanket and sip an equally warm drink as the pages turn.
To start this off right, A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna is my first pick. Our leading lady is Sera Swan, who has lost most of her powers due to a spell that brought her great Aunt Jasmine back from the beyond.
Having been shut out of her guild, Sera now runs an inn with her aunt and a talking fox with dubious motives. When moody magical historian Luke Larsen arrives in town in need of a room, Sera’s inn is not only available but in need of his vast knowledge that could restore her powers completely.
Will Luke help her or is Sera simply stuck between the realms of mortals and magicians for all time? Plus, can a little love make things right for them both?
I did enjoy Mandanna’s earlier novel(The Secret Society of Irregular Witches) very much and this new book promises to be as enchanting as that one, perhaps even more. At the very least, this should be a spell binding slow burn of a story fit for the fall season:
Speaking of stories, my next choice for this challenge is Poppy Alexander’s The Battle of the Bookshops, set in a quaint seaside village in England, where Jules Capelthorne returns home to in order save her family’s nearly century old bookshop.
Competition has arrived in the form of Roman Montbeaus, who has opened a rival bookstore right across from Capelthorne’s Books and is determined to keep the long tradition of their mutual families’ rivalry going strong. With sales down and the lease about to be called up, can Jules save the beloved business and maybe find some true love in the bargain?
The Romeo and Juliet vibes mixed in with small town sweetness are very appealing here, plus a bookseller themed showdown is true catnip to a fan of You’ve Got Mail like me:
Last yet far from least, Every Time I go on Vacation, Someone Dies, the first in a new series by Catherine Mack, seems like a fitting finale read to me.
When Eleanor Dash reaches Italy on her latest book tour for her successful murder mystery novels, she finds herself in the midst of a perilous plot against her former collaborator Connor, whose claims of someone out to kill him may be all too true.
Granted, she was planning to do away with his fictional counterpart in her books but killing him off outside of that seems a bit too much! With numerous suspects on hand and among her friends and fans as well, will Eleanor be able to keep the real life version of her popular hero safe and sound for the next chapter of their lives?
The concept sounds fun and I have heard good word of mouth about this quirky mystery machine. Plus, I could use a fresh take on this particular genre , which feels so fall friendly indeed:
With my reading stack at the ready, my Cozy November will begin on the first of the month and hopefully get me through Thanksgiving as well as Black Friday to boot. If anyone out there likes this idea and wants to take it up on their own or with other reading buddies, please feel free to do so.
Part of my reason for doing this is to celebrate what I consider the apex of autumn; the Thanksgiving season that, despite its problematic origins, still holds a special charm for me.
Call it nostalgia if you will but the general notion of people gathering together for a nice meal with friends and family of all sorts to celebrate what good things in life they do have to share to me is just a sweet and simple tradition that is worth upholding. Especially during these chaotic times that we’re collectively dealing with, perhaps a time out such as this might be helpful towards figuring out how best to face what lies ahead and figure out what to do next.
Also, I’m on a bit of a Gilmore Girls kick at the moment and we can all agree that that show has a serious pop culture lockdown on those fabulous fall feelings there. Not to mention that Luke and Lorelai are the OG of the Grumpy/Sunshine sub genre of romance for sure! All good reasons to read some cozy goodness, if you ask me:
One pop culture crop that always is ready for harvest this time of year are literary adaptations at the movies. Particularly since award season is not too far off there…
Yet my film focus for today is on those current and upcoming movies that take some creative chances with the source material.
To start, let’s look at Frankenstein , Guillermo Del Toro’s latest movie that will be available for streaming this No and is arriving in theaters this very week. Oscar Issac plays the well known creator of the creature (Jacob Elordi), shunned by society and rejected by the one that made him even before the death toll begins.
Critical praise for the film has been strong and given not only the magnificent visuals that Del Toro is renowned for but the screenplay that he also wrote showcases the creature in a more sympathetic light(another hallmark of his work), this new production of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel should be a fresh vision that honors the original story beautifully:
Also in November is The Running Man , based on one of Stephen King’s Richard Bachman books, which is technically a remake yet not at all.
Instead of following the formula of the earlier Arnold Schwarzenegger action film version, director/co-screenwriter Edgar Wright takes the story straight from the book itself.
Here, Ben Richards(Glen Powell) signs up for the futuristic reality show that hunts him down within the larger population in order to pay for his child’s medical bills.
The popular show, gleefully run by producer Dan Killian(Josh Brolin) and hosted by Bobby Thompson (Coleman Domingo), encourages regular people to assist the Hunters and claim some rewards of their own but as Ben continues to defy the odds, more and more folks are betting against the house and rooting for a potentially ground shifting winner this time around.
As entertaining as the 1987 movie adaptation was, this one should blow the roof off of that film in more ways than one. Seeing this as well as The Long Walk(which had it’s first adaptation released over the summer) be made available to wider audiences promises to widen the circle of Richard Bachman readers as well:
However, if you want to see a movie right now that takes it’s cues from the literary realm, then I highly recommend One Battle After Another.
This latest work by Paul Thomas Anderson is said to be inspired by iconoclastic writer Thomas Pynchon’s book Vineland and granted, this is an author whose works I find much too daunting to dive into yet PTA does capture the flavor of that style of writing quite nicely.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays Bob aka Pat Calhoun, a former revolutionary turned stoner slacker dad to daughter Willa(Chase Infiniti), who have been on their own since the disappearance of his romantic partner and Willa’s mother Perfidia Beverley Hills(Teyana Taylor).
When a past enemy, Col. Steven J. Lockjaw (Sean Penn), decides to use what powers are available to him to track Bob and Willa down for his own personal purposes, that awkward existence quickly changes for parent and child, taking them and anyone who joins them along the way on a long, strange journey that’s hard to predict how it ends.
I saw this movie over the past weekend and it is quite the wild ride indeed. Yes, it’s long(about two and an half hours) but never boring. Instead, this story is a heady mix of humor, tension and emotional drama blended with some sharp edged social satire that strongly resonates with today’s headlines. I don’t want to get into too much detail here but this is a movie that very much ,like a good book, sucks you into the world it’s created and doesn’t let go for a second.
While OBAA is more of an “inspired by” than a direct adaptation of Vineland, PTA is a major fan of Thomas Pynchon and has made a movie based on that writer’s work before(Inherent Vice in 2014) yet it received a mixed reception at best. Perhaps it was by being a bit more free and easy with this particular story that helped him showcase why Pynchon is one of his all time favorites.
The performances are amazingly great, the look of the film(made in old school Vista Vision) is captivating and even if you haven’t read or heard of Pynchon, director/co-writer PTA gives you a very good idea of what that author’s writing is like and why it’s one of his artistic inspirations to this day:
Interesting how all three of these adaptations have their directors take part in writing the screenplays as well. Guess it really can be a bonus to have a visual creator be able to see and feel the depths of the tale he or she is translating from one medium to another there.
That trend seems to be continuing into next year as actress Maggie Gyllenhaal gives us The Bride! in March of 2026. This new twist on The Bride of Frankenstein is set in Chicago during the 1930s with Jessie Buckley and Christian Bale as an undead Bonnie and Clyde.
This is Gyllenhaal’s second film as a writer/director and certainly one to watch out for. Whether it makes its mark as a new cult classic or simply inspires an eyebrow raise or two, such chances taken are what the best movies and books are all about. At the very least, all roads here will lead back to the book, the truly desired result of them all:
I know that October is supposed to be all about scary books(enjoying my current readathon read as we speak) for Halloween but my grown-up version of trick or treat this month includes getting my Book Boss prize from Book of the Month Club(it’s a book sleeve, my very first one!) and a couple of books with blue tinged covers to match.
For my main selection, The Second Chance Cinema by Thea Weiss , her debut novel,seemed like the perfect ticket.
Engaged couple Ellie and Drake feel as if their new life together is getting off to a great start yet that notion is challenged by an unusual film festival. Upon discovering the movie theater of the title, they are given 10 passes to a ten part film series called The Story of You, which is literally about their past memories.
Drake is rather freaked out by this but Ellie is not as much ,despite having a tragic time in her past that she hasn’t yet shared with him. Can they face their mutual fears in this unique movie viewing experience and be willing to step into the sequel of the rest of their lives together? Or is this cinematic adventure a one and done deal?
I do love a story with a movie themed plot and this story does sound charmingly refreshing. Plus, debut novels do have that inviting flavor of buttery newness like a fresh bucket of popcorn at a weekend matinee so this was a hard to resist choice for me:
For my add on , I went with Hayley Gelfuso’s The Book of Lost Hours that has more that one point in time for it’s characters to explore.
We start with Lisavet, who has been living in a special time space library since 1938 , making it her duty to protect the books that store precious memories of those departed within them from those seeking to rewrite history.
When an American agent named Ernest enters the library in 1949, at first Lisavet is curious about the world she had to leave behind. Yet, once she learns the true nature of his mission, hard choices that could change more than just the time line must be made.
Ernest’s quest is then followed up by his niece Amelia in 1965, with the assistance of a CIA operative with mysterious motives. While Amelia has an innate ability to travel between worlds, her special skills can’t fully prepare for what’s to come.
This novel is also a debut and a Good Morning America book pick to boot. Word of mouth has been good for this heartfelt tale of time , love and what our connections to the world are through each of those doors:
As it turns out, one of my recent library loans also has a blue hued cover and a story line with magical elements as well. Blue is not usually my go-to on the color wheel (that would be purple) but something about that shade is drawing me to certain books right now.
One of the big differences here is that my library book is not a debut; The Glass Maker is Tracy Chevalier’s eleventh novel and while it begins in the fifteenth century, it’s leading lady thrives all the way into our present day world.
Orsola grew up in a family of glass makers from the island village of Milano near Venice, Italy, wanting nothing than to be one of the best in that practical art. Such a dream was not encouraged for a woman in those days yet she still persisted in achieving it.
Through leaps in time, we see Orsola guide her family through the struggles of historical events such as world wars, technological innovations and plagues , all the while pursuing the wonders of glassworks even when such creativity is not as valued as it once was.
Chevalier is quite the literary maestra when it comes to historical fiction and thus touch of magical realism into this well crafted book seems to give it that extra special sparkle that many a glass blown creation encases in abundance:
So, in a weird way I’m feeling a bit blue about my new reads but in this case, that is not a bad thing. With all of the chaos swirling around us these days, finding a safe harbor in some good books is a great place to start clearing our hearts and minds of the distracting clutter out there.
Plus, sometimes, it’s fun to be “blue”, particularly when books are the reason for keeping a good thought or song in your head:
October is about to begin and along with the traditional spooky season festivities, something even scarier approaches; Banned Books Week,which runs from Oct.5-11 this year.
The annual celebration of our freedom to read has grown to frighteningly factional levels these days with the urgent need to protect books and ideas now more than ever in danger. Fortunately, many folks are fighting the good fight on this front such as George Takei, famed Star Trek actor as well as an author, playwright and activist who is this year’s honorary chair of Banned Books Week this time around.
To salute this iconic superstar, I decided to focus on banned titles that deal with the consequences of future times, books that are still under fire today and beginning to seem too close to an actual tomorrow:
Since the tagline for BBW in 2025 happens to be “Censorship is so 1984”, it only makes sense to start with the George Orwell classic.
The novel has been challenged in many countries for it’s depiction of authoritarian rule and most recently in the US was on a banned book list in Iowa(citing it for sexual content) which was thankfully struck down by the courts.
Orwell’s living nightmare of a world where even your imagination was under the control of a tyrannical government still holds a strong influence today as terms such as “Big Brother” and “Thought Police” are part of our quick reference guide to political overreach. It’s the kind of story that you would seriously prefer to stay on the page rather than leak out into our shared reality indeed:
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins might seem like too recent an entry here but trust me, these books are being targeted by those who fear their influence.
In February of 2025, a school board in South Carolina held a vote to decide whether or not to ban the first book from a class discussing dystopian fiction (the end result was for keeping the book and offering an alternative choice for any student whose family had objections to that title).
While most of the complaints about all of the books in this saga of children being forced to entertain the masses via a televised death match revolve around the violence and sexual content (of which there isn’t that much of), the one that stands out the most is anti-authoritarianism.
How interesting that the concept of young people questioning the rules of their society and banding together to rebel against oppression is very objectionable to many folks out there, even when no one side is exempt from criticism. It’s as if they’re afraid of being on the reckoning half of such an equation….:
Given the numerous legal challenges surrounding women’s reproductive rights of late, it’s not surprising that Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale has become both pop culturally relevant and a recent subject of censorship at school board meetings.
While it has had international challenges as well, states in our own country such as Florida, Texas and Oregon have been putting this harrowing narrative of a woman trapped by a viciously patriarchal society to become a baby breeder for the oppressive elites on lists of books to be kept away from students.
Never mind the fact that this book not only has been adapted for a movie readily available for viewing but was turned into an award winning TV series that even the least tech savvy person can find and watch to learn what all the fuss it is about. Why fear something that is “only a novel” unless it has plenty to say regarding our current state of alarming affairs..:
The ultimate novel on this topic is ,of course, Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
This portrayal of a world where a firefighter’s main duty is to burn books by order of the state has been challenged as recently as this year in Colorado where it was among other titles removed from school library shelves.
Thankfully it, along with the other disputed books, was restored by court order. The most particular objections to this science fiction classic focus on the language (the mildest of profanities are included) and violence yet what I truly suspect bothers certain parties quite a lot are the anti-intellectual goals of the authorities depicted here.
Suppression of deeper thought and shouting down rational discussions based upon true knowledge seems to be the
dominant tactic of those who hate books for providing the basis for just such pushback against such self serving small mindedness. Bradbury adored libraries and if he was still with us, would first in line to protect them from being destroyed both from without and within our communities:
Banned Books Week starts this upcoming weekend and if you’d like to learn more about it, I have placed links in the second paragraph of this post to the official website for BBW there.
I know that there is so much to deal with right now when it comes to the state of the world right now yet all of that makes the fight to preserve our freedom to read freely more important these days. Do what you are able to do to encourage folks to protect our reading rights or at the very least, think about the future of reading and how it should be cherished for the readers both here and now as well as those awaiting their turn in the years to come.
Also, much thanks to George Takei for speaking out and standing up for the rights of others on his various social media platforms. His support for free expression is a beacon of hope to many of us worrying about the dark days ahead of us and taking some solace in the fact that we are not alone in wanting a better world for all:
Well, fall has officially arrived and I’m very enraptured by this season, especially since it heralds the beginning of FrightFall, the perfect excuse to indulge in scary books , courtesy of Seasons of Reading and Michelle Miller!
While you are only required to read just one sinister story ( in the genre of your choice, horror, mystery,etc), some of us do tend to dive into the deep end of the page turning pool and go for as many as we can cram into our trick or treat TBR piles. I keep my reading list at a minimum of three-with the option to switch out a book, if need be-and my theme was Horror Movie Adjacent, as my first pick will show:
Marked by Moonlight is the first entry in a paranormal romance series by Sophie Morgan that has a reluctant leading lady in Claire, a mild mannered schoolteacher who suddenly feels renewed upon a strange encounter with a stray dog one night.
Turns out that dog was actually a werewolf and, according to her new associate Gideon, if she can’t break the curse before the next new moon, Claire will become a lycan and it’s Gideon’s duty to take her down.
However, the two of them start to fall in love and the closer it gets to the new moon, the more intense the odds become for them both. Even if the curse isn’t undone in time, can their relationship survive beyond the night?
This does sound enchantingly fun and it would be great to get a werewolf romance made into a movie someday; as much as I adore vampires, it’s only fair to let the werewolves have their turn here:
Next up is one of my recent BOTM selections from Rachel Harrison, Play Nice.
When social media influencer Clio inherits the haunted family house from her recently deceased mother (who wrote a book about those harrowing days), she sees this as a prime opportunity for the ultimate in home makeovers.
However, perhaps her mom wasn’t exaggerating about the demon lurking in the walls there. After several strange occurrences, Clio finally reads the infamous book her mother wrote and begins to believe that this was more than just a suburban scary story. The evil within this dwelling may be truly terrifying in a very personal way.
I am planning to read this one first(in spite of the order of this listing) as Harrison is a new-to-me author that I have heard excellent word of mouth praise about and this premise brings back fun pop culture memories of The Amityville Horror (yes, I am old enough to remember when that franchise started!), quite the homeowner nightmare indeed:
For my finale, Jessica Knoll’s Bright Young Woman seems to fit the bookish bill.
This twist on true crime has two women, Pamela(who survived an attack on her college dormitory) and Ruth(whose best friend was an early victim of the same man suspected in that later incident) teaming up to get justice for their mutual losses at the hands of a celebrated spree killer.
This novel was quite the sensation a couple of years ago, praised for keeping the fictional focus on the women rather than the man who gained notoriety for his brutal deeds. Personally, I do appreciate a solid story where women can get the upper hand on the slasher stalking them on and off screen and this book promises to deliver on that fearsome front nicely:
The FrightFall readathon starts on October 1st and lasts through out the month-more details can be found via the link in the top section of this post-and there’s plenty of time to sign up and join in the spooky seasonal fun!
While our daily headlines are certainly just as frightening as any horror movie, just remember that a good way to channel that anxiety is through a good book. At least with a book, you can always stop and mark your spot when you need a break from the terror within. Not to mention that it’s good to know that some nightmares can end with a turn of the last page.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have a little bit of entertainment in all sorts of flavors, from ghoulishly sweet to darkly delicious and yes, Halloween is the best holiday for sugary indulgences of all sorts so do enjoy!:
