A few days late for this and I even managed to leave out a book I read when I posted on IG. So the month is going great, thanks for asking.
Except that's not true. The month is fine. It went very fast but then don't they all? There was prep for Halloween, including buying some new decorations (the skeleton family will get names at some point, especially because Matthew has decided one of them is going to live in his room the rest of the year. He's got the spirit. And he has enough candy I think to last him until next Halloween.
Why don't we just jump into the stats, shall we? I'm already so behind.
Number of books read
6
Holes by Louis Sacher
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Holes by Louis Sacher
Another Matthew bedtime read, I was looking up lists of good books to read to 2nd graders and saw this pop up a few times. Confession, as much as I looooooved Sacher when I was young* I missed this one. It came out a little late to my in my orbit, which is too bad for young me, because this was excellent. Stanley Yelnats is sent to a boy's detention center in the middle of no where Texas desert where he is sentenced to spending a year digging holes. There's clearly something going on here and no talk of "character building" is going hide something sinister behind this camp and whatever it is the Warden is searching for. It's a very different tone from Wayside School, more serious, more sad, though still funny at times. A few scary(ish) bits where I thought perhaps I have made a mistake reading this to the boy, but in the end he enjoyed and I keep thinking about it
Rating: 4.5 stars
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
And here is at least part of the reason I re-read the full Thursday Murder Club series over the last couple months. WORTH IT, GOOD IDEA, ME.
The gang is back, after taking some time away from solving crimes, following the events of the fourth book. Joyce's daughter is getting married and the best man seems rattled. There's a fortune, an unbreakable code, and someone wants him gone. Naturally, he turns to Elizabeth for help (even if he hasn't met her before, I mean, wouldn't you?). Now Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron & Ibrahim have to solve the case bringing their strength and their personal subplots along, as the gang tries to work through a mystery that falls in their lap. It is just as much of a goodtime as the last books and I am happy to delve back into the world of Cooper's Chase. If there are more TMC books in the future, I am certain I'll reread them all again before that one is released.
Rating: 5 stars
A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
Another reread. Another book I was reading to the boy at night to bore him to sleep. Not that I think the book is boring. But maybe for a 7 year old that is already sleepy. Anyway, probably Bryson's most well-known work as he documents his attempt to walk the Appalachian trail with his buddy Katz. The book is funny, full of colorful characters and crotchetiness on the part of Bryson, as well as digressions about the environment, history and the nature of the trail itself. It's a reread for a reason and I enjoyed it just as much this time, even if it took me so long to read ( because I was reading only a few pages a night).
Rating: 5 stars
Don't Let Him In by Lisa Jewell
I wish this was a movie. There were multiple times I was listening to this I was laughing thinking "Go ahead, and let me see how you would stage this and keep the tone serious. I dare you."
Nick Radcliff shows up in Ash's life following her father's death. He sends a condolence card saying they worked together years before and suddenly he's striking up a relationship with Ash's mom. But Ash feels something is...off about Nick, though she can't quite say what. But the more she digs up, the more confusing things seem but the more she wants him away from her family.
It's hard to say more without getting into lots of spoilers so I won't. But I will say the book is very repetitive and for roughly the first 40% (I listened as an audiobook) I was wondering when we would get something new. And we do (kinda) at about the 60% point. Some of my issues could be with listening vs reading and actors' choices in reading lines (there were multiple actors for the multiple narrators) but I don't think that's entirely it. If anything, they prob helped because they gave me something to laugh at. There were moments of tension (this is a thriller after all) but many of them seemed to be resolved within a paragraph or so.
I reiterate I wish this was a movie because I think it would make very good fodder for something like How Did This Get Made** BUT to be fair to it, after a slower beginning (and some middle) I was interested to see where things were going and it was fun to bug my husband about.
Rating: 2.75 stars
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
I was searching for a spooky title in whatever was available immediately through my library when I saw this. I read another Tremblay book, The Cabin at the End of the World, a few years ago which I enjoyed but was also disturbed by. (It falls into the "I'm glad I read this but nothankyou to doing that again" pile.) So I was interested but hesitant to read this.
In the early '90s, a group of young filmmakers decide they're going to make a horror movie. A movie that never got released in full, but has developed a cult-following around the few scenes that did make it out. And now 30 years later, Hollywood is going to remake it and they've brought back the guy who played "The Thin Kid" the only surviving cast member. The story jumps between flashbacks of what it was like making the original and current day, as well as a table read of the script (was this present day? the past? even listening with dif voice actors for everyone, I'm not sure and that's not a knock on the writing). It's a slow pace, though I thought it worked for the story and this was something I was looking forward to listening to, even through some of the more disturbing scenes.
I won't get into the ending too much. It's one you kind of see coming though it was a bit of a let down. I was hoping for something...more maybe? But overall, this was creepy and I enjoyed
Rating: 3.8 stars
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
Another book I loved in the past that I'm going to foist on my son. Good news, hew as into it and is now listening to the audiobook sometimes while he sleeps.
Claudia feels unappreciated at home and decides she's going to run away. But Claudia, raised in an affluent NYC suburb, is going to run away in style. She decides she's going to run away to The Met and she's going to bring her little brother Jaime along with her because, well, he's got the money. The two manage to make their way to the famous art museum and get settled into a routine of hiding from guards, taking baths in the fountain and even doing laundry. But something is still missing. Until a new statue comes in and Claudia & Jaime decide they need to solve the mystery of Angel. Perhaps those mixed-up files from the title will come in handy? The book is so fun. To my adult eyes, sure it feels a little light on development (not really sure why Claudia wanted to run away, what were they really going to do to solve the mystery) but it was still charming and who doesn't like the idea of running away to somewhere like The Met. (Personally, my choice would have been The Museum of Natural History, but that's just a personal preference.)
Rating: 4 stars
Total pages read
1,792
Fiction
83%
Female authors
33%
US authors
67%
BIPOC authors
0%
Rereads
33%
Book club
17%
Format
audiobook: 50%
ebook: 50%
Where'd I get the book
library: 100%
Decade published
1960s: 17%
1990s: 33%
2020s: 50%
Resolution books
83%
Holes, A Walk in the Woods, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler were all published before the 2000s
The Impossible Fortune and Don't Let Him In are both by UK authors
*I knew I loved the Wayside School books, but I was recently going through my old books at my mom's and didn't realize just HOW MANY Sacher books (There's a Boy in the Girls Bathroom, Dogs Don't Tell Jokes, and more!) I had that, I'm sorry, made very little impression, or at least hold very little memory in adult me. But I took them home anyway so as he gets to them we'll see if they spark anything
**A podcast about bad movies that I highly recommend
