Halloween Reads!

This year I didn't actually do that much in the way of Halloween/scary reads. Maybe cos it's still crazy warm in the north east and thus it was harder to get into the Halloween spirit. Regardless, I don't have too much in the way of new Halloween reads, so I thought I'd do an update of a few old "Top Halloween Reads" posts I've done in the past. It's not unoriginal. It's a remix.

Now, in no particular order, other than the order I thought of them, here are my current favorite Halloween reads.

1. World War Z by Max Brooks A feature on all of the lists, as it deserves to be. It's great. It's scary. I love it.

2. Coraline by Neil Gaiman I am on the fence about Gaiman's adult books, but the ones for children are amaaaaaaaaaaaaazing. Other Mother is terrifying. Coraline is wonderful. And speaking of Gaiman's stuff for kids

3. The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman The Jungle Book, but in a graveyard. It's heartwarming and suspenseful and scary and weird.

4. Everything's Eventual by Stephen King Can't have a list like this without King on it. And this was basically my only scary read for the month because I love it so. Espeeeecially the story "1408". It's so creepy.

5. Misery by Stephen King He can be creepy even without the supernatural. Annie Wilkes is a force. A horrifying force.

6. N0S4A2 by Joe Hill Charles Manx is a GREAT villain, Vic McQueen is a great hero, this book is excellent.

7. Locke & Key by Joe Hill & Gabriel Rodriguez  I looooove this audiobook. Incredibly scary and the SUSPENSE

8. Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix Did you know an Ikea could be so scary? Because it CAN. He lures you in, makes you think it will just be some silly story. How could an Ikea (or really, an Ikea knock-off) be scary? But it can. It can.

9. My Best-Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix While we're on the subject of Hendrix, we gotta mention this one. Again, he makes you think it won't be so scary but then it hits you. And so much of this is about female friendship, so that's swell.

10. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin Ah look, a classic. Who doesn't love a story of gas-lighting and devil worship?

11. Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story by Christopher Moore There can be funny Halloween reads as well, like Moore's story of vampire love.

12. Revenge: Eleven Dark Stories by Yoko Ogawa Another collection of short stories, and they are so unsettling.

13. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach Do you want to learn something from your Halloween read? Why not learn about what happens to dead bodies? Wouldn't that be fun?

So there you go. Lots to keep you up at night.

Diversify Your Reading

Jenny over at Reading the End pulled together this list as part of a diversity in reading tag dealy with the following rules

The Diverse Books Tag is a bit like a scavenger hunt. I will task you to find a book that fits a specific criteria and you will have to show us a book you have read or want to read.
If you can’t think of a book that fits the specific category, then I encourage you to go look for one. A quick Google search will provide you with many books that will fit the bill. (Also, Goodreads lists are your friends.) Find one you are genuinely interested in reading and move on to the next category.
Everyone can do this tag, even people who don’t own or haven’t read any books that fit the descriptions below. So there’s no excuse! The purpose of the tag is to promote the kinds of books that may not get a lot of attention in the book blogging community.

So with that, let's take a look at some books that we should all check out to expand our horizons, shall we?

Find a book with a lesbian character
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Does it work if the work is nonfiction? And also a graphic novel? I assume so. Bechdel's memoir about coming to terms both with her  father's suicide and her own sexuality. But let's include The Hours by Michael Cunningham for good measure, which features 3 ladies in 3 different periods that are either possibly or most definitely gay.

Find a book with a Muslim protagonist
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson about a hacker in an unnamed country in the middle east. Deals with technology and religion and is a thriller and so good.

Find a book set in Latin America
When I Was Puerto Rican by Esmeralda Santiago is an autobiography about Santiago growing up first in rural Puerto Rico and later outside of San Juan before moving to Brooklyn.

Find a book about a person with a disability
Jenny said mental disorders count, so I'm going with Agorafabulous! by Sara Benincasa, which is a hilarious memoir about Benincasa's lift including her struggles with agoraphobia. Along those lines is Jenny Lawson's Furiously Happy which deals with her various struggles with mental illness and also hilarious

Find a science fiction or fantasy book with a POC protagonist
Octavia Butler's got you covered. Lilith's Brood/Xenogenisis trilogy. Or how about her  Patternmaster/Seed to Harvest series (though I haven't finished it)

Find a book set in (or about) any country in Africa
I am woefully ignorant when it comes to this selection (with the exception of ones like The Stranger and Heart of Darkness which feel like the wrong choice for this) so I checked Goodreads and came up with these books that are on my radar as ones I would LIKE to read, so let's go with Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie or Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe.

Find a book by an Aboriginal or Native American
Tracks by Louise Erdrich is a pre-blog book I read, so I don't remember a huge amount about it other than I enjoyed it but it was intense.

Find a book set in South Asia (Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, etc.)
I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai comes to mind. Another memoir/bio where she paints a picture of her life in her beloved home before being shot and winning all the awards.

Find a book with a biracial protagonist
Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell with titular park being white and Korean. I have tried finding books with China Rican characters, but thus far no dice. Tom's people are not well represented. (His response: "there are dozens of us!")

Find a book starring a transgender character or about transgender issues
This was another I had trouble coming up with on my own but THAT'S OK because the internet told me I should check out the book Supervillainz by Alice E. Goranson about "transgender superheroes struggling to make rent" while making "enemies to a pack of Capitalist superheroes".  Sounds like good times, no?

So everyone should do this and then we can get diversified in our reading and all will be awesome.

Lists lists lists

Who doesn't love a good list? They make up roughly 63.4% of the internet. Even when making a list doesn't make that much sense. Oyster put together a list of 100 Best Books of the Decade So Far which seems like a weird designation. Why not say like the last 5 years? Or just make up some random like "Top books that have pink covers" or whatever. ANYWAY

Top books of the decade so far. I actually only heard about this list because The Book Stop, who mentioned that Where'd You Go, Bernadette is NOT on the list, so I'm going into this with a bad frame of mind. But really, HOW COULD THEY LEAVE IT OFF?

I was going to reproduce the list here and highlight which ones I read, except that would require me typing them all out rather than copy and pasting. Or copy and pasting, but with a fair amount of reformatting and no, I'm sorry. I have a Sims family I've been neglecting. Instead I'm going to just list out the ones I read and where they fall on the list. And then probably complain some more about Bernadette being snubbed.

3. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson - I dunno if this would have made my list, let alone so high. But to each their own.
7. A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan - Yes. Good. I approve.
10. People Who Eat Darkness by Richard Lloyd Parry - What? Really? I mean, I liked this but top 10 best books of the decade so far? Are you sure?
15. Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell - Alright, back on track. Also at this point the list doesn't include numbers, making me count. Rude.
24. 11/22/63 by Stephen King - Not life changing, but I certainly enjoyed.
33. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - I'm just surprised they put it so low. I'll be reviewing this...eventually.
35. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay - I'm glad this wasn't an overlooked book cos I could see that happening.
43. Station Eleven by Emily St. John - Yes, I enjoyed this very very much. No review yet, BUT SOON. Hopefully.
48. Bossypants by Tina Fey - Haha yes this one is a good time.
62. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - Yeah, this isn't surprising. I mean, it was eeeeverywhere.
76. A Fault in Our Stars by John Green - Another not-too-surprising pick. (This isn't a bad thing, btw. The choices don't have to be a surprise. Probably shouldn't.)

Alright, now for the books that SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE LIST, COME ON NOW

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
Tell The Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Alif the Unseen by G. Willow Wilson

So there, I fixed their list. I don't really now how I'd order these within what they have cos I've only read those 11 above which leaves 89 that I have no opinion on. But they should still all be on there and fairly high up. Dammit.

What are your thoughts on this list?