My pace slowed a little in September, but I’m still five books ahead of schedule! I actually did choose specific reads for October rather than picking at random as I usually do. I’ll share those in a separate post.
Here are the books I finished – with my ratings – this month.
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Deeply Odd (Dean Koontz)
Rating: 4/5
Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng)
Rating: 3/5
Summerween in Hollowmere – Witchy Tales for the Longest Days (Juniper Vale)
Rating: 4/5
Maniac Mall (Christopher Robertson)
Rating: 3.5/5
Dead Girls Don’t Burn (Zia Rayyan)
Rating: 4/5
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I am currently reading American Demon (Kim Harrison) and Saint Odd (Dean Koontz).
I don’t usually plan out my monthly reads. When I’m seeking out a new book, I intend to find something that’s already on my (lengthy) to-be-read list. However, I often stumble across a recommendation, on Facebook or Amazon, and indulge in that instead.
This October, I have decided on four specific books that I feel fit the whole vibe of this particular month. Admittedly, they are not a far cry from what I read year-round, but still…
Something Wicked This Way Comes [Ray Bradbury]
Brother [Ania Ahlborn]
Halloween Fiend [C.V. Hunt]
A House With Good Bones [T. Kingfisher]
It is highly likely there will be a few autumn- and Halloween-themed cozy mysteries sprinkled among these main four, and I have already been enjoying bits and pieces of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone with my morning coffee.
I love the autumn months!
If you have any October-y recommendations for me, please leave them in the comments!
I finished eleven books in August! That’s quite a feat considering how busy I’ve been. I’ve already jumped into some fall-themed cozy mysteries in preparation for the ‘ber months, and I think I am going to create a reading list specifically for October. I’ll post that later, though.
Here are the books I read in August, along with my rating of each.
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1.Let’s Split Up (Bill Wood)
Rating: 3/5
2.Little Eve (Catriona Ward)
Rating: 4/5
3. A Hollowmere Autumn Mystery: The Lantern Man of Hollowmere (Willow Wisp)
Rating: 2.5/5
4. Exquisite Corpse (Poppy Z. Brite)
Rating: 3/5
5. Where You End (Abbott Kahler)
Rating: 3/5
6. The Bachelorette Party (Camilla Sten)
Rating: 3.5/5
7. The Housemaid’s Secret (Freida McFadden)
Rating: 3/5
8. Murder With a Hint of Pumpkin Spice (Laura M. Drake)
Rating: 2.5/5
9. I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid)
Rating: 3/5
10. Don’t You Cry (Mary Kubica)
Rating: 3.5/5
11. What Stalks the Deep (T. Kingfisher)
Rating: 4/5
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I am currently reading Deeply Odd (Dean Koontz) and Everything I Never Told You (Celeste Ng).
In July, I knocked out my last couple of summer themed cozy mysteries, and I’m ready to dive into the ones set in autumn. I think I’m actually going to make a TBR just for October (starting with Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes). But that’s neither here nor there at the moment…
Anyway, here are the books I finished this month!
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The Resting Place (Camilla Sten)
Rating: 4/5
Beth is Dead (Katie Bernet)
Rating: 4/5
The Starless Sea (Erin Morgenstern)
Rating: 5/5
A Killer Cupcake (Fiona Grace)
Rating: 2/5
The Midnight Feast (Lucy Foley)
Rating: 4/5
A Berry Flavored Obituary (Rosie A. Point)
Rating: 2/5
American Psycho (Bret Easton Ellis)
Rating: 3/5
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I am currently reading Little Eve (Catriona Ward) and Let’s Split Up (Bill Wood).
I’m a bit late with this post, but I’ve been busy with band interviews and preparing to share my most recent one with Little Evil!
I read seven books in June. It was too hot to leave my house (except to work), so I curled up in the A/C and lost myself in someone else’s imagination. Here are the novels I finished with my ratings.
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1. It’s Not Her (Mary Kubica)
Rating: 4/5
2. Incidents Around the House (Josh Malerman)
Rating: 1/5
3. The Lying Game (Ruth Ware)
Rating: 3/5
4. Malice House (Megan Shepherd)
Rating: 4/5
5. What Feasts at Night (T. Kingfisher)
Rating: 4/5
6. The Silent Patient (Alex Michaelides)
Rating: 4/5
7. Penpal (Dathan Auerbach)
Rating: 3.5/5
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I am currently reading The Starless Sea (Erin Morgenstern) and The Resting Place (Camilla Sten).
I read eight books this month! I’m getting back up to my usual speed, which is pretty amazing considering how busy I’ve been.
I’m still on track to finish the challenge, but I don’t know if I’ll be increasing my goal like I had to last year. If things stay this hectic (in a good way this time), then I’ll barely reach 80.
Anyway, here are the books I finished in May, with my ratings.
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1. The Island (Natasha Preston)
Rating: 2.5/5
2. Odd Hours (Dean Koontz)
Rating: 3/5
3. What Moves the Dead (T. Kingfisher)
Rating: 4/5
4. Dead Girls First (Zia Rayyan)
Rating: 3.5/5
5. The Queen (Nick Cutter)
Rating: 4/5
6. The Ghostly Grounds: Murder and Breakfast (Sophie Love)
Rating: 3/5
7. Odd Apocalypse (Dean Koontz)
Rating: 2.5/5
8. The Night Circus (Erin Morgenstern)
Rating: 5/5
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I am currently reading What Feasts at Night (T. Kingfisher) and The Lying Game (Ruth Ware).
Hey y’all! It’s been a minute since my last check-in, and I hope this one finds you well.
This month has been surprisingly therapeutic for me. It didn’t start that way. I had to cut someone out of my life who meant more to me than I ever did to him and it was very difficult. I struggled with it a lot. I let myself cry, I almost let myself message him, and then I decided fuck it! My tagline became “Dry your eyes and remember who the fuck you are.” And while I won’t say I’m over it, I will say it hurts less now.
The events in May have helped immensely. It started with Mother’s Day. I worked on the actual holiday, but Mom and I celebrated early by exploring a few areas around Huntsville. We hiked almost 7 miles and just…absorbed nature. It was really, really cool – even if we’re not sure the “waterfall” we went to actually constitutes a waterfall. Lol. You’ll see what I mean in the pictures at the bottom of this post.
One of my cousins from Indiana came down that weekend, as well. I didn’t get much time with her; however, we did have a big family dinner on Mother’s Day, which made Mom incredibly happy.
The very next weekend, my brother and I went to a Marilyn Manson show. Now, you may be thinking “ok, you’ve already seen them,” and yeah, you’re right. But I haven’t seen them with my brother. This concert was major for a couple of reasons.
My brother is the OG Manson fan in our household, yet he had never been to a show. I got to take him to his first Manson concert!
Tim Skold is back in the lineup, and if you know me at all, you know I love Tim Skold.
Songs that were in the setlist that I never thought I’d see Manson perform: “Great Big White World,” “Coma White,” “The Nobodies,” and “Dried Up, Tied and Dead to the World.”
Manson looked and sounded great. As my brother said, “Okay, sober Manson. I see you!”
The night was perfect. My brother was so relaxed and happy, and we stuck to tradition and went to Waffle House after the show. Oh! And we tried Hattie B’s for the first time. That was some damn delicious chicken!
Fastforward to the very next weekend. An old friend of mine, Brian, had tickets to The Rise of Rock World Tour, which featured Dorothy, Stone Temple Pilots, and Godsmack. He invited me to go with him, so I did. We had fun during Dorothy, then we had to move to the interior area of the amphitheater because of a storm. Unfortunately, the delay meant Stone Temple Pilots only played six songs, but they were awesome! The new vocalist, Jeff Gutt, nailed it. (He used to be in Dry Cell, a band you know if you ever owned the Queen of the Damned soundtrack.)
Godsmack is always a kick ass show. I’m not a huge fan, but Sully Erna knows how to work a crowd. Most of my favorite songs were on the setlist, except “Moon Baby,” “Bad Magick,” and “Greed.” I’ve accepted I’ll never see them do those…
Can I tell y’all how therapeutic it was, having back-to-back weekends during which I got to scream along with artists who helped me through my angsty teenage years? Man. It was fantastic.
The last stop on May’s healing journey happened yesterday. I went and got a tattoo. I used a different artist than usual, though it was the same shop, and she knocked it out of the park!
Okay. It’s picture time.
Beaverdam Swamp Boardwalk Green Mountain Nature Preserve Green Mountain Nature Preserve Alum Hollow FallsGreen Mountain Nature Preserve Madison County Nature TrailMadison County Nature TrailMadison County Nature Trail Madison County Nature Trail Madison County Nature Trail Madison County Nature Trail Madison County Nature Trail Outfit for the Manson showBrotato!During “Tourniquet.” I was so excited that he wore the stilts!
If you wanna see a few videos from the Manson and Godsmack shows, you can check out my YouTube or Instagram. I also have a few more interviews I’m getting scheduled soon, so look out for those!
In August 2023, A Tribute to Rammstein was released. The album features covers of some of the German metal titans’ well-known songs, such as “Du Hast,” “Sonne,” and “Engel,” by bands like The 69 Eyes, Skold, and Priest.
Rammstein’s ode to their country, “Deutschland,” is also there, provided to the record by Front Line Assembly.
But did you know there is another rendition of the epic track?
Dutch-Italian singer, guitarist, songwriter, and video director Giovanni Bucci, aka ODDKO, unleashed his version earlier this year. I just stumbled across it and I must say… I think I prefer it. No shade thrown at Front Line Assembly, but there’s something about it.
Check out both of these covers and decide for yourself. FLA and ODDKO stayed true to the original.
Heyyyyy! I hope everyone is doing well! I didn’t do a check-in for March because, honestly, I forgot. (Whoops.) I was dealing with a few things and struggling a little emotionally, and no one wants to read about that anyway.
However, my April has started off great! I’ve been spending a lot of time with family and I did an interview with an artist that I’m a pretty big fan of (which will be posted next week), so yeah. I’m killing it right now.
I wanted to mention a few things I enjoy outside of music – and it’s mostly because I’m going to post some pictures below and I wanna give the background for them 😏
If you’ve been following/visiting the blog for a while, then you already know I love to read. I also play video games, explore cemeteries, and try to find nature trails to walk with my mom. But what I have been doing quite a bit of lately is cooking.
Both of my parents are fantastic cooks, as are my brother and sister-in-law. My grandmothers were, my aunts on my dad’s side, a couple of cousins, my best friend… You get the point. I’ve been around delicious, and almost exclusively homemade, food my entire life. Obviously I’ve spent time in the kitchen. But recently, my brother and sister-in-law have been letting me experiment. I haven’t done anything, like, out there, creatively, yet I’m proud of a couple of meals I’ve fixed, or contributed to, over the last few weeks.
Made spicy chicken ramen for Mom and Dad.Made seasoned pork ramen for my brother and his wifeMy brother did the ribs, and I fried the potatoes and made the lemon meringue pie.
I’m not gonna lie: it’s really basic shit at the moment. I did help my brother and his wife make pasta from scratch a while back. I like being in the kitchen. It relaxes me. I’m going to continue to learn and try new things, so y’all should prepare yourselves for more food blogs 😄
