Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks: October 2022

Sunday, October 30, 2022

BW44: November Crime Spree - Around the World

Happy Sunday, dear hearts. November is upon us and our newest crime spree category brought to us by Sandy and Amy is all about translated books.

Crime isn’t limited to the US (or England for us Anglophiles). Some of the most interesting, translated works are mysteries from the Around the World, including the tortured protagonists and bleak settings of Scandinavia to the creepiness of Japanese mysteries to the sunshine noir of African authors.

Places to explore:

· Africa: The Missing American by Kwei Quartey

· Nordic: Jussi Alder-Olsen and Arnaldur Indriðason

· Japan: Seishi Yokomizo’s Detective Kosuke Kindaichi series and The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino

· Australia: Jane Harper

· Spanish: Carlos Ruiz Zafron

Challenge: Dust off your forged passport and get on Interpol’s most wanted list by reading a translated mystery.

Our A to Z and Back Again letter and word of the week are I and Inspect.

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Sunday, October 23, 2022

BW43: 52 Books Bingo - Myths, Monsters, and Imagination

Happy Sunday! We are continuing our October Spooktacular with the next 52 books category - Myths, Monsters, and Imagination.

Monsters in Entertainment: Obsession or Projection?

Eight creepiest mythical creatures from around the world

Terrifying monsters in literature

Samhain Reading List: 13 Frightening Works of Fiction for Celebrating Halloween’s Celtic Roots

Caspar Henderson: rereading The Book of Imaginary Beings by Jorge Luis Borges

"The Book of Imaginary Beings tosses stone after stone into the subterranean caverns of the reader's mind. It takes us along passageways and turns corners to reveal strange shapes and images, some of which may precede and outlast anything conceived by man. If we are attentive, the reverberations can help us trace the dimensions of those spaces. We glimpse chinks of light and are then engulfed in sudden dazzling floods of it." Casper Henderson, The Guardian.

Getty's An Introduction to the Bestiary, Book of Beasts in the Medieval World

Let's not forget my son's favorite - Godzilla and all the monsters he's fought over the years from Mothra to King Kong. Toho's Kingdom of the Monsterverse and all things Godzilla.

And our A to Z and Back Again letter and word of the week are J and Juggernaut.

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Sunday, October 16, 2022

BW42: Noah Webster

Noah Webster: Portrait by James Herring, 1833

Happy Sunday! Today is Noah Webster's birthday, the father of the American Dictionary. October 16 is named Dictionary Day in honor of Webster. We have the second edition unabridged Webster's dictionary which is humongous at 3194 pages, and a slightly smaller fifth edition collegiate edition at 1274. It's interesting to compare them to the modern 2022 edition of the Merriam Webster dictionary, a mere 960 pages. I prefer the older versions which are much more fun to peruse. I really need to get my hands on an Oxford English Dictionary one of these days. When I'm writing, I always have Dictionary.com or Thesaurus.com tabs open in my computer, exploring different words. I prefer the online versions over the current Merriam Webster edition which has definitely been dumbed down.

Noah Webster's Story

Noah Webster and the Dream of a Common Language

Noah Webster’s Impact on Education

An Inconvenient Alphabet: Ben Franklin & Noah Webster’s Spelling Revolution

Project Gutenberg's A Collection of Essays and Fugitiv Writings, by Noah Webster

This week's A to Z and back again letter and word of the week are K and Kin.

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Sunday, October 9, 2022

BW41: Vampires, Werewolves, and Ghosts! Oh My!

Happy Sunday! Our spooktacular reading month continues and it isn't all about horror. Oh no! Especially since I'm not into blood and guts violence. I like the type of books that get your adrenaline going, keeps you guessing, finger nail biting, keep you up all night reading suspense. There are a number of ways to go with psychological thrillers, gothic, paranormal reads that run the gamut from the supernatural to urban fantasies. Books full of bad guys, ghosts, and scary as well as delicious vampires, and werewolves.

Authors whose books I've enjoyed:

Stephen King's World of the Dark Tower or his psychological thriller Duma Key.

Dean Koontz's series: version of Frankenstein or take a trip with Odd Thomas who communicates with the dead.

Christian writers that will scare the pants off you: Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker. I've read all their books which are chilling and thrilling.

Take a tour through stories about haunted houses.

Psychological thrillers that will play with your head.

The Best Gothic Horror Books Of All-Time.

30 Best Vampire Romances to sink your teeth into.

17 Werewolf Romance Books That Will Have You Howling for More.

Need something a little lighter? Check out Cozy Mystery's Halloween Mystery Book list

This week's A to Z and back again letter and word of the week are L and Looming.

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Sunday, October 2, 2022

BW40: October Spooktacular and the Unreliable Narrator

Happy Sunday and welcome to our Spooktacular October full of chills and thrills, spine tingling adventure stories, and unexpected, jump out and surprise you, don't turn the lights off reads? If you are anything like me, gruesome horror isn't your thing. However, psychological, mind bending, Hitchcock type thrillers full of suspense are my favorite type of reads, along with paranormal, ghosts, vampires, were wolves and the weird.

If you haven't read the classics, now would be your chance with Frankenstein or Dracula, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, The Picture of Dorian Grey or Something Wicked This Way Comes to name a few. Put away your expectations because you may be surprised when they don't turn out how you suspect they will.

And this month's crime spree category fits the bill with the Unreliable Narrator.

The first rule of reading books by an Unreliable Narrator is to not read anything more about it than a brief description. All the charm in this genre is surprise so you must be diligent in avoiding spoilers.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Malice Aforethought by Francis Iles
We Were Liars by E. Lochart
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Before I Go to Sleep by SJ Watson

Challenge: Who can you trust? Really? Watch your back and pick up a book by an Unreliable Narrator.

And our A to Z and Back Again letter and word of the week are M and Mayhem.

Cheers to a spooktacular reading month.