Spooktoberthon Check In - Week 3 Progress

Hey Bookdragons! Halfway through the month and you should either be loving the countdown to Halloween or having nightly nightmares 😆

Spooktoberthon Week 3 Reading Progress

💀 Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

💀  Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher - DNF @ 25%
💀 Slayer by Kiersten White 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

Currently Reading

💀 The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Still to Read

💀 The Witch of Blackbird Pond

💀 #murdertrending by Gretchen McNeill

💀 Light as A Feather

🍂 Spooktober Movie Progress 🍂

Watched

🍂 Practical Magic 

🍂 Carrie

🍂 The House of Wax (Vincent Price Version)

🍂 Addams Family  & Addams Family Values 

🍂 Halloween

🍂 Casper

🍂 The Haunted Mansion

🍂 Tower of Terror

🍂 Friday the Thirteenth

🍂 The Fog

🍂 Crimson Peak

🍂 The Haunting

🍂 Bad Times at the El Royale 

🍂 The Legend of Lucy Keyes

🍂 Sleepy Hollow

🍂 The Legend of Hell House
🍂 Prom Night
🍂 House of Wax (2005 Remake)
🍂 Scream 1-4
🍂 When A Stranger Calls

Still to Go

🍂 I Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 Hocus Pocus

🍂 Halloweentown 1-4

🍂 Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls

History of Halloween #3

 Costumes - Why do we dress up at Halloween?

Going back to the Celtic/Pagan celebration of Samhain and the veil between our world and the next being at it's thinnest people thought they would encounter spirits on this day. And they suspected not all of them would be Casper the friendly ghost types. 

To outsmart and ward off spirits with evil intent people donned masks when they left home after dark to trick spirits into thinking the wearers were fellow spirits.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 21 October 2019

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.

Hey Bookdragons! Next week is Halloween! 😱 Can you believe it? Are you ready to celebrate! I am with all the seasonal books I've been reading this month! 

What I Read Last Week:

💀 The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

💀 The Naida Tapes by Dawn Kurtagich - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder - 🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

What I Am Reading Now:

💀 Slayer by Kiersten White

Up Next:

💀 The Haunting of Beacon Hill by Ambrose Ibsen

💀 Nevermore by Kelly Creagh*

💀 The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon*

💀 Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology*

💀 The Witch of Blackbird Pond*

💀 Lucky Break by Carly Phillips*

💀 The Hollow by Jessica Verday*

💀 Now Entering Addamsville by Franscesca Zappia

💀 The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

* = Rereads

How is your reading progress going this month?

Spooktoberthon Check In - Week 2 Progress

Hey Bookdragons! Halfway through the month and you should either be loving the countdown to Halloween or having nightly nightmares 😆

Spooktoberthon Week 2 Reading Progress

💀 City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab - 🌟🌟🌟🌟 

💀  The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
💀 The Naida Tapes by Dawn Kurtagich - 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 
💀 Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics 🌟🌟🌟🌟 
 💀 The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
💀 Creep by Eireann Corrigan
💀 The Beautiful by Renee Ahdieh

Currently Reading

💀 Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder

Still to Read

💀 The Haunting of Beacon Hill by Ambrose Ibsen

💀 Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

💀 The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

💀 Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology

💀 The Witch of Blackbird Pond

💀 Lucky Break by Carly Phillips

💀 The Hollow by Jessica Verday

💀 Now Entering Addamsville by Franscesca Zappia

💀 The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

🍂 Spooktober Movie Progress 🍂

Watched

🍂 Practical Magic 

🍂 Carrie

🍂 The House of Wax (Vincent Price Version)

🍂 Addams Family  & Addams Family Values 

🍂 Halloween

🍂 Casper

🍂 The Haunted Mansion

🍂 Tower of Terror

🍂 Friday the Thirteenth

🍂 The Fog

🍂 Crimson Peak

🍂 The Haunting

Still to Go

🍂 I Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 Hocus Pocus

🍂 Scream 1-4

🍂 Halloweentown 1-4

🍂 An American Haunting

🍂 Sleepy Hollow

🍂 The Legend of Hell House

🍂 Prom Night

🍂 IT

🍂 The Shining

🍂 Psycho

🍂 House of Wax (2005 Remake)

🍂 Swimfan

🍂 Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls

🍂 Flatliners

🍂 Bad Times at the El Royale 

🍂 The Legend of Lucy Keyes

🍂 Solstice

🍂 When A Stranger Calls

History of Halloween #2

 Irish immigrants brought the tradition of carving pumpkins into Jack O'Lantern to America. But, the original Jack O'Lantern was not a pumpkin. Pumpkins did not exist in Ireland.

 Ancient Celtic cultures (Pagans) in Ireland carved turnips on All Hallow's Eve, and placed an ember in them, to ward off evil spirits.

The Tale of Stingy Jack and the Jack O' Lantern

Jack O'Lantern legend goes back hundreds of years in Irish History. Many of the stories, center round Stingy Jack. Here's the most popular story:

Stingy Jack was a miserable, old drunk who took pleasure in playing tricks on just about everyone: family, friends, his mother and even the Devil himself. One day, he tricked the Devil into climbing up an apple tree. After the Devil climbed up the tree, Stingy Jack hurriedly placed crosses around the trunk of the tree. Unable to touch a cross, the Devil was stuck in the tree. Stingy Jack made the Devil promise him not to take his soul when he died. Once the devil promised not to take his soul, Stingy Jack removed the crosses, and the Devil climbed down out of the apple tree.

Many years later, Jack died, he went to the pearly gates of Heaven and was told by Saint Peter that he was mean and cruel, and had led a miserable, worthless life on earth. Stingy Jack was not allowed to enter heaven. He then went down to Hell and the Devil. The Devil kept his promise and would not allow him to enter Hell. Now Jack was scared . He had nowhere to go, but to wander about forever in the dark Netherworld between heaven and hell. He asked the Devil how he could leave, as there was no light. The Devil tossed him an ember from the flames of Hell, to help Stingy Jack light his way. Jack had a Turnip with him. It was one of his favorite foods, and he always carried one with him. Jack hollowed out the Turnip, and placed the ember the Devil had given him, inside the turnip. From that day onward, Stingy Jack roamed the earth without a resting place, lighting his way as he went with his "Jack O'Lantern".

On all Hallow's eve, the Irish hollowed out Turnips, rutabagas, gourds, potatoes and beets. They placed a light in them to ward off evil spirits and keep Stingy Jack away. These were the original Jack O'Lanterns. In the 1800's a couple of waves of Irish immigrants came to America. The Irish immigrants quickly discovered that Pumpkins were bigger and easier to carve out. So they used pumpkins for Jack O'Lanterns.

Spooktober (Things Are About to Get Chilling)

Hey Bookdragons! It's finally October 1st and do you know what that means to me? It's the beginning of 31 wonderful, eerie, chilling days ending with my favorite holiday of the year... HALLOWEEN! 

Do you like to read spooky books this time of year? Is your Netflix queue loaded  up with nothing but thrillers, paranormal horror, and slasher flicks? Then join me in celebrating Spooktober all month long! 

Ways You Can Join In:

🍂 Declare your Spooktober Reading List

🍂 Make a Spooktober Watch List

🍂 Make a post (blog, twitter, facebook, instagram, etc.) talking about your favorite things that go bump in the night, favorite movie monsters, mini or full reviews of your Spooktober reads and movies.

🍂 Make a post (again anywhere you wish) about folklore, Halloween behind the scenes, or events local to you that have an air of the spooky season. 

🍂 M y Spooktober Reading List 🍂 

*note: not all of these are horror, but all give me the Halloween feels*

💀 No One’s Home by DM Pulley

💀 The Last by Hanna Jameson

💀 Follow You Home by Mark Edwards

💀 The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

💀 The Haunting of Beacon Hill by Ambrose Ibsen

💀 The Girl from the Otherside by Nagabe

💀 Nevermore by Kelly Creagh

💀 The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

💀 The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich 

💀 The Naida Tapes by Dawn Kurtagich 

💀 Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology

💀 Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder

💀 Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics

💀 The Witch of Blackbird Pond

💀 Lucky Break by Carly Phillips

💀 The Hollow by Jessica Verday

💀 Creep by Eireann Corrigan

💀 Now Entering Addamsville by Franscesca Zappia

💀 The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

💀 City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

🍂 Spooktober Watch List 🍂

*Note: Again, not all of these are horror movies, but they're all Halloween classics for me*

🍂 Practical Magic

🍂 I Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 I Still Know What You Did Last Summer

🍂 Halloween

🍂 Hocus Pocus

🍂 Scream 1-4

🍂 Halloweentown 1-4

🍂 Casper

🍂 An American Haunting

🍂 Sleepy Hollow

🍂 The Legend of Hell House

🍂 Prom Night

🍂 The Fog

🍂 The Haunted Mansion

🍂 Tower of Terror

🍂 Crimson Peak

🍂 IT

🍂 The Shining

🍂 Carrie

🍂 The House of Wax (Vincent Price Version)

🍂 Psycho

🍂 House of Wax (2005 Remake)

🍂 Swimfan

🍂 The Haunting

🍂 Friday the Thirteenth

🍂 Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls

🍂 Flatliners

🍂 Bad Times at the El Royale 

🍂 The Legend of Lucy Keyes

🍂 Solstice

🍂 Addams Family & Addams Family Values

🍂 When A Stranger Calls

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? - 30 September 2019

#IMWAYR is a weekly meme started on J Kaye’s blog and then was hosted by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at The Book Date.

Hey Bookdragons! Here's to squeezing in those last few books of September and making those October TBR lists!

What I Read Last Week:

I couldn't wait any longer to read the follow up to Tyffany's debut novel Imber and I loved Tellus just as much if not more! I couldn't put this one down and in my totally not biased opinion, Tyffany Hackett is definitely an author to check out! 

What I Am Reading Now:

I have about 2 hours left in this audiobook and I think I know who the killer is but you never know... Michele Campbell has a talent for taking what you think you know and throwing a huge curveball in at the very end. As far as Thrillers go, Campbell is one of my favorite authors. I just downloaded the audiobook of her most recent release, Stranger on the Beach to listen to next month. 

Up Next:

With tomorrow being October 1st I'm kicking off my Spooktober Reading Marathon... Here are a few books on my TBR... 

No One’s Home by DM Pulley

The Last by Hanna Jameson

Follow You Home by Mark Edwards

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

The Haunting of Beacon Hill by Ambrose Ibsen

The Girl from the Otherside by Nagabe

Nevermore by Kelly Creagh*

The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon*

The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich *

The Naida Tapes by Dawn Kurtagich 

Slasher Girls and Monster Boys Anthology*

Crimson Peak by Nancy Holder*

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics*

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare*

Lucky Break by Carly Phillips*

The Hollow by Jessica Verday*

* = Rereads

Do you have any spooky reads planned for October?