Weekly Mewsings: Ghostly Reads and October's TBR List Poll

I am linking up to the Sunday Post hosted by Kim of Caffeinated Book Reviewer, where participants recap our week, talk about what we are reading, share any new books that have come our way, and whatever else we want to talk about. I am also linking The Sunday Salon hosted by Deb Nance of Readerbuzz where participants discuss what they are reading and other bookish topics. I am also linking to Stacking the Shelves hosted by Team Tynga's Reviews and Marlene of Reading Reality a meme in which participants share what new books came their way recently. I am linking up to Nicole of Feed Your Addiction's Monthly Wrap-Up Post, where any book bloggers who write monthly wrap-up posts can link up and visit other bloggers to see what they have been reading.  

New to My Shelves: 

I finally got around to spending a gift card to my favorite local independent bookstore my husband and daughter gave me for Mother's Day and picked up four new books (admittedly, two were my daughter's picks):

The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo

Murder on Millionaires' Row by Erin Lindsey

Flurries of Fun (Frozen Adventures)

Book Uncle and Me by Uma Krishnaswami, Priya Kuriyan

A friend hosted an online Usborne Books for Kids party this past week and I picked three books to add to our family book collection:

Usborne Illustrated Stories from Shakespeare

Usborne Illustrated Ballet Stories, illustrated by Yvonne Gilbert Nanos

Secrets of the Seashore: A Shine-A-Light Book by Carron Brown & Alyssa Nassner

What I Am Reading:  October has started off as the month for ghosts. I recently finished reading Rose Pressey's Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece, which was a great way to start of October--a ghostly cozy mystery set at a craft fair. And Mouse and I are currently reading Ivy + Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go by Annie Barros and Sophie Blackall.

Off the Blog: I have been feeling under the weather recently. Nothing a little pain medication and antibiotics can't fix. Other than that, we have been on the go quite a bit between work, dance, Girl Scouts, and school. Mouse and I have resumed our usual visits to the public library, which was long overdue. Rehearsals for the Nutcracker ballet have been kicked up a notch, and my husband was talked into taking the stage again. This time there will be some actual dancing, which he's not too sure about, but I am sure both he and my daughter will do great.

Here is what I finished reading in September:

• After the Flood by Kassandra Montag
• Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires 
• The Journey by Francesca Sanna 
• The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories by Dr. Seuss
• The Taken (Celestial Blues, #1) by Vicki Pettersson
• Well Met by Jen DeLuca
• Ivy + Bean (#1) by Annie Barrows & Sophie Blackall
• The Girl in Red by Christina Henry
• Goldilicious by Victoria Kann
• Merry Christmas, Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
• The Ten Thousand Doors by Alix E. Harrow

This Past September In Reading Mews:

• Waiting to Read Wednesday: Holiday Edition
• Bookish Mewsings: Death in Kew Gardens by Jennifer Ashley / Bookish Gift Ideas / August's Favorite/Least Favorite Read
• Sunday Mews: August Wrap Up & Welcome to September (TBR List Poll)
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: Metropolis/The Good Luck Girls/The Miracles of the Namiya General Store/The Library of the Unwritten
• Bookish Mewsings: Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware & Favorite Library Books I Had to Own
• Weekly Mewsings: Mid-September Catch-Up and my September TBR Winner(s)
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: The Death of Fidel Pérez/The Furies/How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse/Red Oblivion
• Bookish Mewsings: The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman & How Long It Takes Me to Finish a Book
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: Followed by Frost/Salvaged/All Cats Are Introverts/The Library of Lost Things
• Bookish Mewsings: After the Flood by Kassandra Montag & I Could Use a Reading Day

Tell me what you have been up to! What are you reading, listening to and watching? How was your September? Do you have anything planned for this month?

Every Friday Coffee Addicted Writer from Coffee Addicted Writer poses a question which participants respond on their own blogs within the week (Friday through Thursday). They then share their links at the main site and visit other participants blogs.

You've dropped your favorite book while being chased by a herd of zombies. Would you go back to retrieve it?

Only if they are far enough away, and I knew I could get away with the delay. Even a favorite book isn't worth my life.

Would you stop and pick up the book under the same circumstances? 

Everyone has a favorite and then we also have something we dislike. Like a coin, there are two sides to every question. Each week, Carrie at The Butterfly Reads and Laura from Blue Eye Books ask participants to list what they like and don't like about that week's topic.

This week's topic is Best/Worst Read of September

It was another good month for me reading wise, and there were no books that really were the worst. My favorite by far, however, was The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.

EVERY STORY OPENS A DOOR

In a sprawling mansion filled with exotic treasures, January Scaller is a curiosity herself. As the ward of the wealthy Mr. Locke, she feels little different from the artifacts that decorate the halls: carefully maintained, largely ignored, and utterly out of place.

But her quiet existence is shattered when she stumbles across a strange book. A book that carries the scent of other worlds and tells a tale of secret doors, of love, adventure and danger. As each page reveals more impossible truths about the world, January discovers a story that might just be the key to unlocking the secrets of her past. [Goodreads Summary]

If I had to pick a least favorite, I suppose it would be Dr. Seuss's The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories. My daughter and I enjoyed all the stories, but none really stood out for us.

What’s better than a lost treasure? Seven lost treasures! These rarely seen Dr. Seuss stories were published in magazines in the early 1950s and are finally available in book form. They include “The Bippolo Seed” (in which a scheming feline leads a duck toward a bad decision), “The Rabbit, the Bear, and the Zinniga-Zanniga” (about a rabbit who is saved from a bear by a single eyelash), “Gustav, the Goldfish” (an early rhymed version of the Beginner Book A Fish Out of Water), “Tadd and Todd” (about a twin who is striving to be an individual), “Steak for Supper” (in which fantastic creatures follow a boy home in anticipation of a steak dinner), “The Strange Shirt Spot” (the inspiration for the bathtub-ring scene in The Cat in the Hat Comes Back), and “The Great Henry McBride” (about a boy whose far-flung career fantasies are bested only by those of Dr. Seuss himself). An introduction by Seuss scholar Charles D. Cohen traces the history of the stories, which demonstrate an intentional move toward the writing style we now associate with Dr. Seuss. Cohen also explores the themes that recur in well-known Seuss stories (like the importance of the imagination or the perils of greed). With a color palette enhanced beyond the limitations of the original magazines, this is a collection that no Seuss fan (whether scholar or second grader) will want to miss. [Goodreads Summary]

Have you read either of these books? What did you think? What was your favorite and least favorite reads this past month? 

Thank you for helping me decide what book from my TBR collection I should read next:

My TBR List is a meme hosted by the awesome Michelle at Because Reading. It’s a fun way to choose a book from your TBR pile to read. The 1st Sunday of every month, I will list 3 books I am considering reading and take a poll as to which you think I should read. I will read the winner that month, and my review will follow (unfortunately, not likely in the same month, but eventually--that's all I can promise). 

Halloween is the perfect time for the supernatural, including ghosts. Since I am in the mood for something on the lighter side, I thought one of these cozy mysteries would make the perfect October read. Which one do you think I should read this month?

Mrs. Morris and the Ghost (A Salem B&B Mystery #1) by Traci Wilton

Charlene Morris knew Salem, Massachusetts had a spooky reputation. But when she decided to open her B&B there, she expected guests--not ghosts...

A grieving young widow, Charlene needed a new start--so she bought a historic mansion, sight unseen, and drove from Chicago to New England to start turning it into a bed-and-breakfast. On her first night in the house, she awakens to find a handsome man with startling blue eyes in her bedroom. Terror turns to utter disbelief when he politely introduces himself as Jack Strathmore--and explains that he used to live here--when he was alive. He firmly believes that someone pushed him down the stairs three years ago, and he won't be able to leave until someone figures out who. If Charlene wants to get her business up and running in time for the Halloween tourist rush, and get this haunting houseguest out of the way, she'll have to investigate. Though truth be told, this ghost is starting to grow on her . . .  [Goodreads Summary]

The Summoning (Krewe of Hunters #27) by Heather Graham

A CALL FROM BEYOND…

When Kristi Stewart inherits a property in the old part of Savannah, she knows it comes with stories of hauntings. But she doesn’t believe in ghosts, even while she runs seances for the guests of McLane House Bed-and-Breakfast. Until the inexplicable midnight appearance of one of her infamous ancestors. Terrified, she flees into the night—and right into the arms of Dallas Wicker.

Dallas is trying to uncover the truth about a colleague who died under suspicious circumstances. As strange happenings continue to plague Kristi’s home, it is soon clear that there’s a very living threat in the neighborhood—several people have disappeared without a trace. Dallas can’t find any connection between the victims, but someone wanted them gone, and it might be linked to the history of McLane House. And that means Kristi should be very afraid. [Goodreads Summary]

Death Overdue (The Haunted Library Mysteries #1) by Allison Brook

Carrie Singleton is just about done with Clover Ridge, Connecticut until she's offered a job as the head of programs and events at the spooky local library, complete with its own librarian ghost. Her first major event is a program presented by a retired homicide detective, Al Buckley, who claims he knows who murdered Laura Foster, a much-loved part-time library aide who was bludgeoned to death fifteen years earlier. As he invites members of the audience to share stories about Laura, he suddenly keels over and dies.

The medical examiner reveals that poison is what did him in and Carrie feels responsible for having surged forward with the program despite pushback from her director. Driven by guilt, Carrie's determined to discover who murdered the detective, convinced it's the same man who killed Laura all those years ago. Luckily for Carrie, she has a friendly, knowledgeable ghost by her side. But as she questions the shadows surrounding Laura's case, disturbing secrets come to light and with each step Carrie takes, she gets closer to ending up like Al.

Now it's due or die for Carrie in Death Overdue, the delightful first in a new cozy series by Allison Brook. [Goodreads Summary]

Thank you for voting! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Happy Reading!

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