Weekly Mews: Book Crazy / October Wrap-Up / Vote For My November Read!

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 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.   I am 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. 

New to the Shelves:

I kind of went crazy when I received an invitation from Amazon to spend $45 on e-books and earn $30 in e-book credits. I put to use an Amazon gift card I had been saving for a rainy day, and so it worked out perfectly--no money out of my pocket! Several of these are early books in series I have the second, third or fourth book in already, and others have been on my wish list awhile now. One I got for my husband.

Murder on Black Swan Lane (A Wrexford & Sloane Mystery #1) by Andrea Penrose

An Easy Death (Gunnie Rose #1) by Charlaine Harris

Doing Time (The Time Police #1) by Jodi Taylor

Putting the Fun in Funeral (Everday Disasters #1) by Diana Pharaoh Francis

Miss Kopp's Midnight Confessions (Kopp Sisters #3) by Amy Stewart

White Chrysanthemum by Mary Lynn Bracht

Changeling (Sorcery and Society #1) by Molly Harper

A Drop of Magic (The Magicsmith #1) by L.R. Braden

Magick Run Amok (An Abracadabra Mystery #3) by Sharon Pape

The Game Beat: Observations and Lessons from Two Decades Writing About Games by Kyle Orland

The Spectral City (Spectral City #1) by Leanna Renee Hieber

Spectacle (#1) by Jodie Lynn Zdrok

The Dragon of New Orleans (The Treasure of Paragon #1) by Genevieve Jack

Mouse loves a good yard sale, and so when a friend of ours held one this past weekend, we thought it would be a great time for a visit. Wouldn't you know it, Mouse and I both gravitated mostly toward the books. We ended up bringing home two for each of us.

Queen Clarion's Secret (Tales of Pixie Hollow #16) by Kimberly Morris

The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich

Tales from a Not-So-Dorky Drama Queen (Dork Diaries #9) by Rachel Renée Russell

Kiss of Darkness (Alliance Vampires #7) by Heather Graham

What I Am Reading: I am in the middle of Jenn McKinlay's The Christmas Keeper, set in North Carolina. I imagine I will be finishing it this weekend. I am not yet sure what I will be reading next, but I had better choose quick!

What I Am Watching: We have jumped on the Masked Singer bandwagon, and watched the first season and just started the current season. Mouse has especially gotten into it. I finished season 14 of Supernatural and now have several months to wait until the final season comes out on Netflix (it's airing now on network television). A coworker and I were talking about television shows recently, and it put me in the mood to re-watch The Vampire Diaries. I stopped watching the show before it officially ended, but decided to start from the beginning instead of trying to figure out where I had left off.

Earlier this month, we went to see a local theater's production of The Addams Family Musical. One of the singers/dancers who had performed with Mouse and my husband this past summer was in it, and we joined up with a handful of our dance studio friends to show our support. It was a great show, and we all had a good time. This past weekend we went into Hollywood to the Pantages Theatre to see the musical Anastasia, which we all enjoyed. It's such a beautiful theater and the cast did an awesome job. It's similar in story line to the animated movie that came out years ago--only with a few added songs and a different villain.

Off the Blog: October is a bit of a blur; it went by so fast. We were very busy all month. School. Work. Dance. Girl Scouts (we made wind chimes out of twigs, strings and little metal pieces found around the house--they turned out really well). Mouse spent the entire month counting down to Halloween, one of her favorite holidays. She certainly got to celebrate all week long! With the dance studio's Halloween party, her class party, trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, and her school's Fall Festival (which was technically in November--just this Friday), we had our fill of Halloween.

With the Santa Ana winds came fire and the city and county firefighters and other first responders have been working extra hard to put out fires here in the city and and in neighboring communities, help with evacuations and doing what they can to keep damage and loss of life to a minimal.  Other parts of the state have been engulfed in flames as well.  We are all so grateful for the first responders, especially the firefighters, and also the volunteers who have been working on the Frontline and behind the scenes.

 My little cuddle kitty. Sometimes, at least.

Several of our trick-or-treaters complimented us on our cute cat.

Nina may not be very affectionate, but she's also not shy. 

 Mouse's decorated pumpkin for the school pumpkin pageant

Is it a bat? No! It's a cat!

Mouse and her dad's carved pumpkin

(thank goodness for stencils)

Here is what I finished reading in October:

• Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece (Haunted Craft Fair, #1) by Rose Pressey (Paranormal Cozy Mystery)
• Silverlicious by Victoria Kann (Children's)
• Pumpkin Soup by Helen Cooper (Children's)
• Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans (Children's)
• Possum Magic by Mem Fox & Julie Vivas (Children's)
• A Chair For My Mother by Vera B. Williams (Children's)
• Henry's Freedom Box: A True Story from the Underground Railroad by Ellen Levine & Kadir Nelson (Children's)
• Ivy + Bean and the Ghost That Had to Go (#2) by Annie Barrows & Sophie Blackall (Children's)
• Me With You by Kristy Dempsey & Christopher Denise (Children's)
• Wild Hunger (Heirs of the Chicagoland Vampires, #1)) by Chloe Neill (Urban Fantasy)
• Death Overdue (Haunted Library, #1) by Allison Brook (Paranormal Cozy Mystery)
• Read and Gone (Haunted Library, #2) by Allison Brook (Paranormal Cozy Mystery)
• Amelia Bedelia Tries Her Luck by Herman Parish & Lynn Avril (Children's)
• Ivy + Bean Break the Fossil Record (#3) by Annie Barrows & Sophie Blackall (Children's)
• I Am Amelia Earhart by Brad Meltzer (Children's)
• Buried in the Stacks (Haunted Library, #3) by Allison Brook (Paranormal Cozy Mystery)
• Wicked Hour (Heirs of the Chicagoland Vampires, #2) by Chloe Neill (Urban Fantasy)
• Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler (Children's)
• Coming Home For Christmas (Haven Point, #10) by RaeAnne Thayne (Holiday Romance)
• One Wish by Jodi Thomas (Historical Holiday Romance)

I may not have been around the blogging community much this past month, but I did manage to get in a bit more reading than I usually do. I enjoyed all of my reading again in October--I seem to be on a roll. If I had to pick a favorite, however, I definitely would go with RaeAnne Thayne's Coming Home For Christmas. I just love RaeAnne's books, and this one really touched my heart.

This Past October In Reading Mews:

• Waiting to Read Wednesday: Every Dead Thing/Can't Judge a Book by its Murder/Finding Home Again/Secrets of the Chocolate House
• Weekly Mewsings: Ghostly Reads and October's TBR List Poll
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: The Witch's Trinity/Penny for Your Secrets/Laughter at the Academy/The Christmas Keeper
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: A Thousand Splendid Suns/Poppy Redfern and the Midnight Murders/Unnatural Magic/The Family Upstairs
• Bookish Mewsings: Murder Can Mess Up Your Masterpiece by Rose Pressey
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: The Ruins of Ambrai/Lady Takes the Case/Get a Life,Chloe Brown/A Sanctuary of Spirits
• Bookish Mewsings: Death Overdue by Allison Brook & Friday Hop Fun

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

I have been in the mood for a good historical fiction novel, and these three particularly caught my eye on my TBR shelf. They all feature stand out female characters, which in and of itself appeals to me.  Gaynor's book because I love all things Hazel Gaynor--and lighthouses! Although I do not read much in the way of Old West fiction, the idea of a book focusing on an all female gang is too good to pass up. Then of course, Lawhon's novel appeals to me especially because I recently say the musical Anastasia on stage, and have always had a particular interest in that period in history.

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon

Russia, July 17, 1918 Under direct orders from Vladimir Lenin, Bolshevik secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family, into a damp basement in Siberia where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed.

Germany, February 17, 1920 A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal in Berlin. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water, she is taken to the hospital where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless, horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious woman claims to be the Russian Grand Duchess Anastasia.

Her detractors, convinced that the young woman is only after the immense Romanov fortune, insist on calling her by a different name: Anna Anderson.

As rumors begin to circulate through European society that the youngest Romanov daughter has survived the massacre, old enemies and new threats are awakened.  [Goodreads Summary]

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter by Hazel Gaynor

“They call me a heroine, but I am not deserving of such accolades. I am just an ordinary young woman who did her duty.”

1838: Northumberland, England. Longstone Lighthouse on the Farne Islands has been Grace Darling’s home for all of her twenty-two years. When she and her father rescue shipwreck survivors in a furious storm, Grace becomes celebrated throughout England, the subject of poems, ballads, and plays. But far more precious than her unsought fame is the friendship that develops between Grace and a visiting artist. Just as George Emmerson captures Grace with his brushes, she in turn captures his heart.

1938: Newport, Rhode Island. Nineteen-years-old and pregnant, Matilda Emmerson has been sent away from Ireland in disgrace. She is to stay with Harriet, a reclusive relative and assistant lighthouse keeper, until her baby is born. A discarded, half-finished portrait opens a window into Matilda’s family history. As a deadly hurricane approaches, two women, living a century apart, will be linked forever by their instinctive acts of courage and love. [Goodreads Summary]

Heresy by Melissa Lenhardt

They were the first and only all-female gang in the American West. Though the newspapers refuse to give them credit, their exploits don't go unnoticed. Now, they've got a rival male gang on their trail and an old score to settle.

Margaret Parker and Hattie LaCour never intended to turn outlaw.

After being run off their ranch by a greedy cattleman, their family is left destitute. As women alone they have few choices: marriage, lying on their backs for money, or holding a gun. For Margaret and Hattie the choice is simple. With their small makeshift family, the gang pulls off a series of heists across the West.

Though the newspapers refuse to give the female gang credit, their exploits don't go unnoticed. Pinkertons are on their trail, a rival male gang is determined to destroy them, and secrets among the group threaten to tear them apart. Now, Margaret and Hattie must find a way to protect their family, finish one last job, and avoid the hangman's noose. [Goodreads Summary]

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

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