Weekly Mews: So Long September and Welcome October (Please Vote in My TBR 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 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 went on a bookish shopping spree with gift cards I received for my birthday this past month. I usually hold onto my gift cards and spread out my buying, but I needed the retail therapy. I earned it after last month. Haha.

Paper and Fire (The Great Library #2) by Rachel Caine

Ash and Quill (The Great Library #3) by Rachel Caine

A Songs of Wraiths and Ruin (#1) by Roseanne A. Brown

A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik

Dragon Springs Road by Janie Chang

A Single Swallow by Zhang Ling

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Return to Tradd Street (#4) by Karen White

Death and Daisies (Magic Garden Mystery #2) by Amanda Flower

Elementary, She Reads (Sherlock Holmes Bookshop Mystery #1) by Vicki Delany

A Grave Matter (Lady Darby Mystery #3) by Anna Lee Huber

A Study in Death (Lady Darby Mystery #4) by Anna Lee Huber

A Pressing Engagement (Lady Darby Mystery #4.5) by Anna Lee Huber

As Death Draws Near (Lady Darby Mystery #5) by Anna Lee Huber

A Brush With Shadows (Lady Darby Mystery #6) by Anna Lee Huber

What I Am Reading: I am in the middle of 15 Minutes of Flame by Christin Brecher and enjoying it quite a bit. Although it is the third book in the Nantucket Candle Maker mystery series, it is my first time reading anything by Brecher. It is set around Halloween, and so I figured this was a good time to dive in. I am still reading Wonder by R.J. Palacio. Mouse is reading it with her class, and I am doing my best not to jump too far ahead of where they are. It's very hard, let me tell you. I have just started the Jack Will section, for those familiar with the book. 

What I Am Watching: We are all caught up with Lucifer until the next half of season 6 drops on Netflix. In the meantime, we have started re-watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which was a favorite of my husband's and mine years ago.

Anjin and I were finally able to get back into watching the Star Wars movies, and re-watched The Last Jedi over the weekend. I am sure this weekend we will re-watch The Last Skywalker.

As a family, we really got into the first season of Julie and the Phantoms, a Netflix series. It is so good! It's a fun family show if you like comedy, music, ghosts, and teen/family drama. It is a knock-off of a Brazilian show. After watching the first season with us, Mouse immediately started watching it again on her own.

We were all happy to see The Masked Singer start up a new season, and have been watching that. We cannot watch when episodes first air, but we catch it on Hulu a day or two after.

Dare I ask if any of you caught the U.S. Presidential debate? It was not on in our house, although my husband and I have read and caught clips here and there since then. It sounds like it went just about how I expected it would. 

Off the Blog: September was such a rollercoaster. More so in an emotional sense, although it was a busy one too. The last two weeks of September especially so with dress rehearsals and the final performances put on by Mouse's dance studio. Both the musical and ballet are over now, and I think all of us are more than relieved. They went as well as can be expected given the circumstances. You may remember that Mouse was one of a small few who performed from home instead of in the studio with the other kids. Mouse's musical theater instructor wrote her a lovely note of encouragement before the first Grease performance. Someone from the booster club brought over roses on opening night as well as a goody bag of snacks another night. I think that was very nice of them to do.

The county in which I reside moved up to the next tier restriction wise near the end of last month. We are now in the red, which means more businesses can start re-opening, including gyms and movie theaters and restaurants can have indoor patrons--all on a limited capacity. I for one am not rushing to get back to any of those places, and I know my husband feels the same way. I see a lot of parents demanding to know when in-person instruction in schools can begin again in the Facebook neighborhood and county groups. Our county is still in virtual mode. I have heard rumors it may happen before the end of October. It does not really affect Mouse though given she is on the year long virtual plan. 

Virtual learning continues to go about as one would expect. There are a lot of challenges, some within our control and others outside of it. It's an adjustment. And not an especially easy one for many of us, is it? 

As a 4th grade class assignment, Mouse had to research non-profit organizations for a cause she wanted to support, plan how to earn money for the cause, and follow through with donating the money to that organization (we haven't gotten to that last step yet). She set a goal for $100 and has already achieved it! She decided she wanted to do a chocolate chip cookie bake sale. She still has a couple of out of town orders to bake and send out, but she got all the local deliveries done.

Delivering cookies

Bookish party favors from Mouse's friend's Anne of Green Gables themed birthday party

Mouse's Roses from the Booster Club

A photo of Nina for good measure.

Here is what I finished reading in September:

• Big Top Flop (Nancy Drew Clue Book, #4) by Carolyn Keene & Peter Francis 
• In My Attic (Magic Misfits, #1) by Lina Hansen
• Don't Hex and Drive (Stay a Spell, #2) by Juliette Cross
• The Haunted Library (#1) by Dori Butler Hillestad & Aurore Damant
• Spill the Beans (Whatever After, #13) by Sarah Mlynowski
• The Ghost in  the Attic (The Haunted Library #2) by Dori Butler Hillestad & Aurore Damant
• The Ghost Backstage  (The Haunted Library #3) by Dori Butler Hillestad & Aurore Damant
• The Five O'Clock Ghost (The Haunted Library #4) by Dori Butler Hillestad & Aurore Damant
• The Secret Room (The Haunted Library #5) by Dori Butler Hillestad & Aurore Damant
• The Rules of Magic (Practical Magic #2) by Alice Hoffman
• The Ghost at the Fire Station (The Haunted Library #6) by Dori Butler Hillestad & Aurore Damant

September turned into middle grade book month as Mouse and I work our way through The Haunted Library series. It's about a ghost boy whose lost his family and has joined up with a human girl to solve ghostly mysteries--and hopefully find his family. Mouse and I also discovered the Whatever After series, which features a sister and brother who travel through a mirror into various fairy tales and have to "fix" them (after messing them up in the first place). 

For my own reading, I had a lot of fun reading both In My Attic and Don't Hex and Drive. I also finished The Rules of Magic, which was wonderful. Thank you to all who voted for it in my September TBR List Poll! 

September was a full blogging month. I feel like I kept up pretty well overall. I managed to get quite a  few of my overdue reviews posted and have a few more coming this month. Because of Mouse's performances the last full week of September, I wasn't around as much and didn't get a review post up I had ready to go. It happens.

This Past September In Reading Mews:

• Waiting to Read Wednesday: I Do Not Come to You by Chance / Well Played / The Talented Miss Farwell / How to Fly
• Where Is Your Bookmark? (Then & Now - A Peek into In My Attic)
• Weekly Mews: August Wrap Up & A Witchy TBR List Poll (Please Vote!)
• My Bookish Mewsings: An Easy Death / A Longer Fall / Stars Beyond
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: All She Was Worth / Mrs. Claus and the Santaland Slayings / Ties that Tether / A Pretty Deceit
• Where Is Your Bookmark? (Then & Now - And a Peek into Wonder)
• Weekly Mews: Pushing Through
• My Bookish Mewsings: A Curious Beginning / A Study in Scarlet Women
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: The Tea Rose/ Murder at the PTA / A Wild Winter Swan / Mrs. Morris and the Ghost of Christmas Past
• Where Is Your Bookmark? (Then and Now - A Peek Into The Rules of Magic)
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: The Archive of the Forgotten / Magic Lessons / When We Were Young & Brave
• My Bookish Mewsings: A Spell for Trouble / Witch Hunt / In My Attic
• Waiting to Read Wednesday: First Grave on the Right / The Midnight Bargain / Murder in the Margins / Jingle All the Way

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?

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). 

Sticking with the R.I.P. XV theme for October, I thought I would tempt you (and me) with these three gems. Admittedly two have been on my TBR shelf a bit longer than the most recent release, but I can assure you, they are all books that I have been wanting to read, but just haven't made time for. Yet. So what will it be? Dark magic at a boarding school, zombie romance, or perhaps a murder solving ghost? Help me decide what to read next! 

A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1) by Naomi Novik

Lesson One of the Scholomance

Learning has never been this deadly

A Deadly Education is set at Scholomance, a school for the magically gifted where failure means certain death (for real) — until one girl, El, begins to unlock its many secrets. There are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships, save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won’t allow its students to leave until they graduate… or die! The rules are deceptively simple: Don’t walk the halls alone. And beware of the monsters who lurk everywhere. El is uniquely prepared for the school’s dangers. She may be without allies, but she possesses a dark power strong enough to level mountains and wipe out millions. It would be easy enough for El to defeat the monsters that prowl the school. The problem? Her powerful dark magic might also kill all the other students. [Goodreads Summary]

 

Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies #1) by Isaac Marion

R is having a no-life crisis—he is a zombie. He has no memories, no identity, and no pulse, but he is a little different from his fellow Dead. He may occasionally eat people, but he’d rather be riding abandoned airport escalators, listening to Sinatra in the cozy 747 he calls home, or collecting souvenirs from the ruins of civilization.

And then he meets a girl.

First as his captive, then his reluctant guest, Julie is a blast of living color in R’s gray landscape, and something inside him begins to bloom. He doesn't want to eat this girl—although she looks delicious—he wants to protect her. But their unlikely bond will cause ripples they can’t imagine, and their hopeless world won’t change without a fight.  [Goodreads Summary]

Mrs. Morris and the Witch  (A Salem B&B Mystery #2) by Traci Wilton

In Traci Wilton's second cozy mystery featuring a new sleuth on the Salem scene, when widowed B&B owner Charlene Morris discovers the dead body of a local Wiccan on Halloween, she and her charming ghostly partner must help the local Salem, Massachusetts, coven to find the killer.

Halloween is the biggest holiday of the year in Salem, Massachusetts--but when B&B owner Charlene Morris finds the dead body of a witch, it spells trouble...

Charlene, recently widowed, has renovated her historic mansion just in time to greet guests arriving for the town's annual Halloween festivities. She's lucky to have a helpful staff to provide support--as well as a handsome ghost named Jack standing invisibly by her side.

Unfortunately, while the revelers head out on haunted tours, have their fortunes told, or grab a drink at Brews and Broomsticks, a killer walks among them. When Charlene discovers Morganna, a local Wiccan, dead in her shop, she starts getting cozy with the local coven, looking for clues to locate the crafty culprit. Salem may be famous for the false accusations of witchery in centuries past, but this time someone is genuinely guilty--of murder... [Goodreads Summary]

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

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