Did November go fast for everyone? Just me? I had three holidays in there (2 birthdays and Thanksgiving) and it went at a breakneck pace.
So much so, in fact, that I didn’t read as much as I meant to. There were a couple more books I read for review that I didn’t like enough to include them in this month’s round up so the book section is a little short this month. BUT! I decided to include two podcasts I listened to for a little more oomph~
Books I Read This Month
How to Sell a Haunted House - Grady Hendrix
I’m a fan of Grady Hendrix, even if I’ve been very slow reading his catalogue. I actually met him ten years ago at BEA and he signed a galley of Horrorstor to me with ‘I am delighted to be your first galley at BEA’ which always makes me smile. He’s so so good at concepts. It’s the execution that doesn’t always play out. This story, about a woman who has to go home and fix up her parents’ house to sell with her estranged brother after a deadly car accident, really hit with some of the more emotional moments of fractured families and generational trauma. And then there were the ghost puppets. I think this would work extraordinarily well as a film, as I think the images would be better as images rather than words, but I still enjoyed it. Just be prepared for just so many puppets.
And Dangerous to Know - Darcie Wilde
My ‘historical lady solves a mystery’ of the month. This is book three in a series and I think I’m going to drop it. Not that the novels have been bad or anything but none of the characters really grab me and I don’t find myself wondering what’s going to happen to them along the line. This particular story focused on some missing letters of Lord Byron’s and had Caroline Lamb as a character which I a) loved but b) took a lot of characters out of the running for murderer because they were real people. Sorry to Rosalind Thorne but I think I’m going to drop your series. Even though Darcie Wilde’s author photo delights me.
Other Things I Enjoyed This Month
Ghost Story - 7 episode podcast
I think I’ve recommended this podcast to roughly every human I’ve spoken to this month so it’s coming at you all, too. An investigative journalist has mostly forgotten the weird things that happened in his childhood bedroom. He doesn’t believe in ghosts. But when he discovers that his wife (who he met in college) has a great-grandmother that was murdered in the house next door to his childhood home in a way that matches descriptions of the potential ghost other folks who lived in the house have described, he decides to investigate. While I suppose this is technically true crime, it’s much more about the stories we tell and the way we pass on family history. It’s just incredibly good and the last ten minutes of the last episode may have made me cry a little. Also, the journalist’s brother in law is Hugh Dancy so he just appears sometimes to do readings. Fun!
Keys to the Kingdom - 8 episode podcast
Another short podcast, this is hosted by a married couple who both used to work in theme parks (her as a Disney princess, him in various roles) as they talk to folks who used to work at various parks (Disney, Universal Studios, Knott’s Berry Farm) about what it’s really like. In parts funny and fascinating, some folks even use voice modulators so they don’t get in trouble with their current jobs. It’s a really fun podcast and I hope they do a second season.
November was a busy month. The most exciting part, of course, was that my best friend Katy flew out from New Orleans for a long birthday weekend visit. She’d never been to Portland and we had a great time. I rented a condo on the beach for the weekend proper and we did a lot of exploring, eating cupcakes, and watching pirates. 10/10 would recommend.
The rest of November was a bit of a let down after that, sorry to my father’s birthday and Thanksgiving. I actually ended up being a bit sick over Thanksgiving which was NOT cool because being sick over a rare four day weekend is never ideal.
But I did manage to keep up with a little goal I had made for myself which was to write roughly 1k words of fiction for every day in November. I’d done this back in May with 200 words a day and wanted to see if I could up it. TLDR: I could but I was very tired at the end. I’m glad I did it, I like what I wrote, but I think I’ll wait a bit before I do this again (or do a smaller number.)
With December, the Tournament of Books Shortlist has been announced so look forward to those reviews coming soon. And I’ve already read one great book in December (dinosaur ghosts!) so the next newsletter will have much more exciting things, I promise.
Until then, I leave you with the new friend Katy and I made at this very cool pirate-themed bar in Astoria called Dead Man’s Isle which I definitely recommend. See you for one last 2023 newsletter soon!