Bookquarium

I thought it would be fun to do a post about our favorite Halloween reads. These could be books that are specifically about Halloween or Halloween-themed, or just books that get us into the Halloween spirit or that we get moved to read at that Halloween-y time of year.  For your convenience, my (Elley Otter) bits will be orange and Peekaboo's will be purple (because those are Halloween colors to me, OK?)  I'll start: Howl's Moving Castle There's nothing overtly Halloween-y about Howl's Moving Castle , but for whatever reason I always get the tingles to give it a reread around Halloween. Maybe it's the wizards and witches and fire demons, maybe it's that animated scarecrow with the turnip head giving me the fall vibes, but Howl's Moving Castle is always on my list of Halloween reads.   Flight or Fright I definitely go in for "read ALL the scary things around Halloween!", and this anthology, put together by Bev Vin...

Hi All! WhaleSnark here once again! Peekaboo the Octopus challenged me for the Blog-o-ween thingy so here goes!  I love Halloween! It's my favourite holiday besides International Whale Shark Day. :D  Use  #Ween18 to see posts from me this month! Witches A Book or Character that is Magical. Arianwyn in The Apprentice Witch and A Witch Alone by James Nicol. Wyn is really adept at using magic, and is especially good with making charms.  Mummies A Book or Character You Can’t Wrap Your Mind Around. Bleeeeh um, so many. I guess I'll pick Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond. I hated the book. It was so pretentious and Diamond's hypotheses about why human society ended up where it is were nauseating to read in college. I just remember hating it with a passion, and so did everyone else in my World History class. Vampires A Book, Series, or Author You Can’t Live Without. The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series by Kathryn Lasky. A. Owls B. Dystopia...

It's the MOST wonderful time of the year! That's right! It's Halloween season!! (Which goes from Oct 1-Oct 31, but hey, why not start a little earlier? My decs went up in September.) One of our fellow tank dwellers, the lovely Elley Otter over at her personal book blo g, challenged me to do this as part of #blogoween. It's a month-long event hosted by several different bloggers, specifically celebrating the greatest holiday this world has ever known. (More info here!) So here goes!! Witch: a magical character or book How can I not give a shoutout to my very favorite magic users of all time, the good folks at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry? I went through lists of witch books, and kept coming back to all the badass ladies of the Harry Potter universe, and how deeply I loved them.  Werewolf: a perfect book to read at night Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is all about how science gives us hope in a world full of scary shit. It d...

I am a big fan of horror, and I prefer my horror with a side of the paranormal, as opposed to creepy serial killers. So when Edelweiss was like "hey, check out this creepy new horror featuring the Melmoth the wanderer legend (of which I was entirely unfamiliar) I was like heck yes! Sign me up!! I was not disappointed! I went into this one pretty blind, except for the fact that Harper Collins and their fabulous book review squad said this one was creepy and excellent. (They were right.) Summary:   For centuries, the mysterious dark-robed figure has roamed the globe, searching for those whose complicity and cowardice have fed into the rapids of history’s darkest waters—and now, in Sarah Perry’s breathtaking follow-up to  The Essex Serpent , it is heading in our direction. It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious lett...