Top Ten Tuesday: RIP XVI wrap up

 

Welcome to this week's edition of Top Ten Tuesday which is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl. This week's is a Halloween freebie, so I have decided to do a round up of all the things that I did for RIPXVI, which ends on Halloween.

For those who don't know, RIP stands for Readers Imbibing Peril which has been going for 16 years, which is an eternity in blogging terms! It's a chance to dip into anything that might be Mystery, Suspense,Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror or Supernatural.


Here is what I have read and watched this year for RIPXVI.

I read....

The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Robards - I didn't intentially read this for RIPXVI but it certainly fit the criteria!

The Sundial by Shirley Jackson  - This is was the group read. I haven't finished it yet, but I will.

I watched....

What We Do in the Shadows - perfect Friday night viewing. We still need to finish the first season.

Squid Game  - Finished this series.

Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn - This was a bit of fun to watch.

Attack on Titan  - This an anime series that we were watching with my son. The final episodes start to be release in January next year.

Shaun of the Dead - This is one of those movies that I always stop and watch if I see it on when I am flicking through the channels.

I also did a Music A-Z post about spooky songs.

I've already started thinking about some ideas for next year!

This Week ..

I'm reading

I actually read a couple of books this week which is quite a surprise!!  I was partly able to do this because we took Monday off and then we were forced to have Tuesday off because we didn't have any power. What else can you do but read in that situation when there is no power and no internet?  

The first book I finished was Flora's Travelling Christmas Shop by Rebecca Raisin. It's not too early for Christmas books is it? As usual I love the way that Rebecca Raisin writes about food and books, and this was a fun read. My review for this one will be up in a couple of weeks.

Once I finished that book I was back on the familiar question of what should I read next. Because we had no internet, I couldn't download anything new to read and none of the 270 books that I already have downloaded on my Kindle were calling my name.

I was struggling until I happened to see my library books from last week and it was a case of decision made. I absolutely loved Viola Shipman's book The Heirloom Garden when I read it last year, so when I saw the library copy of The Summer Cottage by Viola Shipman sitting there that was it. This is inadvertly going to be the first of three books over the next few weeks. I was excited to be approved for a review copy of  The Secret of Snow which is out later this month. Then that same day I went to the library and The Clover Girls was there waiting for me! 

I also picked up The Fence by Meredith Jaffe and The Goblin Empire by Katherine Addison.

I am now reading The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, the readalong book for RIPXVI. I am three chapters in and I have to say it isn't exactly what I expected.

I'm watching

I mentioned RIPXVI and the two new series we started this week both easily fit for that challenge. On Friday night, we started watching the series of What We Do in the Shadows, mainly because we had just watched the latest available episode of What If? What We Do in the Shadows is a comedy/horror about a group of vampires that live in Brooklyn. It was a lot of fun. We'll see if we watch any more or not.

Speaking of horror, we started watching Squid Game last night. On Wikipedia this is classified as a "survival drama" series, but it is pretty scary as far as I can tell. The body count is certainly high. This is a big hit on Netflix right now and you can see why. Think The Hunger Games on steroids! Have you watched it?

Life

Other than a couple of days off as I mentioned above, it was a pretty normal week, whatever normal means. We are still in lockdown here, but we are now able to go 15kms from home and we are allowed to meet other people outdoors, so we can start to meet friends. We did that yesterday as some of our friends are moving to the country in a couple of weeks.

We are looking forward to having more freedoms, but I think we will still be a bit wary of venturing too far from home. There are definitely days when we are over being at home.

I did attend our second book club meeting on Zoom this weekend.  There were four of us in attendance this time and I enjoyed the conversation. We are doing a read-on-a-theme bookclub, and this month the theme was Spring. The next theme is "Books about books". So far I have thought of three different options, all of which were packed in a box which is in the shed, so I am going to have to come up with something else.

Posts from the last week

Top Ten Tuesday: Fruit Salad. Yummy! Yummy!

Music A-Z: R

Historical Fiction Reading Challenge - October

Weekend Cooking: Fish Girl by Mirandi Riwoe

Six Degrees: The Lottery to The Good Wife of Bath

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Six Degrees of Separation: The Lottery to The Good Wife of Bath

Welcome to this month's edition of Six Degrees of Separation, which is a monthly meme hosted by Kate from Books Are My Favourite and Best.  The idea is to start with a specific book and make a series of links from one book to the next using whatever link you can find and see where you end up after six links.  I am also linking this post up with The Sunday Salon, hosted by Deb at Readerbuzz. 

The starting point for this month is a short story called The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. I found this story online and so, somewhat unusually, I have actually read this one. However, I wrote this post before I read it, so it didn't really colour my choices.

My first link is to The Sundial by Shirley Jackson. This is the readalong book for Readers Imbibing Peril XVI (RIPXVI) for this year. I did think about using RIP reads as my through theme but I ended up going in a more random direction.

My next link is to The Clockmakers Daughter by Kate Morton because the sundial is a way of telling the time as is a clock.

My link to the next book was supposed to be  the word daughter but when I went to look for the cover I realised that the book I was thinking of is actually called The Cartographer's Secret by Tea Cooper (not the Cartographer's Daughter). I read this book earlier this year and loved it. So my connection can either be the possessive title or the fact that both books are historical fiction by Australian authors.

Let's get this chain back on track. My next choice is based on the fact that a cartographer is someone who draws maps, my next choice is The Year the Maps Changed by Danielle Binks which I currently have out from the library.

The connection to my next choice is the word year. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks is a book that I read years ago and loved....well, except for the epilogue.

My final choice is The Good Wife of Bath by Karen Brooks, because of the shared surname.

I have just realised that other than Shirley Jackson, these authors are all Australian, which wasn't deliberate. It just worked out that way, or maybe is reflecctive of my reading patterns.

Next month, our chain starts with What Are We Going Through by Sigrid Nunez.  I am looking forward to it!

This Week ...

 

I'm reading....

Do you ever get a sense of satisfaction when you read a book that has been out for a while now, lots of people have recommended it and you finally get around to reading it? And you enjoy it! That is me this week having just finished The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang. I know, I know, I can't believe I hadn't read it yet either. I will say I was quite surprised by how  steamy it was. I am not sure why, but I wasn't really expecting that. Now to read the next two books.

I think that my next book is going to be The Black Swan of Paris by Karen Robards. I currently have it out from the library and I have just discovered that the return chutes are open, so I will read this one so that I can return it and maybe pick up something new. The return chutes weren't open at all during the last lockdown. Maybe I should try and reborrow a couple of the books I didn't get around to reading last time even though I had them here for months! That's a good  idea!

I'm watching....

The last few weeks on a Friday night we have watched Jack Whitehall's Travels with my Father. Last week we watched the two episodes set in Australia which was fun. Now we wait for the new season to come out, which might be this week I think, and then we will need to find a new Friday night show!

Over the weekend, the movie Birds of Prey: Harley Quinn came on so we sat and watched that. I am not sure why but we watch everything Marvel as it comes out but not nearly as much in the DC Comics world. I really liked the first Wonder Woman movie but haven't yet managed to watch the follow up. This movie definitely counts for RIP XVI

My big plan for this week is to watch all of the available episodes of season 2 of Ted Lasso. In preparation we spent our cold and rainy Sunday rewatching all of season 1. It's such a great show, full of heart, nuance and truths. It's funny....I did a training session a week or so ago on performance management and terminations and the presenter included a Ted Lasso quote as part of his presentation. That must be a sure sign of show making it right?

Life

We were supposed to be going away this week but unfortunately the government says no. Originally I was taking two weeks off but instead we are taking one week and just spending it at home. There are a few things on my to do list. Might start packing up my books and doing a cull along the way. Might do my nails. Have some TV to watch, some blogging to do, some books to read. And I have a few ideas of things to bake although I don't think that we should just eat the whole time we are at home. We'll see!

Music A-Z: O

Vintage Weekend Cooking: The Kitchen Child by Angela Carter

Weekend Cooking: Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

Music A-Z: The RIP XVI edition

I interupt Music A-Z to bring you a special RIP themed episode.

RIP stands for Readers Imbibing Peril and is a longstanding event in the book community. It's a chance to dip into anything that might be Mystery, Suspense,Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror or Supernatural and is time to fit in with Fall in the Northern hemisphere and ends at Halloween. This year, in addition to activity on Instagram, Twitter etc, there is also a Discord group and there is going to be a group read of The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, who I have never read. 

Today I thought I would share some songs that would meet the theme. I have chosen to fogus on the more fun side, but there are lots of other great songs out there that would fit the theme. Someone shared a Spotify Playlist called Southern Gothic which has been fun to listen to this week, in a getting in the mood kind of way.

Ghostbusters by Ray Parker Jr - Who you gonna call?

Bat Out of Hell by Meatloaf - I have a feeling there is probably a better example, but I enjoyed listening to this one for the first time in years!

Thriller by Michael Jackson - If I remember correctly, the first showing of this video was a special TV event!

Spooky by Dusty Springfield

Don't Pay the Ferryman by Chris De Burgh

All You Zombies by The Hooters - My favourite Hooters song is And We Danced, but I couldn't resist sharing this one today.

What other RIP songs are there?

This Week I ...

I'm reading...

I am on a bit of a roll at the moment with new to me authors that I have enjoyed and will definitely read more. Over the last couple of weeks I have read Heather Webb, Lucy Parker and this week it was Natasha Lester. Now, as someone who reads a lot of historical fiction, and a lot of Australian authors, it is a bit crazy that I haven't read Natasha Lester before now. Now I have, and now I need to read more.

My dilemna is what to read next. I could read another book by one of these three authors, or I could read a review book, or I could take a look at what other books I have here that I haven't read the author before and see if my streak will continue or not.

In the end, I decided to start The Fish Wife by Miranda Riwoe because last week I listened to a podcast with her which is part of a series being released by Historical Novel Society Australasia in the lead up to their conference which is happening in October. I really should buy my tickets

I'm Watching....

We are now all caught up on Attack on Titan,  the anime series we have been watching with my son. The next episodes aren't released until January (or March) next year, so I don't expect to see him too often before then! It's been nice to have him out of his room for a few weeks at least.

We also watched Shaun of the Dead over the weekend. This is one of those movies where if we are channel surfing and we happen to see this we will watch it.

Both of these shows count for RIP. Now I need to ensure that I read something for the challenge too.

Life

Not a lot to tell here. Another week of lockdown is probably all I need to say.

Music A-Z: N

Weekend Cooking: What I Baked in August

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date

This Week I...

I'm reading

I finished reading Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe by Heather Webb this week and I thoroughly enjoyed it! It reminded me a lot of Sarah Addison Allen's books with a really easy reading style, a touch of magical realism, delicious food and so much more. I have another book from this author on my Kindle which I will be reading soon, and I have plans for a Weekend Cooking post about this one. 

I then started reading Battle Royale by New Zealand author Lucy Parker as several people I know have been waiting impatiently for this book. I clearly haven't been paying attention as this is my first Lucy Parker book but I already know it will not be my last. I am enjoying it a lot. The premise is that two rival bakers can't stand each other, but then they become judges on a Great British Bake Off style TV baking show. If I had more Weekend Cooking slots this would also make a good post too.

Finally, I went for a walk this week, and so it seemed like a good chance to start a new audio book. I have been meaning to read Katherine Arden's The Bear and the Nightingale for the longest time. I am not sure how much listening time I will have so this could be a mistake, but we'll see right.

I'm Watching...

We continue to watch Attack on Titan with my son, but other than that we also finally watched the first season of Ted Lasso. What a great show! We thoroughly enjoyed it, and I can't wait to watch the second series.

Life

We did have a first meeting of a brand new bookclub on the weekend. The plan originally would have been to meet in person but given that are still in strict lockdown that wasn't possible so it had to be on Zoom. My friend and I have been talking about starting a book group for the longest time but we couldn't convince many of our real life friends so other than the fact that we know each other, everyone else is going to be a stranger.  I know someone who is a member of a read-on-a-theme bookclub and I really like the sound of it. I was therefore pleased when the other members who attended agreed that they are happy with this. Our first theme is Spring, and I already have several ideas for books that might fit that theme.

I was excited to see that Readers Imbibing Peril (RIP) is back this year. This is the 16th year it has been on which is quite amazing when you think about it. Once again this year the focus is on social media rather than blogging, but there will be some fun events

What is RIP? It's a chance to dip into anything that might be Mystery, Suspense,Thriller, Dark Fantasy, Gothic, Horror or Supernatural and is time to fit in with Fall in the Northern hemisphere and ends at Halloween. This year, in addition to activity on Instagram, Twitter etc, there is also a Discord group and there is going to be a group read of The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, who I have never read. It should be fine. Check out more details on Instagram 

Posts from last week

Music A-Z: M

Weekend Cooking: Joint review: Nadiya Bakes by Nadiya Hussain

I've linked this post to It's Monday, what are you reading? as hosted by Book Date