Bye-Bye Halloween... Onto Thanksgiving and the Holidays!

I haven't taken a lot of time to read lately... since my husband and I both work in the retail world, we know that November through the beginning of January is pretty much one huge blur with not many days off as a family.  So, October is really a big family-time month for us.  

Me and my little pumpkin ready to Trick-or-Treat!

We had a wonderful Halloween (despite the cold weather) that included a trip to the bookstore, Trick-or-Treating and Everett's first viewing of Hocus Pocus (which he actually watched the majority of!).  We are still reading Halloween books to Everett since he loves them, but I also pulled out Five Silly Turkeys to add to the mix.  Slowly the Halloween books will be replaced with Christmas books!!! :)  I can't wait to share our Christmas favorites... but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves!

I did manage to finish the audio of Louise Penny's A Fatal Grace which is the second book in her Armand Gamache Series.  I liked it just as much as the first :)  The audiobooks are great, and the mysteries have such unique characters that it's easy to get lost in the world of Three Pines.  If you're a mystery reader and haven't discovered Louise Penny yet, be sure to pick up her books!

Now I need a new audiobook for the car.  I might do the third in the Gamache series or pick up the third in the Jim Butcher Dresden Files... however, I'm always up for suggestions.  I even thought about checking out all of the Harry Potter audiobooks from the library and listening to those again... 

What have you been reading or listening to?  Anything you're putting on your Christmas list already?  Hope everyone had a wonderful Monday and is finding some relaxing reading time tonight!  Happy Reading :)

Happy Halloween Eve!

I can't believe tomorrow is Halloween!!  This past week has been so busy, but tomorrow the boys and I are all home and will celebrate in style (despite the 20 degree weather that's being predicted... eww).  We haven't cemented anything in stone, but tomorrow will more than likely include bribing Everett into wearing his pumpkin costume, taking him to visit family and possibly a couple doors for trick-or-treating, coming home to hand out candy to our neighborhood trick-or-treaters, Halloween books before bed, and finally my husband and I watching Hocus Pocus eating the leftover candy and/or popcorn (I am obsessed with the movie Hocus Pocus, and my husband loves me so he tolerates it each year :)).  

As for Everett's Halloween treats... since Ev's still so young, we don't really give him candy.  He'll probably get a couple bites of chocolate, but other than that, Eric and I have gotten him some candy alternatives.  He got the book Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson about a week or so ago (that way he can enjoy it for longer than a night) and he absolutely loves it!  I thought the story might be a bit long for his attention span, but he sits through it every time.  He also got adorable Halloween pjs (okay two pairs skeleton & mummy themed) and some shirts that he's been wearing all month.  Tomorrow we'll top off his Halloween with a trip to the bookstore for a new book of his choice and a pumpkin cookie from Panera (his favorite treat!).

For me, I told myself I was going to attempt to read a couple spooky things this October, but after The Bird Box, I moved onto other books I've had on my to-read list that are not going to keep me up all night.  This past week was a HUGE new release Tuesday in my book.  Two of my favorite authors had books come out... 

1. My Patrick Rothfuss countdown finally commenced with the release of The Slow Regard of Silent Things.  A novella all about the character Auri... my favorite character from his Kingkiller Chronicles Series.  Patrick has also been posting about his upcoming Worldbuilders fundraiser, so be sure to check out the posts about his new novella and this event on his blog.

2. Paula Treick DeBoard's The Fragile World has also finally come out!  I read Paula's debut novel The Mourning Hours when it released in June of 2013 and knew I would read every book she wrote thereafter.  She's an amazing writer, and The Fragile World is no exception! I won't spoil anything review-wise until I'm completely done with the book, but don't worry, more details on how much I was blown away by this book soon!

Last Friday, Wisconsin author, Valerie Biel, also released her first novel into the world, Circle of Nine: Beltany, which I am reading and enjoying.  Circle of Nine: Beltany is a YA novel which incorporates Celtic lore into a modern teenager's life. I absolutely love books that include this kind of history, so when I saw the premise of this title, I had to read it!  Valerie will also be part of a really exciting event taking place at Barnes & Noble Appleton on December 14th.  Details to come on this event as well... but trust me if you're a YA lover, jot that date down and keep your afternoon (starting around 1:00) open :)

What are some of the books you have all been reading lately?  Any fun Halloween traditions  your family has every year?  I love hearing from you :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone and Happy Reading!! :)

Family Vacation!

I apologize for my lack of blogging and posts on Facebook this week... we are on a mini family vacation :)  I decided to take a couple of minutes to share some of the fun bookish things we've done this vacation thus far :)

My husband and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary on October 8th.  We had initially planned on letting Everett stay at Grandma and Grandpa's for the day, but ended up taking a little family trip instead.  We drove to Sheboygan, WI and visited Bookworm Gardens... an amazingly awesome place for any age!  This is unlike any garden I've ever seen... it is filled with literary references!  There's a Giving Tree, a Magic School Bus, Little House in the Big Woods cabin, The Three Bears and their three chairs, and even the Three Little Pigs houses.  My parents and I took Everett here earlier in the year, and he wasn't too into it, but he LOVED it this time.

Everett enjoying Bookworm Gardens

Checking out Winnie-the-Pooh's house at Bookworm Gardens

We also made a couple stops to bookstores this week and added a couple titles to our libraries.  Everett got a new Halloween book Who am I? Halloween, and we also picked up a Thanksgiving book for next month, Thanks for Thanksgiving.  I, of course, had to pick up Lisa Van Allen's new book The Night Garden which came out on Tuesday (LOVE her books!).  I also picked up a copy of The Taste of Apple Seeds by Katharina Hagena, which I've heard is supposed to be similar to Sarah Addison Allen's writing.  Lastly, my husband surprised me with a book for part of my anniversary gift, Dream It! Do It!: My Half-Century Creating Disney's Magic Kingdoms by Martin Sklar (I absolutely LOVE it when he surprises me with books! And I'm a huge fan of Disney World... so this was perfect!  I can't wait to read it!).

I am currently working on reading four books as well... Bird Box by Josh Malerman, The Things We Cherished by Pam Jenoff, The Night Garden by Lisa Van Allen, and A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny (which are all excellent!) although I haven't taken a lot of time to read this week.  We've been busy apple picking, taking day trips, and attending local festivities like the Zoo Boo at our local zoo.  So much fun! 

Apple picking

At the Zoo Boo with my little pumpkin!

What are some bookish things you've done on vacation?  And, don't worry I haven't forgotten about the awesomely fun announcement I have... it's coming soon... :)  Please like and share my Facebook page and follow this blog to be the first to know!

Thank you for being a part of my little corner of the book world, and happy reading!

Everett's Top 5 Halloween Picks

HAPPY OCTOBER!  October is my favorite month of the year... the beautiful fall weather... the pumpkin, apple, cinnamon everything... and of course Halloween!  Our house is all decorated and pumpkin coffee and treats are ready to be enjoyed!  And, of course, Halloween books are a must.  We've already purchased a couple new Halloween themed books for Everett this year, and I'm guessing a couple more will be added to our collection by the end of the month.  

So far some of Everett's favorite Halloween titles are:

1. Happy Halloween Stinky Face by Lisa Mccourt
I randomly stumbled upon this book while shopping at TJ Maxx.  I didn't even know there was a Halloween version of Stinky Face!  Considering Everett's love of the original Stinky Face book, I had to grab a copy of this for him.  The book includes lots of costumes and funny halloween "what ifs."  It's actually a fairly lengthy book for Everett's attention span, but he sits through it!  



2. The Itsy Bitsy Pumpkin by Sonali Fry
Everett has always loved it when we sing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider."  This book is new this year, and when I saw that Ev's one of Ev's favorite tunes was recreated with a fall/Halloween theme, we had to try it out.  At the bookstore, Ev sat still for the whole book the first time... that's an instant winner!







3. Ollie's Halloween by Olivier Dunrea
We have several of the Ollie books at our house, and this one was part of Ev's Halloween surprise last year.  It's a cute story about costumes and fall fun!  The illustrations in the Ollie books are always awesome too! 








4. ABCs of Halloween by Patricia Reeder Eubank
Everett is obsessed with his ABCs right now, so I thought this might be a fun way to learn new "Halloween words" by letter.  I love the classic artwork and the new vocabulary he can learn from each page.  The book also rhymes from page to page :)

5. Dracula: A BabyLit Counting Primer by Jennifer Adams

Any lovers of classic books will adore the BabyLit series for children!  There are several classics that are used to teach different concepts (counting, colors, first words), and they all have fantastic artwork!  The Dracula book is perfect for Halloween!  Items from Dracula (a castle, wolves, tombstones, as well as characters) are shown in different quantities to teach numbers 1-10.  

(P.S. There are lots of other great Halloween BabyLit books including a new Frankenstein book... which I *might* have to invest in this year!)

There are just so many fun Halloween books out there!  I have a feeling Ev will do another round of Top 5 closer to Halloween itself :)  What are some of your favorite Halloween titles for kids (Or adults...  I'm looking for some great spooky reads for October, too!)?

Happy October and happy reading everyone!!!