Thursday, October 31, 2013

Happy Halloween and RIP VIII Wrap Up

Happy Halloween, friends! I'm sitting here waiting for trick-or-treaters that will possibly never come (we've had years with literally zero activity) and Z and his dad are out wandering the neighborhood. Since Z's got braces this year, I'm going to steal all of his caramel candies!

Per Jenny's request, here is Z as Toad from Super Mario ...


I love this kid and his mushroom hat!

We had another fantastic RIP reading season. Z and I read two books together -- The Beasts of Clawstone Castle by Eva Ibbotson and The Witches by Roald Dahl.

I read lots of short stories, first in the Oxford Book of Victorian Ghost Stories and then in Under My Hat: Tales From the Cauldron which I'm reading tonight (a book of YA witch stories!).

I read one non-fiction book, The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher by Kate Summerscale, one graphic novel, Grimm, and listened to one audiobook, The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury.


I read lots of novels too -- The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas, Greenwitch by Susan Cooper, Picture the Dead by Lisa Brown and Adele Griffin, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova (a re-read and group read), Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson, Coraline by Neil Gaiman (also a re-read), The Asylum by John Harwood, An Old Betrayal by Charles Finch (review and giveaway coming next week!) and The Watcher in the Shadows by Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

My favorites were The Night Circus, Which Witch?, An Old Betrayal and The Watcher in the Shadows. I'm also really liking Under My Hat -- the witch stories are not what I expected and are almost all fantastic.

I also participated in the Estella Society's monthly photo challenge, #estellagram. Here a couple of my favorites (and two that weren't for #estellagram but I just love them). All of the nature pics are from my own yard.






See you in November,
K and Z

p.s. We just got two sets of trick-or-treaters ... they were teenagers but whatever. They each got a handful of candy. Yay!

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful photos!

    You read some great stuff. I love The Night Circus. My next office neighbor just finished it two nights ago and we were gushing about it yesterday. So fun when people discover that book.

    LOVE the costume, that is so great.

    I remember reading The Witches years ago on one of my occasional Roald Dahl kicks and enjoying it.

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    1. Thank you, Carl! And I did SO love The Night Circus. I already can't wait to read it again. :)

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  2. What a great costume! Thanks for humoring me. I got such a kick out of wandering down the streets of New York this Halloween and looking at all the fun costumes. My roommate saw a family all dressed up as pirates and the baby was a parrot. The baby was a parrot! IT WAS SO CUTE.

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    1. Always happy to share. :) And the family themed costumes are definitely the cutest!

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  3. Ah, The Witches...breaking out the classics! I've been meaning to read The Night Circus for several years now...still didn't get to it! Maybe next RIP :)

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    1. Oh, don't wait that long for The Night Circus! It's a wonderful winter read too. :)

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  4. Yet another successful RIP for you! I love getting recommendations from you, particularly during this time of year!! :)

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    1. I don't mean to brag or anything but RIP Challenge is definitely the part of blogging I'm best at. ;)

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    2. It's not really bragging when you are stating a fact! ;)

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