Reappearing for #RIPXIV

I was about to say "I can't believe it has been five months since I last posted" but I can totally believe it. I'm starting to feel like this particular blog has run its course after 11 years, that it needs to either change format into something more fun for me or close for good. I spent the summer posting all of my summer reads on Instagram and that was okay for a while but I even got bored there and let the final couple of weeks drop. The state of the world, extended family issues, mid-life crisis ... it has all come together to form the perfect storm of me not knowing what I want, feeling paralyzed by uncertainty, and choosing to do nothing for a bit and waiting to see what is ahead.

BUT! It is almost September and that's R(eaders) I(mbibing) P(eril) time and I have to at least share my bookshelf here, right?! If anything is going to bring me back to blogging, it's the RIP challenge, now in its 14th year.

This challenge is, of course, a simple one where you can read anywhere from 1-100 books or short stories (or watch movies) that fall into the "perilous" category, be they mysteries, horrors, creepies, or atmospherics.

This is what my shelf looks like at the moment, packed solid and full of what I think I will be in the mood to read. I, naturally, have other books below that can move up if the mood strikes. Here are a couple of close-ups.

I'm really looking forward to The Inheritor's Powder (non-fic about arsenic!), the final Jackaby novel (after a reread of book three), Jo Walton's Small Change trilogy (I need to hate on some Nazis right about now), and Hollow Kingdom (crows and Seattle).

These are mostly mysteries and I have plenty more where they came from (the stack on the floor next to the bookshelf). I'm really looking forward to Stiletto, the second book in The Rook series. I tried about ten minutes of the tv show but it pissed me off so badly with the changes in character and tone and even purpose that I swore it off forever. The Daphne du Maurier shorts are going to be fun too!

I have audiobooks on hold at the library that are unexpectedly spread perfectly over the next two or so months -- The Ocean at the End of the Lane (~3 weeks), The Graveyard Book (~4 weeks), The Sentence is Death (~5 weeks), Coraline (~7 weeks), The Night Circus (~8 weeks), and Wanderers (~9 weeks). Obviously the Gaimans and the Circus are rereads, there for comfort and sheer happiness. And my library hold list has some peril on it too ... like The Darwin Affair, Sword and Pen (the new Great Library book!), and maybe Recursion (I'm #117 on the hold list).

I'll definitely be posting on Instagram/Twitter and we'll see if the season and books I love inspires me to resurrect the blog as well.

What will you be reading this season?