What We're Reading Wednesday, and Chime (Halloween Read-A-Thon #5)

 

My before-bed reads. Halloween Party is a re read along with Maidens of Murder on Bookstagram (and perfect for this season!). The Disappearing Spoon is one I've been alternating with for a while now--it can be a dense read because of all the scientific language, but is really interesting.

These are my Kindle reads. The Big Book of Jack the Ripper is really good, but really long, so I'm alternating it in with other reads. Right now that other read is The Book Club Murders, a really fun cozy mystery surrounding a small-town book club called the Agathas, and some real murders that start occurring. The Woman on the Orient Express has become my phone read when I walk my dog--it's moving really slowly, but because one of the main characters is Agatha Christie, I'm determined to finish it.

Our Hearts Will Burn Us Down is a book I keep picking up, reading a little, and then putting down. It's absolutely beautifully written, but it is a really emotionally difficult read for me, as it is centered around a school shooting. I, Ripper is my main read, and one of my Halloween Read-A-Thon books. I'm only a few chapters in, but it's a really unique fictional take on Jack the Ripper, alternating between diary entries from the Ripper himself, and memoir pages from a reporter who covered the story.

What are you reading this Wednesday?

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This was not on my original Halloween Read-A-Thon TBR pile, but when I read the inside cover, I knew it fit perfectly. The narrator, Briony, believes herself to blame for all of her family's misfortunes. She hates herself, having been told by her stepmother that she is a witch. Briony can see and talk to spirits, Brownies, and dangerous others who lurk in the swamp, something only a witch should be able to do.

Briony doesn't want to be hanged, but she believes she should be. She believes she is evil. But then Eldric comes, and brings with him thoughts and ideas Briony never thought possible.

Billingsley has a great gift for language, and spins a beautiful story. There is an underlying thread of mystery throughout that makes you have to keep reading, to find out the truth.