Spooky season is really upon us now! Pat has been wanting to decorate the outside for Halloween–I told him to go for it, but nothing has been done yet. We decided to let the kids go trick-or-treating this year. At first, Pat was wary and then we realized that they are in public school and trick or treating is far less risky, COVID-wise, than school. Of course, the kids wanted to be things or which there are no store-bought costumes (and I don’t make costumes), so I talked them down to Chris being a Ninja and Lillie being some sort of Anime Demon…or something like that. It doesn’t matter–what matters is that I could get both of their costumes on Amazon.

Going through my pictures to find something to share, I came across this picture which I think shows the real spookiness of our our neighborhood. I know that it is the gray and the fog and the fall colors that give this effect, but I took the picture because of the HONKING BIG SPIDER hanging down! Unfortunately, my iPhone photography skills aren’t quite up to snuff, so the spider ended up just being a dot in the middle of the picture…but, trust me, it was spooky!

Anyway, beyond that, the week was busy! Lillie has play practice after school and then volleyball practice twice a week and still manages to get her homework done and hold down a 4.0. Chris is in swimming lessons, which he loves…and I use the time he’s in the pool to get some reading done!

Speaking of which, onto the books…or, in this case, book! As usual, I’m linking up with Kathryn at Book Date and her It’s Monday…What Are You Reading? blog hop.

So, this was kind of weird reading week. I was plugging along with my books until Tuesday, when the two books I’ve been waiting for were released on the same day! I ended up reading State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny first as I felt the risk of spoiling was high with that one. Since I’m not currently reading it, I won’t spend any more time on it here, except to say that it will be included in my monthly wrap up…and I had so many thoughts that I actually wrote a review of it.

The other book was The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman, which is the final book in the Practical Magic series? collection? trilogy plus prequel? Whatever, I finally started it today and I can tell it is going to be excellent. I know Alice Hoffman has a lot of accolades, but I still feel like she’s underrated. Her writing is just so gosh darn gorgeous! I haven’t yet gotten deep into her backlist, but everything of hers that I have read I’ve loved. I read Rules of Magic and Practical Magic in the recent past and am re-listening to Magic Lessons on audio, so the background here is very fresh for me, which is excellent. And, yes, the entire series? collection? trilogy plus prequel? has a place on my very selective keeper shelf!

I know that I’ll have more than one book to share next week (mostly because I’m sure I’ll power through The Book of Magic and the eBook I’m reading will be going back to the library in a few days so I have to finish that one). So, have a great week everyone!