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| Source: personal collection |
Hello fellow readers! Happy Halloween! I don't actually celebrate Halloween but it's nice to participate in the festivities by reading scary books and or watching scary movies. Here's the thing though, I get scared easily. I did watch horror movies but only in the safety of daylight (lol). They're fun to watch, as long as I'll still able to sleep soundly at night. I watched The Witch: A New England Folktale, Us, and In the Tall Grass. I love The Witch and Us. In the Tall Grass upsets me and it's trippy. It made me feel uncomfortable, I don't like it. Oh, I read the novella first before watching the movie of course. I must say, I like the novella much more than the movie. Anyway, here are the books I read in October.
Books read in October
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Two by Two - Nicholas Sparks (★★★) |
Two by Two is a book by Nicholas Sparks which follows Russell Green through one of his momentous years. As a 30-ish man with a stable job, a wife and a young daughter, he thought life was perfect. Until he made one move that alters his life in a big way. I'm a veteran in Sparks books. The only fiction books by him that I haven't read including this one are See Me, Every Breath, and The Return (which just published in 2020). His books might not be for everyone and they can be too formulaic and predictable. Still, there are times when I need some tragic love story or some melodrama and his books deliver that. However, if you're looking for a tragic romance I would suggest his other books. Because in this one, the romance is not as strong as his other books. But the father-daughter relationship in this one does touch my heart.
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The Sleeper and the Spindle - Neil Gaiman & Chris Riddell (★★★★) |
First of all, this book is overall gorgeous. The cover and the illustrations inside are beautiful. The edition that I have is the hardcover one and the dust jacket is this see through paper. Together with the hardcover they create an illusion of a sleeping girl covered in thorns. The tale itself is a spin on snow white and sleeping beauty. Instead of a prince charming, the sleeping princess was saved by a queen. There's also a twist on the tale, a bit predictable (at least for me) but refreshing to experience on stories that most of us familiar with. I love Riddell's illustrations, they give some Gothic vibe to the book. In conclusion, the Sleeper and the Spindle is such a beautiful little fairy tale retelling book.
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Babies: Vintage Minis - Anne Enright (★★★) |
This Vintage Minis contains chapters from Anne Enright's memoir titled Making Babies: Stumbling into Motherhood. In the memoir, Enright shares her experience on becoming a mother to 2 children. This mini book however, focuses more on her pregnancy experience until her first child, a daughter, is 2 years-old. This book is my first encounter with Anne Enright's writing. This is also my first time reading a book with the theme of pregnancy or babies. Mostly because I haven't felt the need to. However, I like how honest her writing is. At least that's how I assume because I never experience what she wrote in this book. She wrote that pregnancy and having a baby is not all fun. There's also exhaustion and frustration sometimes. Still, she presented it in a light-hearted way which doesn't scare me into having a baby someday anyway. If you're curious about pregnancy but don't want to commit into reading a full-length book yet, this book could be a good choice to read.
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In the Tall Grass - Stephen King & Joe Hill (★★★★) |
In the Tall Grass starts with a brother and a sister on a road trip. In the middle of their journey, they heard a boy crying for help because he's lost in a field filled with tall grass. Thinking that the boy might not be too far, they decided to help getting him out. Things don't go well for them afterwards. The premise sounds simple, but King always manages to pull your biggest fear out of the simplest things. I hate that the protagonists chose to play hero by going into the tall grass themselves instead of calling for the police and wait for them. I mean, true nobody knows that a field full of tall grass could have an evil mind and supernatural powers but still. Even though it's set in an open field, I felt isolated while reading this. It's just one of those trippy reads. The ending left me feeling weirded out and questioning what the heck did I just read. There's a movie adaptation for this book which I'm still unsure if I wanted to watch it or not.
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War: Vintage Minis - Sebastian Faulks (★★★★) |
This Vintage Minis collects excerpts from three of Faulks's books titled Birdsong, Where My Heart Used to Beat, and A Week in December. Usually with excerpts, especially the ones whose authors I've never read before, I'd research about it first to get the context. Since I have Birdsong on my TBR anyway, I didn't do it for that one. As for the others, I think it's safe to read even though you have no idea what the full book, from which the excerpt is taken, is about. The three excerpts taken were revolved around the theme of war. The one from Birdsong is centered around a soldier who fell asleep on duty so he faced the possibility of being court-martialed. The second one follows a soldier fighting and surviving in the middle of the war against the Germans. The last one tells a story about war against terrorism which follows a college student who's about to deliver explosives to the destined site. The topic of war has never been an easy one to digest for me, whatever the media, whether it's movies or books. I thought at least books would be easier but the way Faulks wrote about war in these books are horrifying. Instead of a historical fiction, I'd say these are horror books. The descriptions are so vivid, I'd assume that Faulks himself has fought in a war though I'm pretty sure he hasn't. At one point a character in the book questioned the value of human lives in a war which made me thinking why wars happened in the first place? If those people who initiate wars truly think that human lives are precious, wouldn't they not want to start a war? Is the war worth it? Then there's the matter of the people who are behind wars most likely won't be in the front lines facing the danger and death themselves. Anyway, If you don't mind the horror of war, this book is recommended to read. After reading this book, I definitely intrigued to pick up Birdsong.
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Death: Vintage Minis - Julian Barnes (★★★★) |
Even before I started reading this book, I knew that it would be such an impactful read to me. Reading this book makes it feels like I'm confronting my own mortality. This minis contains writing taken from Barnes's memoir titled Nothing to be Frightened of.
In this book, not only Barnes shares his thoughts on death, he also shares several perspectives from fellow writers and artists about the topic. He looks at death from philosophical, religion, and a bit of science standpoint.
This book reminds me of Plato's Socratic dialogue the Apology. In the end of it he stated that death isn't something that we should be afraid of because death is 'freeing'. This sentiment makes me think (and Barnes also brought it up in the book), is it death that we're actually afraid of or dying? For such a small book, this one packs quite a punch. With only 100-ish pages, this book asks us the readers to look deep into our own mortality which I like. I highly recommend this one.
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Review Posts in October
October Favorites
Book
War: Vintage Minis
Death: Vintage Minis
Series
Our Planet
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| Source |
Our Planet is a nature documentary series narrated by David Attenborough. If you like watching BBC documentary series, I'm sure you're familiar with Attenborough's voice. The series is made for Netflix but don't worry if you don't have a Netflix subscription because they make all 8 full episodes free to watch on YouTube. The series is not only educating, it's also entertaining and eye-pleasing. The visuals are so stunning. I believe you can pause at any frame and turn it into a wallpaper because it is just that gorgeous. I mean, our planet is gorgeous. This series does remind us how beautiful the planet that we're living in and why we should preserve it. I highly highly recommend it.
Overall, I'm quite happy with what I read in October. Although I was hoping I could read more since there's an (almost) long weekend holiday in the end of October. Apparently my company said 'long weekend? lol, nope' and I ended up having quite a hectic week instead. Still, I'm quite satisfied with what I read and watched. How about you? Did you have fun on Halloween? Any scary (but not too scary please) books or movies recommendation?
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