Winding Down October

It's Halloween, which means October is very close to being over.  Which means it's time for a wrap-up post!

This month, I participated in the Spooktacular October Paranormal Reading Challenge, hosted by Marie at Ramblings of a Daydreamer.  Basically, to participate, you just had to read and post a review of at least three paranormal-themed books throughout the month of October.  And bonus, there is to be a giveaway once the challenge has officially closed!  Anyway, for this challenge, I read:  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters and Jane Austen, and The Better To Hold You by Alisa Sheckley.

The Better To Hold You

The Better To Hold You by Alisa Sheckley is the first of Sheckley's books about Abra Barrow.  Abra is a veterinarian living in Manhattan, studying at the Animal Medical Institute, a teaching hospital.  Her husband just got back from spending the summer in Romania, researching the myth of Unwolves for an article he's writing, but Abra notices Hunter has changed since she last saw him.  He didn't write to her much while he was away, and he isn't very forthcoming about what happened to him there, but she understands enough to realize their marriage may be in trouble.  He wants to move into his family's old home in the small town of Northside, and Abra decides to make the move with him, to try and save their marriage.  But she soon finds out that life in this small town is going to be anything but quiet or simple, and when their closest neighbor turns out to be an intriguing stranger who showed up at the Institute one day, she discovers that her situation with her husband is much more complicated than what she ever could have imagined.

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters

Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters by Ben H. Winters (and Jane Austen) is a quirky and absurd rewrite of Austen's classic Sense and Sensibility. This novel is set in an alternate history - a mysterious and terrible event known as The Alteration has occurred. No one knows how or why The Alteration happened, but the result has made everyone's existence one of survival against marine and freshwater creatures. Austen's beloved characters go about the events laid out in the original work, but with the added mayhem of creature attacks!

I have to admit, I really did not expect to like this quite as well as I did. I expected to be amused, but I also thought I would probably turn up my nose at some parts, because Sense and Sensibility is one of my favourite novels. Those turned-up-nose parts did pop up here and there, during some questionable passages, such as Marianne picking her teeth with a fishbone and Elinor being so disgusted with the tentacled appearance of Colonel Brandon - I think Elinor would be a little more just in the beginning, even in her private thoughts.

The Becoming

The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein is the first book in the Anna Strong Chronicles. Anna is a young woman who, to the dismay of her parents, has quit her teaching job and begun an exciting career as a bounty hunter. She and her partner, David (a former professional football player), are about to bring in their latest bounty when it all goes horribly wrong - the man gets the better of David (a stunning first) and then attacks Anna. Waking up in the hospital a couple of days later, she has no idea yet that her life has changed irrevocably. Her doctor, Avery, senses the changes, though and takes her under his wing - he's a vampire too, after all, but much older and more experienced. Good thing, too, since not long after her release from the hospital, it seems the tables have turned and she's the one now being pursued by someone or something. The things she holds dearest in her life are being threatened, and Anna must learn quickly what she is now capable of, if she's going to stop whoever it is.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Today I finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling, the first in the Harry Potter fame train. I know very few people who have not yet read these books, so I'm not entirely sure what to say about it, but I'm going to try very hard not to accidentally give away any spoilers!

Harry is a ten-year-old boy who has lived almost his whole life with his relatives - the Dursleys - who treat him like a second-class citizen. His bedroom is a cupboard underneath the stairs. He only has his cousin Dudley's old clothes to wear (even though they are much too large for him). And his aunt and uncle are constantly punishing him for strange things that he couldn't possibly be responsible for. On his eleventh birthday, however, his whole life changes. On his eleventh birthday, Harry finds out he's a wizard.

In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, we follow Harry through his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry makes his first real friends (back home, kids were too scared of Dudley's bullying to hang around with him), and their experience is anything but ordinary, even for a wizard school. Shit is about to go down, but none of the teachers Harry and his friends have told believe them. Time is running out, so they take matters into their own hands. The Sorting Hat clearly didn't put these three in Gryffindor House for nothing.