Fall, Death, and New Beginnings

Wow, this has been a tough year. My energy to blog and review books and participate in book blogosphere at this time of year as slagged. I'm having a hard time figuring life out right now...lots on the plate this year with moving, new job, and my mother's death; it's been hard to navigate. I'm just grateful for family and friends that are helping...but yeah death is hard.

I've managed to get a few things in this fall. G and I painted a black Halloween cat. We made it out on a fall color hike. We even managed a short trip for fall break this last weekend. 

Nice fall hike up to Stewart Falls

We went down south and visited Silver Reef...an old silver mining ghost town. Ghost towns are really cool. I love hearing about their history and see what they left behind and why the town went under. Silver Reef is particularly interesting because it's only one of two sites in the world where silver has been found in sandstone. The museum curator said Siberia was the other one. 
Silver Reef even had two separate cemeteries: one for Catholics and the other for Protestants. There was a huge Chinese population as well but after the town went under they sent all of the buried back to China so they could be with their ancestors. Fascinating tidbits.
Later that evening we headed to the play Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical at the outdoor theater Tuacahn. It was a fantastic play! The special effects and the stage sets and all the actors were fantastic.


The next day we headed to Snow Canyon State Park where we did one hike by the lava tubes. I loved seeing the old lava river rock everywhere. The white and red sandstone along with the black lava rock were breathtaking!

Currently Reading:
I started Holly, the new book by Stephen King. I loved her character from the TV series Outsider. I haven't read any of the Mr. Mercedes series but I did read the short story from If It Bleeds collection, which was fantastic. I'm also reading through Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig. It's weird so not sure if I'll stick with it... I'm about halfway through Curse of the Reaper by Brian McAuley. It's an ode to slashers and horror and Hollywood. It's better than I thought it would be. And With October I slowed down a bit on my non-fiction books. I'm still working on American Prometheus and the John Adams biography by David McCullough.
Recently Read:
I made it through If It Bleeds by Stephen King, which is a short-story collection. My favorite was the short story with Holly's character from The Outsider. Most weren't scary, necessarily...but they were interesting. I actually like King's short stories better. Some of his novels need a tighter editor.

The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James...I've really enjoyed her recent horror/mystery novels the last few years so I was excited to read one of her first books into the genre. Clare has also written a lot of romance novels so she combined the two in this one to perfection. It was romantic and scary. I was pleasantly surprised!
I've been reading through some of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories due to Halloween and the new Netflix TV series by Mike Flanagan, The Fall of the House of Usher. I really liked The Fall of the House of Usher. It's pretty spooky but makes you think. I also read The Goldbug...it was not my favorite. I thought something terrifying was always around the corner and it really just ended suddenly, in my opinion. But maybe I just didn't read with enough focus? I did read it right before bed...
November Reads:
I hope to keep working through American Prometheus, John Adams, and finish Curse of the Reaper. I'll read a bit more in Book of Accidents and make the choice to keep going or try again later...I also want to reread Joan Didion's Year of Magical Thinking. I read it years ago after my brother and friend passed away within a week of each other and found it moving and thought-provoking. I want to revisit it with my mother's passing. Martha Wells' new book in the Murderbot series System Collapse comes out in a couple of weeks so I will definitely read that as soon as it's in my hands! 
I need to plan a bit more...It's just been so chaotic that I haven't had time to think about what my actual reading plans are now.
Watched:

Lots of horror was watched this last month. The Fall of the House of Usher on Netflix was really well done. Spooky and terrifying in all the right ways. Plus I loved seeing so many of Poe's short stories and poems used as inspiration for each episode. Thus my inspiration to work through some short stories this Halloween season!

 I saw the Five Nights at Freddy's movie with the family on Sunday. I don't follow any of the lore or play any of the video games and I still found it enjoyable. DH said it was too scary but G loved it.
I'm looking forward to All the Light We Cannot See based off the book by Anthony Doerr's award-winning book. It drops on Netflix this week sometime, I think.
Looking forward to:
Feeling better soon. I've had one the worst sinus infections in years. I finally made it to the doctor for some antibiotics and hope I'll feel human again soon.
We plan on getting our Halloween decor down this weekend and I'm looking forward to some Thanksgiving decor for a couple of weeks. I know a lot of people go straight to Christmas decor after Halloween but I need a few weeks to transition! I'm not quite ready right after Halloween.
I'm hoping to get to some crochet projects this month as well...It's been a neglected hobby the last few months.

I'm joining up with Deb from Readerbuzz and her Sunday Salon.