Links I Loved This Week – 10/29/17

I thought this header picture with pumpkins and a pineapple would work well for this week, considering that it’s almost Halloween and it’s been absolutely tropical weather in LA. Well over 80 degrees for the past week but we have some colder weather coming soon thankfully – maybe even some rain (yes!).

I spent the weekend celebrating my birthday by going to an interactive haunted house by Creep LA on Saturday night (which was amazing and positively terrifying) and having korean barbecue for dinner with some friends. Lots of blog post writing planned for today.

I have a bit of an announcement as I’ve decided to try to create a place for book bloggers that are LA-based to share posts, info on bookish events in the area, and possibly organize get-togethers. I started a very simple Facebook group, so if you’re in LA and are interested in getting to know some other book bloggers in the area, feel free to join the Los Angeles Book Bloggers group.

Without further ado, here are this week’s links! (with a slightly updated look)

• Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke And Bookish, and this week’s topic was Top Ten Unique Book Titles. Here were some of my favorite posts that I think hit the nail on the head: Birdie Bookworm, She Reads Novels, Book Addict’s Guide, Literary Weaponry, It’s A Book Life, Novel Visits, Lindsay’s Library, and twists on the topic from Sarah’s Book Shelves (book titles she loves and hates) and Lipsyy Lost & Found (weird horror titles).

• I loved this book list of Tales Of Intrigue, Suspense And Disaster Set On Ocean Liners by Erin Flaaen on Off The Shelf. I’m particularly interested in The Midnight Watch by David Dyer, on the sinking of the Titanic from the point of view of the crew of a nearby ship – the Californian. If you want the nonfiction counterpart to this fiction-based list, you can check out my post on nonfiction titles about Fateful Voyages.

• Off The Shelf is hitting out of the park in general recently. I also really liked this Halloween-appropriate book list from them on their 13 Favorite Ghost Stories, and there was House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski staring at me and reminding me it’s been sitting in my TBR pile for possibly over a year. Oh the guilt.

• Nonfiction November is just days away from starting, and it’s time to get ready. Lindsay’s Library and Julz Reads shared their reading lists and there will also be a Nonfiction November themed Instagram challenge. I’ll try to participate on as many days as possible, though I definitely won’t be able to hit them all.

• While we’re waiting for Nonfiction November to get started, don’t forget to link-up any nonfiction reviews you posted this week to Doing Dewey’s page for Nonfiction Friday.

• Do any of you keep a book-related bullet journal or regular journal? I’ve recently started because I found that when reviewing a book a few weeks after reading it, I was forgetting some of the insights I had during the actual reading. Bionic Bookworm shared her book-ish bullet journal this week, including both her everyday spreads and ones focused on her blog.

• Continuing on the blog stress theme from last week, Going Through Books shared this insightful post on Blogging Struggles, and I do recognize myself in more than one of them. *Cough* reviewing books *cough* resisting buying new books *cough*.

• Carbonara may be my favorite food of all time (especially my dad’s, which can’t be beat) so I loved this post by The Hungry Bookworm that combined a delicious carbonara recipe with a review of a thriller I really enjoyed – Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough (my review of it here).

• And as last week, if you’re looking for even more bookish links, The Secret Library Blog has her post up today as well!

• Here are the individual book reviews I read this week that inspired me to consider reading the books they covered:
  • Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout on The Book Stop (literary fiction)
  • The Strays by Emily Bitto on Keeper of Pages (historical fiction)
  • I Remember You by Yrsa Sigurdardottir on Bibliomaniac (horror)
  • The Forgotten Room by Ann Troup on Rambling Lisa’s Book Reviews (thriller)
  • The Secrets On Chicory Lane by Raymond Benson on The Misstery (mystery)
  • Gather The Daughters by Jennie Melamed on Clues & Reviews (sci-fi)
  • Destiny Of The Republic by Candice Millard on Greenish Bookshelf (historical nonfiction)

• On Monday, I published reviews for the 4 books I received in August 2017 from Book Of The Month – Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips (5 stars), Killers Of The Flower Moon by David Grann (5 stars), The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan (3 stars) and The Sisters Chase by Sarah Healy (2 stars). I’m almost done with reading my September 2017 picks and reviews for those should be up not this week but next.

• On Wednesday I posted a review of historical fiction title The Last Days Of Night by Graham Moore. It’s focused on the invention of the light bulb and the legal battle that followed, and I found it a nice reprieve from other typically romance-filled historical fiction. It was a great mix of history, crime and science and I ended up giving it a well-received 4 stars.

• I have A LOT planned for the blog in the next week and a day of nearly full-time blogging ahead of me to get it accomplished. I’ll be starting off on Monday with my usual list of November 2017 Releases I’m looking forward to, followed on Tuesday uncharacteristically by a Halloween-themed Top Ten Tuesday post, and then on Thursday or Friday by my first Nonfiction November post on my Year In Nonfiction so far. I also was hoping to do something for Authors Day on Wednesday, but we’ll see if the stars align.

• I think LA was trying to give me a present for my birthday this week, because the opening date for the Eataly at Century City mall was announced, and it’s on Friday! If you don’t know what Eataly is, it’s basically a supermarket of imported Italian goods from the gourmet to the everyday. The pictures in this article are absolutely stunning and mouth-watering. I can’t wait to spend my entire salary there every month on prosciutto cotto, abracci cookies from Il Mulino Bianco and focaccia. Pancia mia fatti capanna (an italian saying that means, oh my stomach! turn yourself into a hut – i.e. expand).

• If you want to know more about the interactive haunted house I went to last night, here is a link to their website. It’s run by a company called Creep LA and based on the Amazon original series Lore (which is in turn based on a podcast by the same name). There were definitely scary parts (sitting in total darkness wondering what would happen next, walking down long corridors not sure if something would jump out at you), but mostly it was a beautiful creepy play that you were interactively participating in.

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Any articles or blog posts from the book world that you really enjoyed this week? Share them in the comments!

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