Recent Reads: Halloween Edition

I haven't done a recent reads post in a long time, but I've been on a fairly consistent reading streak this year that I'm super pumped about. I used to devour books as a kid but sometime after college I just sort of stopped reading for pleasure, with a few exceptions. However, when I moved to New York I found myself with loads of time to read—on the subway, eating in diners alone, waiting to meet up with friends, etc.—and I fell hard back into old habits. I don't read as quickly as I'd like, sometimes I take breaks and some books are just too heavy to carry on a daily basis (I realize this is why e-readers exist, but I'm a slave to the printed word).

Last year I started tracking everything I read through Goodreads, and it's been so fun to have a tangible record. It's immensely satisfying to login and mark a book as "read." I've finished 35 books this year, and I probably won't hit my arbitrary goal of 52, or a book a week, but it still feels substantial. I'm a bit of a book hoarder (pictured above is just a small portion of my "to read" list), but I also love the library—it's still a thrill to me that I can walk into a library and walk out with a book, for free! I function really well on deadlines, so having a set timetable in which to read a book is really helpful too.

Anyway, that's a really nerdy lead-in, but it's the most wonderful time of the year—can you believe Halloween is only a week away??—so I thought I would skew this post toward the macabre, which isn't hard because most of the books I read year-round fall into that category. Here are some of the more recent additions to my 'read' pile:

A Season with the Witch: The Magic and Mayhem of Halloween in Salem, Massachusetts, by J.W. Ocker

I'm actually in Salem as you read this (the magic of scheduled posts!), and I prepared by reading this last week. I've been to Salem once before, but ten years ago and in August.

For the past three years we went to Sleepy Hollow, but this year we decided we were ready to conquer Salem the week before Halloween. Immediately upon starting this book, I decided that my next chapter in life would be to move to Salem and finally live out my dream of owning a haunted house and living every day like it's Halloween. I may change my mind after braving the crazy crowded streets, but if you're considering a visit, I would recommend reading this book first. Ocker does a good job of looking at the history and how current-day Salem has mutated from a site of a shameful event to "Witch City."

Library of Souls: The Third Novel of Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs

I waited forever to read this series, but once I started I had to finish the trilogy as soon as I could. The first one is wonderful, the second one was ok, but I enjoyed this one the best. The story picks up right where the second one ends (major cliff-hanger alert), and I think that it's the most imaginative and emotional of the three. The ending is satisfying, and the photos are creepy, as always. I was somewhat disappointed with the movie (the last half, anyway) but with books this good that was probably inevitable.

Down Among the Dead Men: A Year in the Life of a Mortuary Technician, by Michelle Williams

Michelle Williams (no, not that Michelle Williams) impulsively applies for a mortuary technician job with no experience working with the dead, and details her first year on the job in this memoir. I will read anything and everything I can find about the funeral industry, and while this was an easy and entertaining read, it wasn't the best of the genre. She wrote a little too much about pubs and her boyfriend, and not enough about autopsies and dead men, but when she did get into the nitty gritty, I was entertained.

The Secret Poisoner: A Century of Murder, by Linda Stratmann

Sometimes I wonder what fellow subway passengers think about me based on my choice of reading material, but that didn't stop me from reading a 320-page book about poison with a skull-and-crossbones on the cover. Like Down Among the Dead Men, this wasn't the best of the "poison" genre—yes, I've read many and my favorite is The Poisoner's Handbook—and to be honest I sort of slogged through it but it's hard to be too dull when you're talking about secretive poisoners throughout history.

Elmer McCurdy: The Misadventures in Life and Afterlife of an American Outlaw, by Mark Svenvold

My friend Jim originally bought this book and asked if I'd be interested in borrowing it (duh). While filming the Six Million Dollar Man at an amusement park in California, a camera crew discovered that one of the funhouse "mannequins" was actually mummified remains, later identified as McCurdy. His journey from failed outlaw to the Los Angeles coroner's office is a strange one, and while the author diverges from McCurdy's life a bit too much, his story is just weird and (hopefully) unique enough to make this a worthwhile read.

The House of the Seven Gables, by Nathaniel Hawthorne

Speaking of Salem, another thing I did in preparation for our trip was finally finish The House of the Seven Gables. I had picked up a copy at the gift shop when we visited ten years ago, and started to read it periodically since. I was never able to really get into the slow story and old-timey dialogue, but I was determined to get through it this time, and I did. I alternated between loving (and highlighting) Hawthorne's insanely wordy prose and wishing sentences, paragraphs and entire chapters would just end. It's definitely not an easy, breezy read, but it's one of those classics that I'm glad to have experienced until the bitter end. Sample sentence: "

Recognizing little Ned Higgins among them, Hepzibah put her hand into her pocket, and presented the urchin, her earliest and staunchest customer, with silver enough to people the Domdaniel cavern of his interior with as various a procession of quadrupeds as passed into the ark." 

I'm currently re-reading The Westing Game (for the many-th time), but I always welcome new book suggestions—macabre or not. And if you have similar tastes, be sure to also check out Kaylah's book posts because we might accidentally be the same person.