It’s October! What?! How?! I cannot believe it’s been 9 whole months since Melanie and I launched Calendar Girls! We’re so happy to so many of you have stuck with us for so long, and how many awesome participants we’ve picked up along the way! There are so many books that we would not have heard of if you guys had not shared them with us. So thank you for sticking with us, thank you for sharing your faves, and thank you for discussing something we all love…books!
(Please note that there will be no readalong this month, as Melanie and myself are too busy to host one. We are very sorry about this, and will keep you posted about a possible readalong in November!)
For those of you new to Calendar Girls, it’s a blog event which I am co-hosting with my friend Melanie, and is inspired by Neil Sedaka’s 1961 song Calendar Girl. Just like in the song, we decided to use a specific theme for each month and choose a book based on these themes! The event is meant to incite discussions with other bloggers about books we’ve read and loved, is meant to help bloggers meet other bloggers, and also for bloggers and readers to find out about blogs and books which they normally may not have come across!
If this sounds like your cup of tea, please check out my info page for more details, and sign up for the newsletter, and/or let us know that you will be participating if you are still interested after reading everything. You can also find examples of what my posts looked like from January to August! We’d love to have you join in the fun!
And now…without further ado, here is my choice for October’s theme…
– Best Paranormal Novel-
Drawing Blood by Poppy Z. Brite
Synopsis: Escaping from his North Carolina home after his father murders their family and commits suicide, Trevor McGee returns to confront the past, and finds himself haunted by the same demons that drove his father to insanity.
I don’t even know where to begin telling you about this book! But maybe the beginning is a good place. I read this book twice or thrice while I was in high school, and then again while I was attending uni. I loved it more and more every time! Brite writes like no author I have yet come across, and it’s quite addictive (at least for me). The mood is dark and psychedelic most of the time, and the cast is also quite diverse when it comes to sexuality! The couple in this book is still one of my all time faves, and I have not forgotten their names after all of these years (yes, even before I re-read the synopsis, haha). I also devoured all of the small fics that Brite wrote on their website about those two, and yeah. I’m so happy to have been able to pick a spooky read for the October version of Calendar Girls! Ah! Just a heads up, there is murder in this book, gore, very explicit descriptions, and also sex. Okay…I think I covered all my bases! If this sounds like something you’d enjoy….please read it! And then fangirl about it with meee!
And because it was tough to pick just one paranormal book for this month, here are my honourable mentions:
Lost Souls by Poppy Z. Brite | Bitten by Kelley Armstrong |
The Crow: The Lazarus Heart by Poppy Z. Brite |
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice |
Amaryllis by Jayne Castle | Pandora by Anne Rice |
After Dark by Jayne Castle | The Diviners by Libba Bray |
Other Participants:
Melanie –> Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl | Alex @ Coffeeloving Bookaholic –> Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab |
Katie @ Never Not Reading –> Dracula by Bram Stoker | Milana @ A Couple Reads –> Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire |
Deanna Writes About –> The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson | Shanah @ Bionic Bookwork –> A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay |
Lauren @ Two Birds One Blog –> Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero | Dawlyn & Krista @ Little Blind Book Finds –> The Host by Stephanie Meyer |
Darque Dreamer Reads –> The Missing by Jerico Lenk | Thai @ Read Breathe Repeat –> Obsidian by Jennifer L. Armentrout |
And now for the November theme which
you picked through the use of the poll!
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Ohh I am interested in seeing everyone’s posts this month because I do not read a lot of paranormal! I will have to look in to this book and all of your suggestions! The only one I have read is The Diviners and really liked it.
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Ohhhh for sure! We have a lot of varying choices posted already (I updated the list in this post, if you want to have a look). Those are all sounding like a good place to start if you want to read more paranormal 🙂
The Diviners was awesome! Have you read the sequel? The 3rd book came out this month, and I need to read it ASAP!
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I’m legit joining Calendar Girls on the next Read-Along lol, gahhh! I love these posts! I haven’t read much paranormal besides some of Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson novels but I did enjoy them quite a bit. & since I’m really trying to read at least 1 spooky/paranormal read this October, The Diviners will most likely be my pick. WIll def need to chat during my reading of that giant tome lol. Happy October Reading 🙂
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Hehehe! I’m hoping we’ll get to host another readalong for Calendar Girls in November. It’s not just a readalong though 😉 the main thing to do if joining Calendar Girls is to post a book that goes with the pre-announced theme on the first Monday of the month. And you keep your choice secret until all the posts go up 😉
You should def join us!
I used to read a looooot more paranormal than I do now (this month being an exception lol)
I’ll have to check out Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson! 😀 and Happy October Reading to you too, Lilly! ❤
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Yes! I think that’s so cool & hope to participate in November. I’m slowly trying to get back to a regular schedule of blogging after so much stress in September so 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼 I feel like I also read a lot of paranormal back in the day but it’s hard to recall titles since it’s been a while. Mercy stuck in my head for some reason lol. Happy reading 💙
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Awe I hope you can! I have no idea what I’ll pick for next month’s theme. Honestly. I haven’t finished many series…
Happy reading to you too! 💙
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Ahh this is awesome! So glad I participated. I’m going to check this series out thanks Flavia!
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I’m so glad you joined us too! Also, I’m not sure if I’d call it a series. There’s another book that takes place in the same universe…but it’s not with the same characters lol. Hope you enjoy! Brite is kind of odd….gruesome….and dark….Muahaha.
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I should really try paranormal books….😉
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Definitely! And let me know what you think! 😉
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I recently wrote a post on bibliophiles…can you see yourself in here?😉🙄
https://mordernsouls.wordpress.com/2017/06/08/enamored/
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I will check this out today! 😀
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I’m trying to think of what my favorite paranormal novel is. There are so many great ones to choose from.
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Ahhhh you’ll have to tell me what your faves are! 😀
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I will be posting a paranormal recommendations post in a couple weeks.
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Awesome! I’ll keep an eye out
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Ah, Anne Rice. I’m blaming Twilight on her and her wishy-washy vampires.
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Lol aweeee! I never saw any similarities between them hahaha
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There’s not that many, except as far as I know she was the first person to write about vampires with FEELINGS.
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Oooooo gotcha bahaha. I was thinking about the sparkly skin and stuff 😂😂
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LOL. I LOVED your gif choices for this post. So much fun! I was totally planning on doing Calendar Girls this month, and then I managed to entirely book my blog calendar for almost the entire month with blog tour posts. Must stop doing that! This was such a fun post though! Happy fall reading!
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Hehehe thank youuuu! And aweee no worries! I know how that blogging life is 😉 I hope you’ll get to join us sometime! I think that Calendar Girls will be continuing for quite some time!
Happy fall reading to you too!
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I’m so glad to hear that. I love seeing all of your posts each month. ☺️
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Awe thank you, Krysti! ☺️❤️
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Will come back to read and comment tomorrow too tired after writing my post but wanted to give you the link: http://twobirds1blog.blogspot.ca/2017/10/calendar-girls-oct-2017-best-paranormal.html
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No worries! I know how that is haha. It took me all week before I could finally tackle all of the comments left from Monday to today!
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It doesn’t help that it’s my busy season at work so I come home and all I want to do is relax and read and not actually do much that requires physical effort haha.
That being said you have mentioned this author before and I thought her work sounded awesome and I think that again with this one. I really think I need to check her out.
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Ahhhh yes it would be busy now! And definitely! The thing is that I’ve been saying “they” because I couldn’t remember if the author refers to themselves as she or he….but now I think it’s “he.”
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ok, you’re the one who reads paranormal books hahaha 😀 thanks for the recommendations, i need to dig into this deeper 😀
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Hehe I used to read more of them than I have lately (except maybe this month lol). But yeah, if you check the post now, all of the other participants’ choices will be listed as well 😉
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yay! i have no idea what to vote for though, cause i don’t know all these books 😅
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Awe you could just vote for the one that sounds most appealing to you 😁
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true dat! 😂
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😁👍🏼
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Very interesting! I have only heard of Interview With the Vampire, lol.
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Hehe, well I hope you enjoy the others if you end up reading them 😉
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🙂
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