Just A Second: October 2025

Friday, October 31

Recent Reads - The Terrifying Tales

The Terrifying Tales by Edgar Allen Poe - This collection of classic tales of suspense and horror is one of the spooky books that I inevitably pick up to read during October (my other favorite is Dracula). The only downside for me is this collection doesn't include my very favorite work from Poe - The Raven. The cover features a raven, so I think that's a bit of false advertising!

The collection begins with The Tell-Tale Heart, in which the narrator explains to the reader how and why he murdered his landlord. He describes himself as quite sane and brilliant in his planning, and yet as the events of the day in question unfold, his insanity becomes more chillingly obvious. This is the story I used in my creative writing class as the example of building tension through the repetition and rhythm of the heartbeat. Since the narrator is addressing the reader very directly, I considered this book as breaking the fourth wall for the 52 Book Club Challenge.

The Cask of Amontillado is another classic, and the narrator's planning and cold calculation to be rid of his enemy is so sinister. The Masque of the Red Death and The Fall of the House of Usher are full of spooky atmosphere and fate.

In The Murder in the Rue Morgue and The Purloined Letter, the narrator has struck up a friendship with the eccentric genius M. Dupin, who solves a puzzling and gruesome murder. The Murder in the Rue Morgue is considered the first modern detective story, and the manners and methods of M. Dupin are similar to the more well-known fictional detective Sherlock Holmes so it's easy to see how Poe's work became a model for other detective stories.

The Pit and the Pendulum is the last in the collection, and is another atmosphere-driven short story. The narrator is a victim in a Spanish Inquisition torture chamber. The narrative focuses on the sensory experiences and the fateful knowledge that a horrific death is coming ever closer, building suspense and tension. With each new discovery of what is in his torture chamber, he finds that he escapes one terror only to realize that another worse fate awaits him.

For the October Mini-Challenge, I selected this book for Pick Your Scare Level, and while it's not the gory slasher style horror more common in today's books and movies, I consider it "Keep You Up All Night" level suspense.

This is a book that breaks the fourth wall (#25) for The 52 Book Club's 2025 Reading Challenge.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025

This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot.

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Thursday, October 30

October Reading Challenge Update

October is almost over, and I won't be finished all three of my October Mini-Challenge books by tomorrow, but I was kind of chuffed to realize I'd fulfilled all three of the mini-challenge prompts! So while it is still October, I'll give myself props for doing that, and offer an update on the Connections Challenge I was working on too.

The October Mini-Challenge prompts asked readers to choose a book featuring a mythological, princess, or first responder character, since those are popular costumes. For the Trick or Treat prompt, choose a book with either a sugary sweet character or a mischievous character. And then to choose a book with a scare level of cozy, mysterious, or "keep you up all night".

1. Pick Your Costume: I picked the First Responder costume. In While the City Sleeps by Elizabeth Camden, the hero is a police lieutenant named Jonathan Birch. Our heroine Katherine has a big-time crush on him so I'm imagining him as pretty swoon-worthy. Katherine is a dentist, and she thinks that the babbling of one of her patients while under the influence of laughing gas revealed his connection to bomb threats in New York City, so she takes the information to Lieutenant Birch. I definitely won't finish this one right away, but it fit this prompt!

2. Trick or Treat? I've been listening to the audiobook version of Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell, which I thought was a good book choice for October. The main character is a shape-shifting monster named Shesheshen, and maybe she could be described as mischievous, although in a very scheming and secretive way. Shesheshen has a human love interest named Homily who is definitely very sugary sweet. By the way, Homily does not know that her 'girlfriend' is actually the monster her entire family has been hunting in order to break a curse, so the dynamics are interesting, to say the least. I'm almost finished listening so this review will be coming soon.

3. Pick your scare level: I just finished The Terrifying Tales by Edgar Allen Poe, and it's an excellent spooky season read. While it isn't "keep you up all night" in the way modern horror films have conditioned us to think of scary stories, some of these short stories are quite sinister and disturbing. No jump scares, no crazed chain-saw-wielding lunatic stalking you in your nightmares, but the prospect of a madman murdering his landlord because of his eye, or the realization that the Cask of Amontillado might have been the perfect murder that left no clue, are terrifying indeed. If I have time, I'll review this one tomorrow.

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The 52 Book Club's summer mini-challenge was the Connections Challenge. Instead of a list of prompts that can be done in any order, the idea of this challenge is that each book is connected in some way to the one before it so it must be done in order. There are twenty-one links in the connection chain and I knew I had no chance of finishing during the summer, but I figured I'd work on it and see how far I could get by the end of 2025.

1. Pick any book. Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn was my choice. (Read my review HERE)

2. The title of this book must share a word with the previous book's title. Jane of Lantern Hill by L.M. Montgomery shares the word "of" in the title. (Read my review HERE)

3. Village Books by Craig McLay is set in Canada, where the author of the previous book is from. I wasn't a big fan of this book, and it took me a long time to get through it, which slowed down my entire Connections Challenge progress. (Read my review HERE)

4. I found a book in my Kindle library that was published the same year as the previous book. No Safe Harbor by Elizabeth Ludwig (Read my review HERE)

5. The next book on my nightstand TBR stack was within 30 pages, so that worked out well. Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber (Read my review HERE)

6. I happened upon a book at the library I wanted to read, and it did have a reasonably similar title font. Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown (Read my review HERE)

7. I was presented with a challenge here, because the author of the next book is supposed to share a name with a character in the previous. And the previous book was non-fiction. But Alton Brown mentions his wife Elizabeth a number of times, so I picked out While the City Sleeps by Elizabeth Camden, which I'm still working on. This book is doing triple duty in the reading challenges!

So here's where I am at the moment, not even a third of the way through. To think that others did this over the summer, and many of them did this in addition to the regular 52 Book Challenge! So as I originally planned, I'll keep going at least till the end of the year and see where I wind up, and probably just keep plugging away until I finish.

And this is the current status of my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge. A bit short of halfway through, but there's only two months left in the year. I'm okay with it!

Friday, October 17

Recent Reads - The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl - As an amateur birdwatcher and an admirer of crows in particular, this book was very appealing to me. It is a collection of essays that combines aspects of nature journals, almanacs, and personal reflections and it's somewhat reminiscent of a devotional book as well. The beautiful colored illustrations on the cover and throughout are done by the author's brother, artist Billy Renkl.

The journey through the backyard year begins with Week One of Winter, and there's an essay for each week of the year, following the cycle of the four seasons. Interspersed are some shorter and more lyrical observations of creatures or plant life that the author titles 'praise songs'. The essays comment on the growing things, changing of seasons, environment, and the bird and animal life observed in the author's backyard and local surroundings. She draws interesting and often beautiful or thought-provoking comparisons to what is happening in her personal life and in her family, especially the aspects of getting older and facing the empty nest and retirement years. Her great respect and care for all the creatures that cross her path, whether she sees them or not, comes through in simple eloquence, and in reading my own desire to have a backyard space of own again was stirred. A backyard space that is wild enough to provide habitat for small animals and for birds, as well as a restful place for me to enjoy. And yes, I wold welcome crows. I feel even more justified that crows are among my favorite birds, in fact.

The 'praise songs' were quite lovely, but occasionally gave me pause as there was a hint that they strayed a little too close to worshiping created things rather than the Creator, but that is my personal impression. There was a sense of sadness throughout the book, as if there was not much reason to hope that anything of nature would survive for long, that human-caused 'climate change' will end it all. One hopes that tinge of despair and regret will move readers to pay more attention to the remarkable natural world and consider how we can be better and more appreciative stewards of it.

From the publisher:

From the beloved New York Times opinion writer: a luminous book that traces the passing seasons, both personal and natural.

In The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl presents a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year. As we move through the seasons―from a crow spied on New Year's Day, its resourcefulness and sense of community setting a theme for the year, to the lingering bluebirds of December, revisiting the nest box they used in spring―what develops is a portrait of joy and grief: joy in the ongoing pleasures of the natural world, and grief over winters that end too soon and songbirds that grow fewer and fewer.

Along the way, we also glimpse the changing rhythms of a human life. Grown children, unexpectedly home during the pandemic, prepare to depart once more. Birdsong and night-blooming flowers evoke generations past. The city and the country where Renkl raised her family transform a littler more with each passing day. And the natural world, now in visible flux, requires every ounce of hope and commitment from the author―and from us. For, as Renkl writes, "radiant things are bursting forth in the darkest places, in the smallest nooks and deepest cracks of the hidden world."

With fifty-two original color artworks by the author's brother, Billy Renkl, The Comfort of Crows is a lovely and deeply moving book from a cherished observer of the natural world.

This is a book with a character that can fly (#18) for The 52 Book Club's 2025 Reading Challenge.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025

With so many birds and insects featured throughout the book, I decided these creatures all count as characters that can fly!

This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot.

Tuesday, October 14

What I'm Reading - October 14, 2025

Here's a quick update on what I've been reading and watching lately.

I'm currently reading . . .

While the City Sleeps by Elizabeth Camden - Katherine is a dentist in 1913 New York, and happens to learn about a criminal plot that one of her patients talks about while under the influence of laughing gas. She turns to her acquaintance, policeman Jonathan Birch, for help.

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year - Margaret Renkl - A collecction of short essays reflecting on the changes in nature and her backyard throughout the year. I'm actually finished but won't get to the review right away. It's coming soon!

The Terrifying Tales by Edgar Allen Poe - well, it IS October, after all! I usually read Dracula or some other classic spooky story during the Halloween month, and Poe is my choice this year. The Tell-Tale Heart and The Raven are favorites of mine and both are included in this collection.

Up Next . . . On the TBR stack . . .

Probably this one, though I'm really not sure at this point.

A Certain Darkness - Anna Lee Huber

I finished reading . . .

Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown - a collection of essays by the Food Network star on topics related to food, cooking, memorable meals, show business and culture, and more. (Read my review HERE)

Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Brittany Fichter - A sweet version of the classic fairy tale, in which Isabelle is called upon to help break the curse on Prince Everard before his enemy can conquer the kingdom with dark magic. (Read my review HERE)

I've been watching . . .

We're watching the new season of Only Murders in the Building, of course! Hockey games when we can find them streaming, and once the MLB playoffs started we also watch Blue Jays games whenever we can stream those. So fun to watch them win over the Yankees, and now we're following their series with the Mariners. The first two games have not gone well for the Jays, so hopefully they can turn that around!

I've been listening to . . .

Someone You Can Build A Nest In by John Wiswell - a shapeshifter monster develops a relationship with a kind human that she thinks would be a perfect host for her eggs . . . until she realizes that humans have very different ways of expressing love, loyalty, and devotion.

Still lots of plays of Twenty One Pilots "Breach" as well as other music playlists I have on Spotify. I regularly listen to a selection of podcasts including political commentary, Grammar Girl, The Bible Project, and The Bible Book Club. There's a new official Only Murders in the Building podcast hosted by Michael Cyril Creighton (who plays Howard in the show) and I've been listening to that.

On my blogs recently . . .

Besides the reviews, here on Just A Second you'll find:

September Bookshelf Review

On my main coffee break project, A Fresh Cup of Coffee:

Scripture and a Snapshot posts

Five Minute Friday posts

Everyday Images posts

Hodgepodge and other Q&A Link-up posts

Currently . . . October 5, 2025

WOTY and Goals - September Summary

WQ - Autumn Is Another Spring

Share Four Somethings - September 2025

Monthly Musings: Happy Fall!

Rosh Hashanah - Day of Trumpets

An on my "first cup blog", Homeschool Coffee Break:

Rosh Hashanah - Day of Trumpets

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What are you reading?

This post may be linked at What's On Your Bookshelf? #whatsonyourbookshelfchallenge hosted by Deb's World, and/or at the weekly reading list meme hosted at Book Date.

Saturday, October 4

Recent Reads - Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Brittany Fichter - This book takes the familiar fairytale and adds some backstory, twists, and a hint of allegory. Since the tale is set in a fictional kingdom in a world where magical forces exist, it has a bit of a fantasy feel to it as well.

We're introduced to Prince Everard when he is still a child. He feels the weight of the expectations of his father the king, and despite loneliness and the fears of not measuring up, he does his best to develop the stoicism and singlemindedness his father demands so that he'll be ready for the throne one day. A chance encounter with a young girl results in disaster, and Ever is long haunted by the hard-hearted choice his father pressured him into. The eve of his coronation, he makes another foolish and hard-hearted decision that plunges the kingdom into chaos and brings a curse upon the Fortress.

Isabelle is the girl who stumbled into the path of Ever's horse and was injured and crippled as a result of the accident and Ever's temper. We don't get to see as much of her during childhood, but as a young woman she is devastated when her fiance rejects her right before the wedding, saying she is not suitable to be his wife because of her disability. Soon after, Isa's father stumbles into the cursed Fortress and thus Isa is compelled to go live there among the shadows. All she knows is that there is something she must do to break the curse, and her resentment at all the prince has taken from her threatens to overwhelm her. Not that Ever is happy about her presence either - it's a constant reminder of the destructive power of his anger, and he's ashamed of that and of the shadowy monster he has become as his strength is sapped by the curse.

As in the fairytale, Isabelle resolves to make the best of the situation and without even realizing, she begins to bring the Fortress back to life. It's implied that she must discover her strength and her connection to the Fortress power on her own and willingly choose to wield the power for good. And that Ever must learn humility and how to love selflessly before he can be healed and strengthened. Of course, all of this must happen before the enemy, an evil princess of a neighboring kingdom, can destroy them all.

There's a very sweet love story in all of it, predictable because of the well-known tale on which it's based, but given some new perspectives because of the personalities the author has given these two characters. I liked the shadowy servants of the Fortress, affected by the curse, especially the trusted steward Garin, who is something of a guardian angel. The final resolution of how the curse is broken takes a slightly different route than I expected, and I think it was done quite well.

From the publisher:

Can the accursed prince and broken beauty move beyond their hatred for one another, not only to break the curse and save their kingdom . . . but to find love as well?

Prince Everard's father forged him into a warrior. Upon the king's death, however, Everard loses himself in his pain and brings a dark curse upon himself and the great Fortress that has long guarded the people of Destin.

The prince's sin doesn't solely affect those of his citadel, however. Isabelle, the daughter of a local merchant, has suffered the prince's hasty temper before, and it changed her life forever. So when Everard's curse cuts off his people's source of protection, and he demands that she, a crippled commoner, help him break it, her shock and horror are rivaled only by her indignation and even stronger desire to protect her family.

All the while, Destin's enemy crouches at the foot of the Fortress's mountain, waiting for the right moment to capture the stronghold that has stood for a thousand years.

This is a fairy tale retelling (#20) for The 52 Book Club's 2025 Reading Challenge.

#the52bookclub #the52bookclub2025

This post will be linked at the current BookWorms Monthly link-up hosted by At Home A Lot.

Thursday, October 2

September Bookshelf Review

I thought this might have shaped up to be a productive time period for my reading, but I didn't get much further than usual. The books I read were ever so enjoyable though!

September's Books Completed and Reviewed

Murder Most Fair by Anna Lee Huber - Verity's Tante Ilse from Germany shows up in England, and may be in danger, related to Verity's contact with her during the war. Has an enemy followed them, and who was the mysterious 'second deserter' Tante Ilse mentions? There's a lot of family tension in this one as Sidney and Verity go back to her home and reconnect with her parents and siblings. (Read my review HERE)

Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations by Alton Brown - Loved this collection of essays from one of my favorite Food Network stars, with his thoughts on food, cooking, culture, and more. (Read my review HERE)

During September I continued reading:

Before Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast by Brittany Fichter - Truthfully, I just finished this charming version of the Beauty and the Beast fairytale, which follows the traditional storyline but with interesting new twists on the magic and meaning. Review coming very soon!

The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year by Margaret Renkl - a year's worth of observations about nature and the passing of time as observed from the vantage point of the author's backyard.

Where My Books Took Me in September . . . Here's where I've traveled through the pages during the month, along with One Word to sum up the ones I finished.

Murder Most Fair has been located in Great Britain, mostly in Yorkshire.

One Word: Prejudices

Food For Thought: Essays and Ruminations is a collection of essays so it doesn't take place in a specific location, and the essays reference many different places.

One Word: Personality

Before Beauty is set in a fictional fairytale kingdom called Destin.

One Word: Purpose

The backyard referenced in The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year is in Tennessee.

Coming Up in October!

At this moment, I have only one book I'm actually working on, and I'm not sure yet which of the several on my nightstand stack, or the dozens in my Kindle library I'll read next. The Elizabeth Camden book is waiting for me at the library, so that is definitely next. Don't hold me to it, but right now I'm leaning towards the next Verity Kent to be the selected read from my stack.

While the City Sleeps - Elizabeth Camden

A Certain Darkness - Anna Lee Huber