Weekly Update for October 11, 2020


I have an affiliate relationship with Bookshop.org and Malaprop's Bookstore in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. Read more on my affiliate page.


Weekly Update at Introverted Reader

Welcome to my weekly update for October 11, 2020!

I’m prepping this post on Wednesday because my husband and I are hoping to drive out to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument for some hiking for our anniversary weekend. It looks like a beautiful area, so we’re excited!

Cybils Book Award Logo

Any of you who read children’s and young adult books should know that nominations for the 2020 Cybils (Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards) are open through 11:59 PM PDT on October 15! If you’ve read any outstanding books for these age groups that have been published in the past year, you should nominate them! (I’m not a judge or affiliated with the Cybils in any way; I just think good books should receive recognition).

Posted:

Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks, read by Judy Greer, Max Brooks, Jeff Daniels, Nathan Fillion, Mira Furlan, Terry Gross, Kimberly Guerrero, Kate Mulgrew, Kai Ryssdal, Steven Weber–4.5 Stars

The Deep by Alma Katsu, read by Jane Collingwood–3 Stars

My Top Ten Fall Book Covers

Read:

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics Book Cover

Daughters Unto Devils by Amy Lukavics, read by Jorjeana Marie

Currently Reading:

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W. Loewen

The Unidentified: Mythical Monsters, Alien Encounters, and Our Obsession with the Unexplained by Colin Dickey

Toil & Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft, edited by Jessica Spotswood & Tess Sharpe, read by Amy McFadden–This caught my eye at BookWyrm Knits last week so I checked it out when I finished Daughters Unto Devils.

Hole in the Sky by William Kittredge

Watching:

The Crown on Netflix. We’ve been very, very slowly working our way through this series for months now. I think we’re only halfway through the second season. It is excellent but it’s just a bit more somber than what I’ve been in the mood for. Claire Foy is still playing Queen Elizabeth II at this point and she does a fabulous job.

Up Next:

I normally go on a horror reading spree in October so I’m trying my best to finish up these nonfiction books and move on to what I really want to read. I’ve already had to return Lies once and wait three months to get it back; I don’t want to do that again. Once I finish, I’m definitely going to read Monstress Volume One: Awakening by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda. I picked this hold up at the library last week and I’m itching to get to it!

What did your week look like?

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz hosts The Sunday Salon and Kimberly at Caffeinated Book Reviewer hosts Sunday Post. Kathryn at Book Date hosts It’s Monday! What Are You Reading?

I have an affiliate relationship with Malaprop’s Bookstore/Cafe in beautiful Asheville, NC. I will earn a small commission at no additional cost to you if you purchase merchandise through links on my site. 

Other Posts You May Enjoy:

36 Comments

  1. How was your outing to John Day Fossil Beds? It looks a lot like the Painted Desert in Arizona. Was there any problems with smoke from any of the fires? I guess we’ve had enough rain this past week or two that maybe the fires aren’t an issue anymore.

    We love The Crown and are looking forward to the next season, which begins in November. Claire Foy is very good, but Olivia Colman is great, too.

    1. We had a great time! No smoke at all. We had some rain on Saturday morning but it had stopped by the time we got to the Sheep Rock unit. We haven’t been to the Painted Desert but Painted Hills reminded us a bit of Artist’s Palette in Death Valley.

    1. You’ve reminded me that I was thinking about re-reading The Shining this year since I recently visited the lodge where the exterior shots of the movie were filmed. Hmmm… So many books I want to read! Do I want to commit to that? It’s a short book…. Doctor Sleep was really good too. It wasn’t The Shining but it was good.

    1. I think we watched one episode of iZombie and then got distracted with something else. We need to try it again!

  2. Happy anniversary! I hope you enjoy your hiking. I really try to avoid scary books at all times of the year and especially near Halloween but hope you find some that you enjoy. Come see my week here. Happy reading!

    1. I just finished one of these interminable nonfiction books, so my chances of getting to Monstrous are improving!

    1. The Crown is excellent! The actors are fantastic. I wish I had started watching before this year when I had more of an attention span for dramas.

  3. I hope you like Monstress, I loved it, the art is just so gorgeous. It’s a good read for halloween too, I might use it on the rec list I’m putting together.
    I’ve also got the Crown on pause for now, I need fluffy happy TV, not serious stuff. Bf keeps trying to watch movies with me and I’m not really into it. Currently Marriage Story, it’s fine it’s fine, but not happy. Though I might give Lovecraft Country a try for halloween, do a spooky night thing.

    1. One of my best friends recommended Monstress so I’m excited to get to it. Lovecraft Country has caught my eye but we don’t have HBO. There are just too many streaming services to keep up with now!

  4. Hope the hike went well and the trip was great. I’ve watched all three seasons of The Crown. I’ve loved it for the history background it gives, even though I was alive for this time period, as a child I didn’t take too much notice. The actors do a great job.

    1. I wish I could be more consistently in the mood for The Crown but I tend to want less-serious shows lately. Lies My Teacher Told Me is definitely interesting!

  5. I was hoping Deep would be better. I haven’t read it yet but it looks like it wasn’t your favorite. Bummer. Loved Devolution. It was a great read over the summer. Looks like you have some fun ones on your list. I’m over halfway on Lies My Teacher…I’m hoping by the end of October to have that one finished. Good luck with your reading this week!

    1. I’ve been a very moody reader for months now, so my problems with The Deep could be due to that. You should give it a try if you’re interested! Devolution was so much fun! I’m hoping to finish Lies by tomorrow at the latest. I think I have less than 10% to go!

    1. Thank you! One of my friends is excited about Bly Manor. I’m a horror movie wimp so I’m waiting on her to tell me if I should try it or not!

  6. I’ve seen the Cybil awards, but this year I have no idea what is happening in the children’s and young adult sections. Yes, I do run the school’s library, but this is South Africa and we hardly ever see “new” books. We only work on donations and that is mainly from parents. But I am going to keep an eye out for ideas for the library.

    Oooooh I love The Crown! Can’t wait for the new season!!

    Hope you will have a good week and happy reading!

    The Sunday Post #14

    1. Since I just rejoined the blogging community in June, I don’t have a great idea of what’s been published this year either. We are enjoying The Crown for sure!

  7. Oh that fossil beds area looks fabulous, I’d love to see something like that. I hope you guys have a great visit. And Sasquatch books usually get my attention, I need to check that out. 🙂

    Hope you are well and be safe this week!

    1. The fossil beds area was beautiful! It’s divided into 3 units. The first two were gorgeous, with earth and cliffs of so many crazy colors! The last one was less impressive visually but that’s where we finally saw fossils “in the wild.” It was so cool! You should definitely read Devolution. I loved it!

  8. I do hope everyone will nominate books at the Cybils. I’m category chair at Fiction Picture Books and I there are lots of books published in the last twelve months that haven’t been nominated yet. One of the Cybils volunteers made a Padlet with ideas of great books to nominate, and I think that can be very helpful.

    I am looking for a new series, and The Crown sounds good. I’m not sure I’m in the mood for something serious, though. A comedy would be nice. I need to get some suggestions. I’m nearing the end of Seinfelds.

    I hope you get a chance to finish up your library books so that you can read what you really want to read. I had a library book that was due yesterday, so I rushed through it. It was such a disappointing read that I wanted to give up on it halfway through, but I stood with it to the end. I had had such high hopes for the book; I’m really interested in hurricanes, but it wasn’t really a strong read.

    Here’s to a good week!

    1. I hope you get lots of nominations. Since I just returned to blogging in June I feel that I don’t have a good grasp of what was published this year. I normally just read whatever catches my eye at the time, regardless of when it was published.

      Sorry your hurricane book didn’t work for you.

      The Crown is excellent! I hope you check it out when you’re in the mood for a drama. We’re still slowly watching The Good Place. One Day at a Time is an excellent comedy on Netflix. I mentioned it a couple of months ago but I can’t remember if you had seen it. Psych and Lucifer are mystery series that I find funny, Psych more than Lucifer.

  9. Lies My Teacher Told Me sounds really interesting. And I love the Crown. But sadly I have been in a mood that I have not got into the 3rd season yet.

    1. A lot of people seem to be in the mood for something other than The Crown lately. I’m glad it’s not just me.

I love to hear from you! Please contact me (menu bar, above) if you're having trouble commenting.