Saturday, October 21, 2017

Halloween Bingo 2017 | Update #8 -- Two Books Left to Read


Halloween Bingo 2017


I was hoping I'd have all but one of my Bingo books read by now, but I got distracted.  As it stands, I'm still working on the last two books for this card, which, to be honest, is much better progress than I'd made last year.  I do believe that it took me right up to the very last day of October to finish my last Bingo book the previous year.

I think it might have to do with the fact that I had more audio books this year, even though I had more short stories last year.

And maybe... I might have also overwhelmed myself with another ongoing challenge at this time the previous year, and was a bit adamant about reading a few library books I didn't want to put off until later.  And also, some of the books I'd chosen might not have been novella or short story length, but it wasn't like they were brick-sized tomes either since at least two that I can think of were barely 250 pages long.

And, this year, my main focus was Halloween Bingo for these past two months, and the truth is, I think all was quite excellently planned!

There are a few of my squares that I'd been contemplating swapping out books for, but wasn't sure if I really wanted to do so.  I DID, however, shuffle some of my book selections around, but all the squares I'm shuffling have been read for, so it doesn't really change my card any, really.

I flipped Every Secret Thing into the 'Amateur Sleuth' square, and went ahead and placed Just Past Midnight into the 'Murder Most Foul' square.  I feel like this flip-flop fits a little bit better, since I can't determine whether or not the characters in Just Past Midnight count as law enforcement or not: one MC is a lawyer, and the other MC is a psychologist, who does freelance work with law enforcement as a forensic expert.

So... using Every Secret Thing for 'Amateur Sleuth' instead, I now have an investigative reporter as my MC, who spends the entire book investigating the deaths of different people who have a connection to something that happened two generations ago.  And Just Past Midnight has murders, so it fits 'Murder Most Foul.'  The proper edits have been written into my review of Every Secret Thing.

I also went ahead and flipped the book I'd chosen for 'Romantic Suspense' with the book I just finished reading for the Creepy Raven Free Space.  Hit and Run really did NOT strike me as having much romance in it, though it was there in the background, and so I couldn't justify (to myself), using it for this square, even if there's suspense and murders and mystery.  In contrast, Deep As The Dead is definitely a Romantic Suspense book.

Will I shuffle more books around?  I don't know.  Again... I might get lazy.

However, with this shuffling, and this finishing of all but two books, as well as the most recent square calls, I now have 6 BINGOs!!

The card looks a little messy with all the orange lines running through all the Penni's faces, but there are three going vertical, one horizontal, and the big 'X' going through the Free Space.  I decided not to put orange rectangles around the Bingo lines because that had started to look even messier!


Updated Marked Card:




Called Square:  Green Square Border
Read Square:  Red Eyes Penni
Called and Read Square:  Red Eyes Penni in a Green Box
Bingos:  Multiple Red Eyes Penni in Green Boxes with Orange Lines Through the Faces

See also the table below for some spreadsheet goodness.

Reviews pending:  Just Past Midnight, Protecting His Witch, Hit and Run, Jaxson, The Dead Travel Fast, Deep As The Dead


Squares/Books/Called Dates/Other Links:


Progress:  22 squares called || 23 books read || 21 squares completed || 6 BINGOs
(on my card only)

Squares called that I do not have:
9/17 - Modern Masters of Horror
9/27 - Terror in a Small Town
10/5 - 80's Horror
10/9 - Chilling Children
10/21 - Demons

Bingo Calls Thread
The Best and Worst of Halloween Bingo 2017
Report Your Bingos!

September Group Read | Discussion Thread -- The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
October Group Read | Discussion Thread -- Carmilla by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu


Bingo Square
Called (date)
Title
Author
Read (Date)
How it Fits







Magical realism
11-Oct
Gaiman, Neil
26-Sep
tagged 'magical realism' on GR
Classic noir
7-Oct
Hammett, Dashiel
17-Sep
hard-boiled, classic noir mystery & group read
Ghost
1-Sep
Roberts, Nora
14-Sep
ghostly Harper Bride

Supernatural

Arnett, Mindee
7-Sep
supernatural school for magic creatures
Diverse voices
21-Sep
Lin, Jeannie
27-Sep
author is Chinese







Cozy mystery
3-Sep
Peters, Elizabeth
7-Sep
tagged 'cozy mystery' on GR
Witches
13-Sep
Protecting His Witch
Forward, Zoe
6-Oct
female MC is a witch
Vampires
15-Oct
The Dead Travel Fast
Raybourn, Deanna
15-Oct
Transylvania and vampires
Country house mystery
17-Oct
Ayatsuji, Yukito
17-Oct
closed circle of suspects
Haunted houses
23-Sep
Roberts, Nora
25-Sep
ghostly Harper Bride haunts mansion







Aliens
29-Sep
Castle, Jayne
3-Sep
dust bunnies!!
Genre: horror
7-Sep
Poe, Edgar Allan
13-Oct
tagged 'horror' on GR:
classic horror by EAP
Free Space
N/A
Hit and Run
Brennan, Allison
9-Oct
murder mystery w/ suspense

Monsters

Tyler, Paige
14-Oct
female MC is an animal shifter
In the dark, dark woods
5-Sep
Holt, Victoria
17-Sep
woods are significant







Amateur sleuth
19-Oct
Cole, Emma
16-Sep
female MC is a reporter
Werewolves
15-Sep
Jaxson
Woods, Alisa
10-Oct
book about wolf shifters

Gothic
3-Oct
Nine Coaches Waiting
Stewart, Mary

tagged 'gothic' on GR
Romantic suspense
13-Oct
Deep As The Dead
Brant, Kylie
20-Oct
romance + suspense + serial killer + murder mystery
Darkest London
1-Oct
Quick, Amanda
12-Sep
setting = Victorian London







Murder most foul
11-Sep
Just Past Midnight
Stevens, Amanda
5-Oct
there is a murder and a mystery
Serial/spree killer
25-Sep
Novak, Brenda
20-Sep
summary mentions serial killer

Classic horror

The Turn of the Screw
James, Henry

classic horror
Terrifying women
19-Sep
Roberts, Nora
4-Oct
ghostly Harper Bride; haunting; written by a woman
Locked room mystery
9-Sep
Shimada, Soji
10-Sep
death/murder in a locked room



Currently Reading:




Tentative Bingo Hopefuls:


Magical Realism:  The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
Classic Noir:  The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Ghost:  Blue Dahlia by Nora Roberts
Supernatural:  The Nightmare Charade by Mindee Arnett
Diverse Voices:  The Lotus Palace by Jeannie Lin

Cozy Mystery:  The Camelot Caper by Elizabeth Peters
Witches:  Protecting His Witch by Zoe Forward
Vampires:  The Dead Travel Fast by Deanna Raybourn
Country House Mystery:  The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji
Haunted House:  Black Rose by Nora Roberts

Aliens:  Canyons of Night by Jayne Castle
Genre: Horror:  The Murders in the Rue Morgue by Edgar Allan Poe
Free Space:  Deep As The Dead by Kylie Brant
Monsters:  Her Fierce Warrior by Paige Tyler
In the Dark, Dark Woods:  On the Night of the Seventh Moon by Victoria Holt

Amateur Sleuth:  Just Past Midnight by Amanda Stevens
Werewolves:  Jaxson by Alisa Woods
Gothic:  Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
Romantic Suspense:  Hit and Run by Allison Brennan and Laura Griffin
Darkest London:  Garden of Lies by Amanda Quick

Murder Most Foul:  Every Secret Thing by Emma Cole (a.k.a. Susanna Kearsley)
Serial/Spree Killer:  Dear Maggie by Brenda Novak
Classic Horror:  The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Terrifying Women:  Red Lily Nora Roberts
Locked Room Mystery:  The Tokyo Zodiac Murders by Soji Shimada


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