A Month In Preview: October 2011

Ah, October. The proud bearer of Halloween; that magical night of the year filled with terror, transformation and candy. (C'mon, who doesn't love the sweet stuff?) My entire life, Halloween night has been one of my favorite holidays. There will be no mistaking that here at I Write, I Read, I Review. I have big plans for this spooktacular season. There will be lots of scary fun to be had all month long.

So, what am I taking part in this month? And what do I have in store for you? Please read on...

Events:

Fall Book Club at Words on Paper

Some of you may be familiar with the fact that I am taking part in Tracey Neithercott's Fall Book Club. Last month we read Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. We held our discussions for that book yesterday. If you scroll down I'm sure you'll find mine. :) What are we reading for October? It is yet unknown. But we should be voting in the near future. If you want in on the fun, I highly recommend clicking here.

2011 Spooktacular October Paranormal Reading Challenge

This is a reading challenge that is going on over at Ramblings of a Daydreamer. To complete the challenge you need to read at least three paranormal themed books during the month of October. Doesn't sound so tough, does it? There's more to it, though. For each paranormal book that you read and review during the month of October, you can link the review in a Mr. Linky on Sweet Marie's blog to gain an entry toward winning a new book. I'm excited about this challenge because (1) It's the first challenge that I have accepted / joined. And (2) I had already planned to dedicate the majority of what I do this month to paranormal books anyway. :D Click here for all the details and to sign up.

Zompacolypse

Yes, I know. I've raved for weeks about Zompacolypse already. But this event, which is being hosted over at Paranormal Wastelands, is sure to be totally awesome. They have a great lineup of bloggers, authors, giveaways and more. And lets not forget the Halloween Hop at the end of the month. (More on that later!) I am also extremely excited about Zompacolypse because it will be my first time as a guest blogger. My review for Generation Dead by Daniel Waters is one of the guest reviews. If you haven't read it here, feel free to hop by Paranormal Wastelands on October 12th.

The Bleeding Hearts Awards

Have you heard about my event yet? Here's the short version. I'm involved in two Halloween Hops this month. One is for Zompacolypse and the other is for Monster Mash. Since there are going to be lots of new people dropping by to enter (hope, hope, pray, pray...) I want to make sure that there is a fabulous selection of books that the winners can choose as prizes. So I figured, why not let you guys decide what is available? A short, sweet and simple schedule: Nominations are from now until October 13th. Voting goes from October 14th to October 26th (Remind me to update that later... I had to switch it!) And then the two hops will be going on. Anyway, I hope you will all take part to make this awesome! Click here to nominate your favorite books and characters!

Features, Articles, Memes

He Said, She Said

Jay will be joining me again this month for another round of He Said, She Said. This month we are going to be talking about Catching Fire, the second book in Suzanne Collins Hunger Games trilogy. Thanks again to Jay for being such a good sport and being willing to take part. <3

Bookmark & Card Swap

I was quite happy with how pretty my parcels for my August Giveaway went. I was not happy with how costly it is to ship stuff via Canada Post. (To clarify: it's not that I'm cheap. It's that I'd rather the money go to books then to Canada Post.) I will definitely be sending books via the internet.

But it got me thinking... I did love selecting a greeting card and bookmark to go with each prize and customizing them. This gave me an idea. Why not host a bookmark and card swap here? I'll be doing a more detailed post, probably later today, but I just wanted to give you all a heads up and see whether anyone was interested. Stay tuned for more details!

Saturday Spotlight

Do you have a totally fabulous book blog that the whole world needs to see? Do you have some awesome articles, reviews or an event that you think everyone would love to know about? Are you interested in letting your readers get a glimpse of the book lover behind the blog?

There are already some totally fantastic features out there to highlight the awesomeness of our book blog community. But I figure that one more can't do any harm. This is another thing where I'm throwing the idea out there to test the water. I'm sure I'll have something with more details up in the next few days.

The Books of October

I'm going to be a little lazy and just put up the covers of the books that I am anticipating this month. I'm sure there will be more that I just don't know about yet. Anyway...

Of course I'm excited about Carrier of the Mark. I pride myself on finding great books and I definitely wouldn't have offered this as one of my giveaway prizes if I didn't have extremely high hopes that it will be fabulous. Will it live up to my expectations? I'm counting down the days til I will be able to find out!

Okay. So I was a little neutral about Anna and the French Kiss. But as I have said elsewhere, it's not because I feel anything is wrong with Stephanie Perkins writing. My issues were 100% personal. Which means I am more then happy to give Lola and the Boy Next Door a go. I mean c'mon... She's got purple hair. If nothing else, it shouldn't be boring.

I am so hyped up for this book! I think that the cover is totally gorgeous and the idea behind it really grabbed my attention when I read the summary. I don't want to say too much about Dearly Departed because I want to use it for an upcoming Waiting On Wednesday. But I can tell you (again...) that I am excited!

Hello, day one instant buy. How nice to see that the day of your release is rushing toward us so swiftly. The House of Night series is "it", "the one"... The series that got me so passionately interested in YA. I'm not going to try and tell you it's the most well written thing in the world. But there are things about it (*cough* Stevie Rae and Rephaim *cough*) that draw me like a moth to a flame. The irony? As much as I love the series, I'll probably hold onto Destined until I need something that I know I'll love. Weird, huh?

Holy optimistic reader, Batman! I have not even flipped open page one of The Iron King, yet I am listing this here. What's up with that? Is it the beautiful cover? The fact that I have such high hopes that I'll like The Iron Fey? Or perhaps just the fact that it's releasing on Jay's birthday, sappy as that probably sounds? (Then again, I rate stuff in hearts. What do you want from me?) One thing's for sure... I've got a lot of reading ahead of me if I want to be ready for The Iron Knight.

Giveaways Galore! 

There are four -- count 'em Four (I just realized the irony here...) -- giveaways going on here at I Write, I Read, I Review this month. Let's see, we have...

The Post of Awesome -- (Ends October 3rd!) Enter for your chance to win a copy of Carrier of the Mark or Lola and the Boy Next Door!

Best Book September -- (Ends October 17th) Enter for your chance to win a copy of Shut Out (or your choice of any book I've reviewed here on my blog.)

Zompacolypse Halloween Hop -- (Oct. 28th -- Oct. 31st 2011) I will be letting one winner select a book from the books chosen as winners during the Bleeding Hearts Awards.

Monster Mash -- (Oct. 26th -- Oct. 31st 2011) I will be letting one winner select a book from the books chosen as winners during the Bleeding Hearts Awards.

* + * + * + *

Whew! Two hours later I finally finish. So worth it, though. It just goes to show how awesome this October is going to be. So, what do you think? Anything here grab your interest? I'd love to hear your thoughts!