UPDATE: Wednesday

Have you met my poppet Christie? I won her in the draw for the Once Upon a Time challenge during the summer, along with a set of Lord of the Rings bookmarks. Here she sits looking at the Stephen King book I'm just about finished for the RIP II challenge. This has been a wonderful challenge, with, I think, my favorite themes, as I keep finding more creepy books to read that take the place of books I meant to read.

Christie is named after Agatha Christie, a wonderful mystery writer. If you think she's a great writer, or at least a better writer than EB White, head on over to the book mine set and vote in the Great Wednesday Compare. I've got nothing against White, but Christie has such a collection of mysteries and stories that I don't think they compare at all. I read a Tommy and Tuppence book earlier this spring, and they were terrific role models for women's equality, as Tommy treated Tuppence as his equal, not the dumb chick along for the ride.

I finally got The Road from the library to read. I put my request in during July, and it has taken until now to get it. I was number 24 in line at one point. I hope it is good after waiting so long. It better be good, because it is a part of the dystopian challenge, the new york times notable book list, and it is a Pulitzer prize winner for 2007, so I will be able to cross it off three lists at once. It was also an Oprah pick during the summer, which may explain why it has become so popular at the library.

I see that The Gathering by Anne Enright has won the Man Booker Prize this year. Of the six that were shortlisted, I read two: The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and On Chesil Beach. I bought The Gathering as the next one to read because I thought it looked good, in a bleak, Irish grief sort of way. And now it has won. I enjoyed both books, but was glad that they weren't any longer. Each of the two I read had a gimmick and it worked, but only for the slim volume that it was. But I still think about some aspects of both books, so they must have made an impact.

what I'm reading now: Rises the Night by Colleen Gleason (one extra challenge in the RIP II is to read Gleason's vampire novels with the chance to win the third edition which will be released this winter. )
Everything's Eventual by Stephen King (one more short story to go)

in the queue: Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson and Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coello

I've been browsing around The Bookworms Carnival as well. Lots of great suggestions and read about spooky and creepy books for the Halloween season. My kids are going to be for Halloween the decidedly unscarychoices of: a nerd, Hannah Montana, and a unicorn. Pictures to follow after Halloween.