I'm a little over zealous more often than not. And I tend to find myself making ridiculous plans that I have no way to execute. This is a prime example. I started by making this very lovely book bingo card. It has spaces for twenty five books. But that wasn't good enough for me. Oh no. With Halloween prep and Blogtober (at least one blog a day, sometimes two) why wouldn't I attempt thirty one in thirty one. That's right. Thirty one books in the month of October. Meaning a book a day. Work days, weekends, even my birthday and Halloween.
So, research started. I wanted horror, dark fantasy, true crime (that is true horror), and even sci fi. I had to have diverse characters. I needed audiobooks (Gosh, I love Audible https://amzn.to/3zr2psf) so I can go through the books at work. Evenings and weekends could be Kindle e-books https://amzn.to/3EyUTiZ and actual physical books. Yes, those still exist. And, yes, I still sniff them, because, reasons. You would be surprised at how much you can read in the car when someone else is driving.
Once I had a list rolling, I noticed something. There was a decided lack of women and authors of color. Now, don't get it twisted. I love Stephen King as much as every other horror junkie. But Tananarive Due can scare the hell out of me just as well if not better. And let's talk about the queen, Shirley Jackson and her enduring tale The Lottery.
Now, I had a challenge. Add more diversity to the old white guy pool. And I think I did pretty well.
Because this is such a long list, I will break it down into three posts. As always, I will link each book (yup, all of them) with where you can buy them. If you use my links, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. This helps me buy more books to read and review. So, thank you.
This episode is also available as a blog post: http://theglorioustrainwreckmom.com/2021/10/01/october-tbr-31-in-31/
