Halloween Book +  Movie Recs

What kind of book blog would I be if I didn’t share a Halloween Book Recs post for Fortnight of Fright?? That’s right. A bad one. Thankfully, Jennie from The Book Nut is here to save the day with some books AND movies! She’s got some good ones for you!

It’s no secret that we love Halloween at our blog, The Book Nut. So we’re absolutely thrilled to be a part of a Fortnight of Fright!

There’s nothing better than settling down with a scary book or movie during the month of October, so I’ve decided to share a few of my favourites with you today!

1. THE REPLACEMENT by Brenna Yovanoff

My number one scary read, EVER. Babies being taken from their cribs and replaced with “other” children? A whole creepy world underneath the slag heap in town? yeah, this qualifies as the spookiest read I have ever read. It’s also one of my favourites, EVER!

2. THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black

I love vampires. LOVE THEM. Holly Black managed to write her own dark YA version of what reminded me of THE VAMPIRE CHRONICLES — and it’s spectacular.

3. THE ORPHANAGE (EL ORFANTO)

A mother loses her child after moving back to her childhood home, a now abandoned orphanage — riddled with the spirits of long dead children. I don’t even know how to begin to explain how scared I got by this film! I don’t usually scare easily, but this one had me up until dawn so I could go to sleep safely! It’s in Spanish as well which gives the film an even scarier aspect, though how I can’t quite say. I loved it.

4. STEPHEN KING’S IT

The brilliant thing about this one is that it’s both a book AND a film–one that scared me so badly that I refuse to read/watch it again! IT scared me so badly as a child that I was convinced there was a killer clown coming out of the sewers when I walked home from school.

Even as an adult I am super unsettled by the image of Tim Curry as Pennywise.

5. THE ASHES TRILOGY by Ilsa J Bick

An EMP goes off. Billions die–but amongst the survivors, a zombie apocalypse starts. In this series, you don’t know who you can trust and who is a “Changed.” I loved this series so much, but it’s so unsettling. READ IT!

Books + Halloween Candies

What two things go better together than books and candy? Or books and ANYTHING for that matter? Not much, in my opinion. I’m so excited to have Angela from Angela’s Library here to share this awesome book-and-candy-pairing list with Halloween candy!

Hi everybody – I’m happy to once again be participating in A Fortnight of Fright! My husband and I were recently shopping for candy to pass out to trick-or-treaters, and while we were browsing I started thinking about the clever names the various candies had. That led to me thinking about how some of those names could be equated with different types of books, and the idea for this post was born. Below is a recommended reading list, inspired by popular candies. I hope you enjoy it!

Snickers: Funny Books

• My Best Friend, The Atlantic Ocean and Other Great Bodies Standing Between Me and My Life With Giulio by Jane Harrington: Written in the form of a journal for English class, this book details a ditzy teenager’s hilarious attempts to steal her best friend’s sexy Italian boyfriend. (Read my review here.)
• Beauty Queens by Libba Bray: I like to think of Beauty Queens as a comedic version of what The Lord of the Flies would have been like if the plane that crashed on a “deserted” island had carried teen beauty pageant contestants instead of British schoolboys.
• Play Me Backwards by Adam Selzer: This book had me laughing until my cheeks ached. It features a deadbeat teen whose best friend claims to be Satan, parents who plan “disaster dinners” complete with costumes and alter egos, an epic slushie quest, and lots of hijinks and goofiness.

Skittles: Diverse Books

• If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo: This book follows your typical “new girl at school struggles to fit in and find love” plot, with one important exception: that new girl was born a boy. As a heterosexual, cisgender reader, If I Was Your Girl challenged me to view the world from a new perspective and opened my eyes to the various struggles transgender men and women face every day.
• OCD, The Dude and Me by Lauren Roedy Vaughn: The quirky yet lovable heroine of Vaughn’s novel battles severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Reading about her struggles and endless idiosyncrasies is humorous at times and heartbreaking at others. (Read my review here).
• Push by Sapphire: Although it’s a short book, I found it incredibly challenging to make it the whole way through Push, as it features horrific abuse and is emotionally draining. All the same, I’m glad I read it, as it let me see through the eyes of someone totally different from myself: a young black girl living in poverty who’s been impregnated multiple times by her own father.

3 Musketeers: Books Featuring Strong Friendships

• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: Karou, the blue-haired heroine of this trilogy, and Zuzana, her tiny but fierce BFF, share one of my favorite fictional friendships. They’re intensely devoted to one another and are as hilarious individually as they are as a pair.
• The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater: The Raven Cycle series is about magic and fast cars and dreams and psychics, but its heartbeat is the all-consuming friendship shared by the titular Raven Boys and a girl named Blue, who finds herself swept up in the boys’ quest to find an ancient Welsh king.
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: Charlie is a quiet, troubled loner when he starts high school, but that all changes when a group of upperclassmen take him under their wing. Never underestimate the power of friendship to change your life for the better!

Milky Way: Books Set In Outer Space

• Lightless by C.A. Higgins: Written by an author with a physics degree from Cornell University, Lightless tells the story of those on board a military spaceship: the terrorists who were caught trying to hijack the ship, the computer scientist who is developing a relationship with the ship, and the artificial intelligence system that is rapidly developing a will of its own.
• The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: When Earth is destroyed in order to build a interplanetary superhighway, a hapless Brit finds himself hitching his way across the universe on a wild and ridiculously funny journey.
• These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner: Described by many as “The Titanic in space,” this novel follows a young man and woman from very different walks of life who are forced to rely on one another after they’re (space)shipwrecked on an unfamiliar planet.

Pixie Stix: Books About Fairy Tales

• Enchanted by Alethea Kontis: This first book in Kontis’ Woodcutter Sisters series is a delightful mash-up of various fairy tales, such as “The Frog Prince,” “Jack and the Beanstalk” and “The 12 Dancing Princesses.” (Read my review here.)
• Nameless by Lili St. Crow: What would the tale of “Snow White” look like if the princess had been taken in by the Mafia, instead of by seven dwarves? And what if the members of that Mafia were vampires? Well, it’d probably look a lot like this book. (Read my review here.)
• Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross: Cross’ novel is set in a town where each inhabitant is destined to live out a predetermined role in a fairy tale, whether as villain, hero, princess, etc. It’s brilliant and edgy and one of my favorite fairy tale stories yet.

Halloween Books + Movies

Can you guys believe that Halloween is just ONE WEEK from today? HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!? As usual, time is flying by. Of course, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be well into the Halloween spirit by now, but just in case you need a crash course in Halloween media in which to indulge to get you just the right amount of spooked, Morgan from Gone with the Words is here to help!

I’m so happy to be participating in Fortnight of Fright again! I’m a big fan of being festive and I particularly love Halloween and fall! One of my favorite things to do is watch Halloween movies (although I don’t like horror movies). Here’s a list of movies that are on my must list:

Hocus Pocus: a true cult classic and a forever favorite. In fact, I wrote about it two years ago!

The Haunted Mansion: an under the radar pick and much better than you might think! It’s spooky and funny and has a lot of fun nods to the ride.

Casper: “Can I keep you?” I’ll never be over that, or the music.

Monster House: a perfect Halloween treat, it’s great.

Goosebumps: I saw this in theaters last year and immediately wanted to add it to my Halloween lineup! Fun and scary.

Ghostbusters: another that had to be added to my annual list. I laughed so much and the ghosts are creepy!

Practical Magic: romantic, tragic, and so very witchy.

Hotel Transylvania: lots of fun, I love all of the monsters!

Paranorman: Sad but wonderful with a historical twist, and set in a Salem-like town.

The Covenant: I watched this for the first time recently (couldn’t resist the attractive cast!). It’s cheesy but the atmosphere is spooky and perfect for Halloween, as is the witchy storyline.

Unfortunately I’m a very moody reader so even though I have good intentions, I’m not great at sticking to lists. These five books are on my October TBR though, rife with witches, demons, faeries, and creepy mysteries. All sound like good seasonal books to me!

The Bone Witch

The Creeping

The Dark Days Club

The Darkest Part of the Forest

The King Slayer

What movies do you like to watch every year? Are there any seasonal books on your TBR?

Laurie’s Magic 4-Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Guys. I need these muffins. Four ingredients? Pumpkin spice? YES. Thank you, Emily from Emily Reads Everything for sharing Laurie’s awesome recipe!

Laurie’s Magic 4-Ingredient Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Hello! I’m Emily from Emily Reads Everything. Thank you so much to Amy for having me here today to share this muffin recipe. These muffins come from my friend, Laurie. It is told she found the recipe on Muggle.net as a recipe for pumpkin cakes. She adapted the recipe a little and history was made. These muffins are quick and easy to make and moist and delicious to eat. Plus they aren’t terrible for you, so don’t feel too guilty if they all disappear like magic within 24 hours of baking them.

This recipe calls for cinnamon chips. If you can find them, they come from Hershey’s and they look like chocolate chips, except not. When I baked this batch, I couldn’t find cinnamon chips, so I substituted Greek yogurt chips. Still delicious. White Chocolate chips or even nuts would work as well (but nuts are gross).

Deliciousness is in your future!

YUMMMM. Thanks, Emily!

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Halloween Glass Jar Crafts

Hello, friends! Happy Fortnight of Fright! I’m so glad to have Ashley from Must Love Books here to share some super fun Halloween crafts!! A Pinterest success, I’d say! Thanks so much for stopping by, Ashley!

I am very excited to be a part of Fortnight of Fright this year for a several reasons, one being I love everything Fall. The change in weather, scarves, boots, crunching leaves AND Halloween!Fall also means more crafting and I’ve had my eye on a few Halloween crafts on Pinterest I’ve been dying to try. I decided on two glass jar projects that are pretty easy to complete; potion bottles for decoration and mason jar luminaries!

Potion Bottles

As soon as I saw these I knew I had to make my own version. They would look great with any Halloween decor and they are not that hard to make!

I decided to use chalk paint for this project (ArtMinds brand in Onyx and Metallic Copper). I really like the chalk look and it tends to be better for glass than spray paint. I bought the bottles and the paint from Michaels (I used my 50% off one item and my 25% off total purchase!), everything else I had on hand. I used a regular paint brush also and it actually worked better than the ones shown here. Since I used new jars I didn’t have to clean them, but if you use anything you have at home, be sure to clean them well before painting them; maybe run them through the dishwasher first.

Since this was my first time using chalk paint, I let the jars dry for a couple of hours before applying the next coat.

When I bought the Copper color, I wanted to use it to kind of antique the bottles, I was hoping it would add some depth jar instead of just being black. You can really see what the copper looks like best in this picture.

Next I used a glue gun to write on the side of the jars. I used glitter glue sticks I had on hand and used Dragon Scales, Eye of Newt, Bat Blood, and Hemlock for mine.

I decided I didn’t like how the glitter looked so I went back and painted a layer of black then copper over the glue, then sealed them with a chalk wax.

I love the final result. There are so many variations of colors and design you could do with this project. I’m already thinking of new ideas for next year!

Mason Jar Lumineers

Again, I bought my mason jars from Michaels, but I went to Wal-Mart for my spray paint. Sometimes the cheaper the spray paint, the better it will stick to the glass. Before you spray your jars, make sure you used isopropyl alcohol to clean them really well. I don’t know why this works but it does. Something about the alcohol makes the paint stick to the glass better. I used my Cricut to cut out vinyl for the faces but you can use masking tape or even pre-cut stickers from any craft store.

I can not even tell you how much I love these Lumineers. They are so cute and they can be used anywhere; a mantle, porch stairs, bedrooms, table centerpieces, hallways…

I used battery operated, all-white Christmas lights to illuminate the jars. The battery pack fits right inside the jar and you can’t see it when the jar is lit up–perfect! I already have plans for all kinds of seasonal mason jar crafts, maybe even some Disney themed ones!

Thank you Amy, Alyssa and Brittany for hosting Fortnight of Fright and allowing me to gush over my Halloween crafts! Happy Halloween everyone!

Wow. We are back here for a FIFTH year for Fortnight of Fright and I can hardly believe it!! As many of you know, September – January is my very favorite time of year and Halloween is my one true love! Therefore, it is no question that Fortnight of Fright is something that I love hosting along with Brittany (The Book Addict’s Guide) and Alyssa (Books Take You Places)!

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about (hello, and welcome!) Fortnight of Fright is a time in which we host and share different posts related to Autumn and Halloween! We work with you guys and some amazing authors to showcase some creepy books, interviews, movies, and SO MUCH MOAR! There is no limit on what you can post about! Do you have a signature Halloween or Autumn cocktail recipe? Pinterest board filled with DIY decorations? A book recommendation for those of us who love to be scared? We want it all!! JOIN US!!

Sign ups will be open from 9/12-9/25 and you will be notified the following week to confirm your post topic, and so on. We are going to ask that all posts get to us the week of 10/10 as we will be hosting you during the event which runs from 10/17-10/31! As always, the more the merrier, so scroll on down to our Google Doc and sign up to help us out!

Also don’t forget about All Hallow’s Read and the giving of books in lieu of candy!

Wondering what we had going on from years past? Check it out:

• Fortnight of Fright | Why Zombie Stories Aren’t About Zombies
• Fortnight of Fright | Pecan Bars Recipe
• Fortnight of Fright | Salem, Massachusetts
• Fortnight of Fright | Laura Bickle Guest Post & Q&A
• Fortnight of Fright | Bookish Halloween Costumes
• Fortnight of Fright | Weird NJ

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