books

Your Next Reads: Five True Crime Books for Your TBR Pile

For those of you wondering, yes, my True Crime book club is still active! I’ve been so engrossed in reading (true crime, items for my 2021 Reading Challenge, for another book club I’m in, and other books as I find them), that I have not slowed down enough to actually write about what I’ve been reading! So, to help catch you up on what has been going on in my True Crime reading, I am going to summarize our last five reads and our reactions: • November’s read: The Burger Chef Murders in Indiana by Julie Young Back in November of 1978 in Speedway, Indiana, four teenage workers at a local Burger Chef restaurant were murdered. To this day, the crime has not been solved. In this quick read, Young looks at the crime, investigation, and the aftermath. This book was quite fitting for my group because of two reasons: […]

2020 TBR READING CHALLENGE: A Year’s Footnotes From A Book Dragon

Christina Ortega

True story: when I used to travel with my mom, she would often lecture me about my packing because I had to take at least four books with me, no matter the length of the trip: the book I was currently reading, a book for the trip there, the trip back, and what if those books were not enough? No, I am not just a bookworm; I am a book dragon. I devour stories. I read more than one book at a time. I read. A lot. So when I came across the “2020 TBR Reading Challenge” I had to give it a go. I posted the challenge on my Facebook page and tagged a few of my friends who are also readers. Challenges can be more fun when you are doing them with others, right? In this case, it was super true. Out of everyone tagged and everyone supposedly […]

Your Next Reads: TELL-TALE HEART, THE SHINING, And A Few More Horror Titles For Your October

Christina Ortega

So, if you’ve been reading my previous articles, you should know by now that although I love all things horror, I do not actually get scared by the movies and shows I watch or the books I read. Writing an article like this is a bit tricky because not everyone gets scared by the same things. Are you afraid of clowns? Read or watch It. Are you scared of ghosts? Read The Haunting of Hill House or watch The Conjuring. By now you’re probably assuming that any book I put down on this list will really terrify you if I’m labeling it as a “scary” book to read. No. Well, maybe. Adding a novel to this list doesn’t necessarily mean that it legitimately scared me, but I’ll explain why I’ve added each item to this list as you read on. Ready? Here we go. •Heart-shaped Box by Joe Hill Rock […]

Your Next Read: THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW

Christina Ortega

When I am not busy watching horror movies to review or writing, I like to read. A lot. This year, a friend and I have found a reading challenge we have decided to do together. One item on the list is to read a “novel that will get a movie adaptation in 2020.” I will spare you the details on how two bookworms wheedled down two needlessly long lists of books that we could read together; all you need to know is that we decided on The Woman in the Window by A.J. Flynn. This book sucked us both in immediately so that we didn’t even discuss it until we were both finished. In the previous books we’ve read together, we would send each other messages about the chunk we had just read or random comments about characters irritating us. Not with this book. We just opened our copies and […]

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Your A-To-Z Guide To Zombies

Christina Ortega

The month of October is synonymous with Halloween which is synonymous with hot cider, corn mazes, scary movies, and murder. You know, normal fall stuff. Often featured in these scary tales are the creatures known as zombies. But they’re not all the same. Don’t believe me? Keep reading. Let me present to you, your A to Z guide to zombies: Alice in Zombieland One of my favorite things to try is retellings, especially retellings of Alice in Wonderland. This series, White Rabbit Chronicles, is written by Gina Showalter and the first book is called Alice in Zombieland. This version shows Alice as she tries to avenge her family and becomes a zombie slayer. Badass Zombie Killers This is a great card game for two to six players. The game sounds simple enough: you put together a badass weapon to fight off the zombies. And I’m not talking about a chainsaw: […]

STEAMING PILES: Profiling The World Of Steampunk In Media

Christina Ortega

Goggles, top hats, airships, and, of course, gears. These are the things that most often come to mind when someone hears the word “steampunk” but what is steampunk actually? Boiled down to the simplest explanation, steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that includes steam-powered technology. The technology can be current (like a computer) or based on older inventions, but is powered by steam. Most commonly, steampunk is set in the 19th century Victorian era. However, America’s Wild West is also a common setting. (Remember that Will Smith movie Wild Wild West?). That is just the basic concept, though. There’s much more to steampunk, a lot of which has found its way into literature, movies, video games, clothes, and music. Let’s take a look at each of these: What does steampunk read like? Many people associate the works of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne with steampunk. This is kind of […]