I’m a big fan of Ally Condie’s Matched trilogy, so when her new book Atlantia came out, I was first in line to read it. I was pleasantly surprised by this dystopian novel that breaks many rules, doesn’t have a love triangle, and really made me think. Watch my video above for my full review!

Okay, it’s clearly NaNoWriMo up in here… first a Halloween post and now my October Favorites video? I know, I know. What can I say, I’ve been busy writing a novel! I don’t know what’s come over me, actually. After 3 days I’m already at 10k, double the “recommended” amount – so this is shaping up to be one crazy November.

But! Today’s post isn’t about writing, it’s about favorites. And the video I made to share them. So here it is!

How are everyone’s months going? Busy? Cold? Gearing up for the holidays? I’ve been in an inexplicably good mood so far in November, so I really hope it keeps up. Maybe this year will be my best novel yet! Who knows!

Hello, lovely blog readers! I know we’re well into November by now, but I still wanted to share with you a few photos of our Halloween party. Halloween is a big event around here for my housemates and I – we’ve thrown a party each Halloween since 2008; it’s automatic now. Halloween rolls around, we throw a party. It’s always big, loud and tons of fun.

This year’s didn’t disappoint! We turned on those black-lights, cranked up the tunes and opened our doors!

This is the one day of the year we actually put our built in bar to use! This is where we stuck chips and all the various bottles of booze, mixers and beer.

 

This was the ‘fancy drinks’ table. We reused our Unicorn’s Blood recipe from last year’s Harry Potter party (Blue Hawaiian Punch and whatever vodka you have lying around) in our punch fountain, vodka gummy worms (dear lord these were strong) and radioactive green test tube shots (pineapple juice, sour apple shnapps, dragonberry rum and a few drops of green food coloring).

This was our food table! This year we had the Mummy-Rollups (weenies wrapped in crescent rolls), graveyard dip (standard 5 layer dip with tombstone shaped “headstone” crackers) and orange pumpkin-shaped rice krispies treats.

 Finally, it wouldn’t be a party without good ‘ol Aragog. It felt like old times, having our little spider friend watching over the festivities.

 

How was your Halloween? What did you do? What’s your favorite Halloween snacks or drink? let me know in the comments, and I hope your Novembers are off to a great start!