Book Round-Up: Eclectic Fall Edition

 The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: I don't know why I didn't read this when it first came out. It is dreamy and romantic and perfect for cool fall nights. 

Sweet Alaskan Fall by Jennifer Snow: Part of a series of romances set in Alaska, I grabbed it because of the title (I'm a sucker for all things fallish). It's your standard romantic plot line, but I liked that both of the main protagonists were coping with temporary and permanent disabilities.

The Devil's Wedding Ring by Vidar Sundstøl: It's set in midsummer, but has a spooky vibe that makes it a great read now. I loved the Norwegian setting and the introduction to local folklore and customs, and the two protagonists -- a detective returning to his homeland and a nosy young librarian -- were a treat. I half expected them to form their own agency at the end, but alas, this is a stand-alone novel.

 Echoes by Ellen Datlow, ed.: A large collection of ghost stories. An excellent collection, with a number of stand-outs: "A Shade of Dusk" by Indrapramit Das (melancholy and touching), "The Puppet Motel" by Gemma Files (just confirms my desire to never use Air BnB), "A Burning Sword for her Cradle" by Aliette de Bodard (a novel take on assimilation), "The Other Woman" by Alice Hoffman (an impressive amount of story packed into just a few pages), and "Jasper Dodd's Handbook of Spirits and Manifestations" by Nathan Ballingrud (heartbreaking).

Ghost Stories of an Antiquary by M.R. James: these are classics for a reason: short stories that are spooky but not too horrific, with a bookish bent. There is an odd level of distancing to them -- each is told in the first person, but the narrator is relating something he heard happen to other people. 

 Toil and Trouble: 15 Tales of Women & Witchcraft: The first story was so stupid, I almost refused to read the rest. But then I was stuck in a doctor's office for hours, so I did, and some of the stories were genuinely enjoyable. Others were not. I am not a fan of young adult fiction.