The Sunday Salon with One or Two Actual Bookish Thoughts!

Good news! The INSPYS shortlists have finally been announced. Trust me, we did not arrive at this list without a lot of bloodshed and tears. I may have thrown a childish fit or two. There are a lot of great books out there and it can be pretty hard to narrow down the field to just a few. But we did it and we hope these lists will serve as great resources for people looking for quality fiction of faith. Also...just because a nominated book does not appear on the list does not mean it wasn't dearly loved by a board member or fought for. We just have only five slots!

--I cannot believe it's October! I feel like life is speeding right by me. I was genuinely shocked to open up my google reader the other day and see so many bloggers kicking off their month of spooky reads. HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? Furthermore, how does this keep happening to me? I've lived in Southern California long enough now that I shouldn't be shocked when October comes roaring in at 94 degrees. So I did what any reasonable person would do to get in the Halloween spirit and went to the stores to look at fake fall stuff. And it was all pretty and cute and put me in a festive mood until I exited the air conditioning. I didn't buy anything but a piece of pumpkin bark and some apple spray (my favorite frangrance is apple) so overall I did quite well.

--Have you seen the trailer for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? Oh my gosh it's total and complete manipulation using U2's "Where the Streets Have No Name". Even so, I wish I had read the book--I've just had...

The worst reading year of my life. Do you remember the challenge Hannah and I had? I have read exactly 0 of those books. I'm hoping that I'll be feeling more up to it now. I keep thinking one really awesome could pull me out of this funk...

And maybe it's The Shattering by Karen Healey. Don't you love it when people rave about an author and then you read one of their books and it actually lives up to it? I'm in love with her writing--her characterization is fantastic. I'm not very far yet, but I'm actually enjoying it and appreciating it which feel like rarities these days.

Tell me everything about you now! What books are you enjoying? What pumpkin goodies are you filling yourself up with now that it's October?

And I leave you with this cuteeeee Halloween decoration I saw at Michael's today.