HALLOWEEN PLANNING!!! In other words, the entire month of October needs to start being mapped out.....

 

     Confession time!  It's September 1st and I'm already thinking about that day two months from  now, filled with costumes, pumpkins, cider and chilly moonlight.  In case you can't guess from the picture above, Halloween is my absolute favorite holiday (not a particular fan of Christmas, although I do have a fondness for Peter Cottontail and Irontail bunny!) of the year!  I want to do something special for it this year as I haven't managed to since I started my blog about two years ago (this will probably include as giveaway as well, since I skipped over my blogoversary again due to car/money troubles). 

     I think some of the best things about Halloween are the more simple ones, including getting a good creepy thrill.  I don't mean watching slasher 'horror' films or pranking people.  I happen to be referring to the creepy thrills you get from a good, scarily written book.  I also enjoy the crafts and recipes that come along with Halloween.  There are some really cute activities for kids AND adults in regards to this extremely fun holiday.  What I want more than anything is to have a month filled with fun posts leading up to a scarily good giveaway! :)  Something special to celebrate my followers and new things to tickle our fanciful whims. 

     So here is what I need from you guys.  I am going to set up a poll for which book you would prefer to have multiple weekly read-along posts for.  The list will be books I am really wanting to read (maybe a couple I already have) that I think will be fun to read along with.  I also would ADORE suggestions from you all!  If there are crafts, recipes, books or movies that you would like for me to read/review/attempt for your amusement please let me know.  As it is, I will probably actually be using my Pintrest account this month, which I normally rarely go on there.  Keep in mind that I prefer creepy, spine-chilling horror over a gorefest when you're chiming in.  In the meantime, take the time to vote for the read-along and I will be cooking up a good witch's brew of a month for y'all!  Get prepared to have fun and participate as much as you want to - I welcome it with all my black little heart! 

 

***** A quick sidenote, if you would like to donate any creepy prizes for the giveaway (which is basically a blogoversary, holiday and birthday giveaway in one) just contact me through e-mail at: partrick18@yahoo.com  I would love to work with you and have you share the holiday joy with me! :)  I leave you all with this:

 

 







The Dead Celebrity Cookbook Presents: Christmas in Tinseltown

Published:  October 1st, 2012

The Dead Celebrity Cookbook Presents: Christmas in Tinseltown

By: Frank DeCaro, Virginia Bell

Health Communications

ISBN-13: 9780757317002

Now you can put some gam in your holiday ham with The Dead Celebrity Christmas Cookbook. When it comes to holiday fun, the stars of Hollywood's Golden Age knew how to make merry – on stage, on screen, and especially on the dinner table. With The Dead Celebrity Christmas Cookbook – the follow-up to his international sensation The Dead Celebrity Cookbook – Frank DeCaro shows how to put the kitsch into your holiday kitchen as he salutes a quirky collection of celebrities who are gone, but fondly remembered every year at Christmastime.

Filled with pop culture ruminations and genuine (and genuinely delicious) recipes of the stars, The Dead Celebrity Christmas Cookbook hails such movie classics as It's a Wonderful Life and White Christmas, gives three cheers for such time-honored animated gems as Frosty the Snowman and How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and puts such offbeat offerings as The Star Wars Holiday Special in their rightful place – the dining room! (summary courtesy of Amazon.com)

Review

     I have a confession to make:  I never read the original Dead Celebrity Cookbook.  But I saw this one available on Netgalley and it looked like just the sort of thing that was right up my alley as a reader.  Granted, Christmas is not my favorite holiday (AT ALL),  but I figured maybe I could get a couple of recipes to use year-round from this thing and some fun anecdotes to read about in regards to famous actors/actresses since gone.  A lot of this cookbook was genuinely fun to read and I could tell that Mr. DeCaro was very passionate about what he was doing.  That said, I sometimes felt like the background info of the specific films (versus the specific stars) overshadowed the actual recipes and only served as filler to create more pages.  Plus, it never even touched on the fact that not EVERY dead celebrity was a Christian that celebrated Christmas.  Some of them had to have been Jewish right?  So where was the Hanukkah section?  I wouldn't have minded that, especially as a reader who isn't Jewish and is always looking to try new things.  But it didn't exist in this particular book.  The chapter names and the puns they created made me smile while I was reading, but overall I felt like this wasn't the cookbook for me or the actor trivia book for me either.  It split too much between trying to be both and didn't really succeed at being one or the other.  A fun book, but not one I would read again.

VERDICT:  3/5  Stars

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published October 1st, 2012.*