{Sunday Post} — Awaken the Dawn, The Ghouls, and Horror Times Ten

*Weekly Tidbits* 

• The plumbing problems have returned; left a message with the plumber, but it's the weekend, so next week, maybe. The toilets are flushing—for now. Thus, I'll be spending this morning at the laundry mat. 

• The New York Yankees knocked the Kansas City Royals out of the playoffs. Hopefully, they can acquire some power hitters in the offseason. 

What Am I Reading? 

Last week, my reading plans got changed due to receiving late ARCs, and this week will be no different. I received "Awaken the Dawn" by Ellis K. Popa yesterday—it had the best packaging ever; I'll discuss it later in this post. So, I'll start reading Awaken the Dawn today and will post the review on Thursday. After that, I'll move on to Fredia McFadden's "The Boyfriend" and Clive Cussler's "Ghost Soldier" by Mike Maden.

Song of the Week

Recently Reviewed

Movies

White Bird

★★★★★

Average Joe

★★★★✰

Books

Valor Wings

★★★★★

What's in the Mailbox?

I received Valor Wings by Sam Subity last week in time for a scheduled review a few days later. Poisoned Pen Press kindly sent me a copy of Frieda McFadden's The Boyfriend. Note: I forgot to include Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Asylum by Una McCormack in the above photo. I received a copy on either Thursday or Friday.

Yesterday, I received the Star Trek bookmark I had ordered.

Additionally, I received Awaken the Dawn on Saturday afternoon. As you can see from the above photo, it had the best packaging and came with a costume-style locket, a Brasov, Romania postcard, and a "My Passport" notepad. I'm going to guess that all these things have something to do with the book's plot.

What's New on the Bookshelf?

Salvation Army was almost a bust, at least bookwise for me, except for one book; I'll get to it in a moment. I was at the store this past Monday with my mother, and we picked up several Christian romances for a 96-ish family friend. The book I got was a 1971 hardback edition of The Ghouls edited by Peter Haining. Embossed on the front of the book is Christopher Lee as Dracula. I found the jacket's front side inside the book; it also features Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. It has an introduction by Vincent Price and an afterward by Christopher Lee. The horror stories collected are The Devil in Convent by Francis Oscar Mann, The Lunatics by Edgar Allan Poe, Puritan Passions by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Phantom of the Opera (abridged / condensed) by Gaston Leroux, The Magician by Somerset Maugham, Freaks (Spurs) by Tod Robbins, Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell, Dracula's Daughter (Dracula's Guest) by Bram Stoker, All That Money Can Buy by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Beast With Five Fingers by W. F. Harvey, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (The Fog Horn) by Ray Bradbury, The Fly by Geroge Langelaan, Black Sunday by Nikolai Gogol, Incident at Owl Creek by Ambrose Bierce, Monster of Terror (The Colour Out of Space) by H. P. Lovecraft, The Skull (The Skull of the Marquis De Sade) by Robert Bloch, and The Oblong Box by Edgar Allen Poe.

I donated three boxes full of movies and books at the local humane society thrift store, and they had a fill-a-bag for a $10 sale, and I ended up buying several paperbacks, mostly Westerns. The titles areThe Wrecker by Clive Cussler and Jusin Scott, Horror Times Ten edited by Alden N. Norton, Ralph Compton's The Wolves of Seven Pines by E. L. Ripley, Guns Along the Yellowstone by Bliss Lomax, Lassiter on the Texas Trail by Loren Zane Grey, Boulder Dam by Zane Grey, William W. Johnstone's The First Mountain Man: Preacher's Bloodbath by J. A. Johnstone, Reckoning at Yankee Flat by Will Henry, Sunset Graze by Luke Short, Hondo by Louis L'Amour, The Elk-Dog Heritage by Don Coldsmith, The Deadwood Trail by Ralph Compton, Thunder Mountain by Zane Grey, The Vanishing American by Zane Grey, Daugher of the Eagle by Don Coldsmith, Shadow of a Star by Elmer Kelton, Preacher's Journey / Law of the Mountain Man by William W. Johnstone, Last Stand At Papago Wells by Louis L'Amour, Solcum and the Red River Renegades by Jake Logan, William W. Johnstone's Snake Oil by J.A. Johnstone, William W. Johnstone's Texas John Slaugher by J.A. Johnstone, William W. Johnstone's Go West, Young Man by J.A. Johnstone, and William W. Johnstone's The Devil You Know by J.A. Johnstone.