Barnes & Noble; Amazon

Hop into a time machine and travel back to the early 1990s, a time when I was in elementary school and was reading a R.L. Stine's Goosebumps book monthly. Yeah, believe it or not, between 1992 and 1997, R.L. Sine cranked out 62 Goosebumps installments and sold around 4 million copies monthly. After the 1998-2000 spinoff Goosebumps 2000 series ended, fans would have to wait until 2009 until the next series, Goosebumps Horrorland, was published. Every since then, R.L. Stine has been releasing a few new Goosebumps titles, with latest being Goosebumps Slappyworld: Revenge of the Invisible Boy ($3.99; Scholastic; 151 pages).

Like the previous 8 entries in the SlappyWorld spinoff series, this book is hosted by everyone's favorite Goosebumps villain - Slappy, the ventriloquist dummy. Sometimes, Slappy includes himself into the story but not this time. Instead, the story focuses on Frankie Miller, a twelve-year-old at Han Solo Middle School in Barberton, Ohio. Along with his friends Melody Richmond and Edurado Martinez, he's part of a Magic Club with his nemesis, Ari Goodwyn, who likes to play tricks on everyone.

The Magic Club gang are more than excited when they learn the legendary magician, Mystical Marvin, is going to preforming at the Town Center, and thanks to Frankie's dad being on the city council, they have tickets to the big event!

Shortly after the event, the gang goes backstage to meet Mystical Marvin, who shows them a secret formula he uses to disappear. To get back at Ari for all of his tricks, Frankie puts a few drops of the formula into his lemonade. However, Ari is smarter than he looks and switches Frankie's drink his own. Let just say the formula and lemonade don't mix well together and Frankie turns into the invisible boy!

Final Thoughts

 

What Am I Currently Reading?

Today, I'll be rereading The Shining by Stephen King. Then, hopefully, I'll be rereading the sequel Doctor Sleep on Wednesday. The movie adaptation is coming out at the end week, which I highly doubt if I'll see it in theatres. There's only a one-screen theatre in my town and it's currently not playing movies because this time of year their hosting high school plays and musicals.

Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimberly @  Caffeinated Book Reviewer!

Good Evening, Everyone!

Did everyone survive Halloween?

Halloween happens to be my favorite holiday but in recent years I've been less and less in the mood to celebrate it, mostly thanks to my depression, stress, and dealing with my grandmother's health issues. I used to decorate the font lawn with a creepy cemetery scene and other scary decorations but the last few Octobers have had rainy weather and resulted in me putting out only Jack-O-Lanterns. There had been a decline in trick-or-treaters in recent years. I would put together 140 treat bags full of candy and I would run out candy around 8pm. Then the number dropped to 75 trick-or-treaters, which left me with way too much candy. This year I put together only 100 bags. And then temperatures plummeted and Jack Frost decided to make it snow. Despite the cold, there were 76 trick-or-treaters.

I've been watching too many episodes of "Halloween Wars" as I'd convinced myself to carve something different on my pumpkin this year instead of the traditional Jack-O-Lantern. Thanks to Zombie Pumpkins, I found a patterns of Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees so I ended up carving two pumpkins this year. The trick-or-treaters and their parents loved the pumpkins! Several of the parents took pictures of them.

Here are the pumpkins:

What Am I Currently Reading?

I'm currently reading Met Her Match by Jude Devereux on my Kindle. I probably be finishing it sometime today. Due to the Doctor Sleep movie being released to theatres at the end of the week, I'm wanting to reread both The Shining and Doctor Sleep by Stephen King. If everything goes as planned, I'll be reading The Shining tomorrow and Doctor Sleep on Wednesday. Also, sometime during the week I'll be reading the Rise of the Gorgon by Galen Surlak-Ramsey, which is a fantasy eBook I got from NetGalley.

Strange Weather

by Joe Hill

(13 Reads of Horror!)

The Pet

by Charles L. Grant

(13 Reads of Horror!

The Lion King

(Blu-ray Review)

The Bad Place

by Dean Koontz

(13 Reads of Horror!

Hell-O-Ween

by David Robbins

(13 Reads of Horror!)

Halloween II

by Jack Martin

(13 Reads of Horror!)

Dead Don't Die In Dallas

(Midnight Horror Review)

Ultra Q & Ultraman Blu-ray Steelbooks

(Saturday Morning Nostalgia)

Max Einstein: Rebels Without A Cause

by James Patterson & Chris Grabenstein

(Back To School Reads)

What's In the Mail?

AMAZON

Yeah, I know what you're thinking - "Why is Billy featuring a Back to School Reads!" post in November?

Well, that's a great question and I do have an explanation for it. I had requested a review copy from the publisher prior to the book's release date, which was Sept. 9th. I never received a reply from the publisher. Due to my past experiences with publishers, I just naturally assumed there were no review copies available. It was a not big deal to me as I'm a James Paterson fan so I would eventually buy the book anyway. However, the publisher did send me an uncorrected proof copy in early October. By that point in time, I was a little busy getting ready for my 13 Reads of Horror! event, so I pushed the review for this title until the beginning of November.

Max Einstein: Rebels With A Cause (Jimmy Patterson; 336 pages; $14.99) is the sequel to last year's Max Einstein: The Genius Experiment, which both are co-written by James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein with illustrations by Beverly Johnson. It's the first children book series to be official authorized by the Albert Einstein Archives.

Max Einstein is a twelve-year-old genius orphan who used her hacking abilities to enroll herself into college. How did she get the last name Einstein? She's a huge Albert Ein­stein fan and is constantly referring to his theories. She even imagines having conversations with him. To make a long story short, Max is recruited by the Change Mak­ers Insti­tute, an organization with a headquarters in Jerusalem, who collect the best young intelligent minds from around the globe in the effort of making the world a better place. And then there's the evil Dr. Zimm, who will do anything he can to persuade Max into joining his "Corporation" so he can use her mind to wreck havoc upon mankind.

Rebels With A Cause centers around Max and her young genius pals going on a quest to fix a water crises in India and Ireland. Max is always up for finding a solution to any problem but she might be a little bit over her head this time as her nemesis, Dr. Zimm has a kidnapping scheme up his sleeve.

Final Thoughts

I bet many adults who grew up in the '90s believe the Power Rangers was the first Kaiju American television series, when in fact the Mighty Morphin team is based on the Japanese franchise Super Sentai that began in 1975, and, no, it wasn't the first series to feature giant monsters. Way back in 1966, there was a Japanese children series called Ultra Q that included monsters causing chaos in Japan.

Mill Creek Entertainment; Amazon

Produced by Tsuburaya Productions from special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya (co-creator of Godzilla, Rodan, and Mothra for Toho Studios), Ultra Q was an X-Files-like 24-minute series about a group of supernatural investigators - Mainichi Shimpo photojournalist Yuriko Edogawa (played by Hiroko Sakurai), Hoshikawa Airlines pilot/SF writer Jun Manjome (Kenji Sahara) and his co-pilot Ippei Togawa (Yasuhiko Saijo) - who investigate mysterious events that occur in and near Japan.

Despite only 28 episodes being produced, Ultra Q was a big hit and spawned the Ultraman franchise.

Ultra Q: The Complete Series (Not Rated; 11hrs 56mins; $49.98) was released on a 4-Dsic Blu-ray SteelBook set on October 15 from Mill Creek Entertainment featuring a 24-page Information and Episode Guide booklet. A Digital Code comes with the set that can only redeemed on movieSPREE.com/redeem or on the movieSPREE app. There are no special features or bonus extras.

FYI: Ultra Q is also available to buy on a standard Blu-ray set.

Mill Creek Entertainment; Amazon

Ultraman: The Complete Series (Not Rated; 16hrs 28mins; $49.98) was also released on a Blu-ray Steelbook on October 15th from Mill Creek Entertainment featuring all 39 episodes on a 5-disc set as well as a 24-page Information and an Episode Guide booklet. It comes with a Digital Code that can only be redeemed on movieSPREE. There are no special features or bonus extras.

FYI: Ultraman is also available to buy on a standard Blu-ray set.

The series involves Ultraman, a giant alien from the Land of Light in Nebula M78, chasing a space monster into the Earth's atmosphere when he accidentally collides into a Jet VTOL piloted by Hayata, a member of the Science Special Search Party (SSSP), an international research and defense agency that protects Earth against aliens. To prevent Hayata from dying, Ultraman merges his life force with him, which means when the world is in danger from a giant monster, Hayata will become Ultraman to defend humankind.


Mill Creek Entertainment will be releasing more DVD and Blu-rays from the Ultraman franchise in near feature starting with Ultraman Orb: The Complete Series & Movie and Ultraman Geed: The Complete Series & Movie later this month. More releases will follow in the Spring and Summer of 2020.

Final Thoughts