Caitlyn’s Monthly Wrap Up: October 2023

Hello, hello, my friends! Happy November — it’s absolutely wild that we’re in the second to last month of the year! October really flew by and it was a great month, so get comfy and cozy and let’s chat about it!

October was a much better reading month than September was, and thank goodness for that! In October I, unsurprisingly, prioritized horror, mystery/thriller, and paranormal stories. At the beginning of the month I posted a scary season TBR (linked further down) and of the 9 books on that list, I ended up reading 7 of them, which I’m very happy with! 

This month I read 14 books and my favorites were:

• A Very Lively Murder by Katy Watson
• Murder and Mamon by Mia P. Manansala
• Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter
• When Ghosts Call Us Home by Katya De Becerra

Blog posts and vlogs I loved this month:

• I have really enjoyed reading Ashley Herring Blake’s Bright Falls Series, and from the start, my favorite character has been Iris. I love her humor and snarky attitude, and truly just think she’s the coolest. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the third and final book in the series as it focuses on Iris, and Robin’s review made me extra excited to read Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date!
• As we all know, if a book is about theatre, I’m reading it. If it’s written by a theatre performer? I’m even more excited to read it! I loved Ali Stroker and Stacy Davidowitz’ first book The Chance to Fly and have been looking forward to their next book, Cut Loose! I loved Helena’s review and it’s made me even more excited to pick up this middle grade novel. 
• Gavin from How To Train Your Gavin is definitely my favorite BookTuber at the moment. His videos are always fun and inventive, and he’s so entertaining to watch. My favorite series of his are the videos where he stays in haunted locations and reads horror/scary books while there, and his latest had me in stitches! So fun and entertaining, and every time he does one of these, I learn a little more about British history and we know I love that!

My posts this month:

• Books I want to read this Scary Season
• Murder and Mamon Review
• A Haunting on the Hill Review
• Murder in the Family Review

October was a busy month! The work month was mostly pretty chill, but it was the calm before the storm. In November I’ll have rehearsals on Sunday and Tuesday nights for the show that I’m directing, and this weekend we have performances for a show that I’m stage managing, so I tried to enjoy the downtime as much as I could!

At the beginning of the month I went to a pumpkin patch with my sister and brother-in-law as we do every year. It was very fun, but we’ve had a bit of a heatwave this October, so you know, it can be somewhat hard to get into the autumnal spirit when you’re still wearing shorts and tank tops. 

Obviously, I want to see the Eras Tour Film and I had an absolute blast! I got to trade some bracelets with people, and it turns out so many of the people I traded with went to the same show that I did, so that was fun! Our theater had a bunch of families and little kids and it made me SO happy to see all these young girls dressed up and dancing and singing along — one little girl in the same row as us pointed at the screen and just said “That’s Taylor!” with like, the most wide-eyed expression and it was so cute! Our theater did dance and sing, but everyone was pretty low-key so you could still hear Taylor and no one was disruptive; honestly, it was just a great vibe. I was very happy to be able to relive the Eras Tour again, especially those surprise songs!

I saw two shows this month, first I went and saw the Les Misérables tour with my mom and my sister — my mom and I saw the tour in July when it was in the city, but it came back to another theatre much closer to us and we both really wanted to go again, so we did. I had a wonderful time as always; as you all know Les Mis is one of my favorite musicals and a show that is extremely special to me, and I’m so glad that I got to see it again. And yes, I was an absolute wreck most of the show, but act 2 was especially devastating this time around. There were a lot of moments that don’t typically make me cry that I was crying at which kind of surprised me, but when it hits it hits! Also, the theatre commented on my instagram post and said that they loved my Les Mis friendship bracelets which was so funny, and yes, it was one of the highlights of the night. 

The second show I saw this month was POTUS at a repertory theatre near me, and had so much fun! Helena (bubblingupwithhelena) was visiting, so we got to see it together with her husband and another friend, which was so lovely. There truly is nothing better than getting to spend time with your best friend!

Now, I didn’t go anywhere for Halloween (which is fine with me, my personal favorite way to spend Halloween is at home, watching horror shows/movies, reading a scary book and eating candy), but I did dress up! Months ago I got the idea to dress up as one of my favorite characters from & Juliet, Benvolio, and had so much fun putting the costume together. Additionally, this year I painted my pumpkin as an ode to & Juliet and I was so happy with how it turned out! Tiernan, who plays Benvolio in the show, commented on my post and said that it was a “big slay”, so I think I did pretty good.

I hope that your October was as fun as mine was! I’d love to hear about the books you read and your highlights of the month, so let me know in the comments!

Until next time 💜