The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

20.1 - Most Improved Player - Frugalitymom's task: Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice

I love autumn and when September 1st rolls around I get a skip in my steps and can smell the changing season coming. Growing up cooler weather came quicker for me growing up in Ohio but now that I am living in Arkansas it sometimes takes a little longer to show up. We are looking forward to a move to Oregon next May and I am hoping I can experience a proper autumn again.

For me autumn means changing leaves, my birthday in October, Halloween, crisp air, pumpkins, and back to school. I homeschool my kids but I am also a graduate student and work part time as a graduate assistant in the history department at the local university so for me the end of August sees the return of students on campus and less time for reading for fun for me.

When I do get a chance to wrap a blanket around me on a cold night and curl up with a good book I love reading historical fiction, Amish fiction, or my most favorite mystery novels especially cozy mysteries.


This is a one book task. Choose one option, and state which option you chose when you post.

Option 1: Fall is all about the pumpkin! Read a book with at least one pumpkin on the cover. Ex:

Required: Include the cover when posting

Option 2: I love cozy mysteries especially discovering new series. Read a book from a series (any number in the series is ok) that you've never read before that can be found on this list of cozy mysteries, Cozy Mystery Series.
Required: List the page number of where you found the book AND state that the series is new to you.

Option 3: Read a book by an author whose initials can be found in the word AUTUMN. Middle initials can be ignored. If a book has multiple authors, you only need to use one of the author's initials.

Option 4: One of my favorite holidays is Halloween or Samhain depending on your beliefs and culture. For this option, read a book where all the letters of SAMHAIN can be found in the title. Letters in subtitles cannot be used.

Option 1 Approved Covers or Cover Choices

Please note I removed two books from the Option 1 Cover Choices. I realized after posting a few were eBooks only.

This help thread is open!

Great task!

I hope you don't mind, this isn't asking for approval of a book, but just wondering if there's a cozy mystery series you would especially recommend from the list.

I hadn't heard of this genre until recently but I'm really enjoying the Hannah Swensen series and I'm looking forward to reading more of this genre so any recommendations would be great.

I love any of the series by Amanda Flowers/Isabella Allan. I love the Hannah Swenson books by Joanne Fluke. I have also been enjoying the Doughnut Shop mysteries by Jessica Beck. Another favorite series is Bibliophile Mystery by Kate Carlisle. She also writes the Fixer Up Series. I also adore Kylie Logan, Wendy Tyson, Tessa Arlen, Laura Child's, Lynn Cahoon, Ellery Adams, Laurie R. King, Sue Grafton, Charlaine Harris, Lorna Barrett, Monica Ferris, and Maggie Sefton. That is just some of the books I enjoy, feel free to check out the books I've read.

Thank you, that's a lot of recommendations! I'll have fun picking a book for this task.

Clarification on option 2. Can you pick a book from a series where one book is mentioned in the list but the one you read is not on the list but part of the series. This is how I read the description, but now I'm not sure.

Lavender wrote: "Clarification on option 2. Can you pick a book from a series where one book is mentioned in the list but the one you read is not on the list but part of the series. This is how I read the descripti..."

I'm wondering the same thing - the list info specifically says first in series only - so as I understand, I could read say bk 10 in the series, if bk1 is list (and then post the page bk 1 appears on the list)....

It does need to be on the list, so if all the books listed are first in the series then that's what you read. Sorry for the confusion on this.

ok that needs to be made clear because I believe the mods are allowing books based on if first in the series is on the list, then any book counts (based on some posts by Kristi)

see post 71 and on in the problems thread

Yes I confused myself on this when answering. It can be any book in the series as long as the first book is on the list.

For Option 4, does the letter A need to appear twice in the title as it does in the work SAMHAIN? Just wondering if The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right would work for this. All the letters are there, although A only appears once.

No it needs to have two A’s.