 Hello everybody, E here. Welcome back to Top 5 Friday. Today we are talking about the best fall reads I feel, books that I always end up coming back to this time of the season in fall. I already did my Top 5 Stephen King one, so if you want to watch that video I will link it down there in the doobly-doo. Go check that one out after you've done watching this one. But these are books, there's actually an honorable mention this time, because I just got through reading it, so I don't know if subsequent reads will make me want to read it every autumn or not, but we will find out. Well first off, I'm going to jump right into the most obvious one, and this is probably, if I had to go with like a numbered list, which this isn't, I'd probably go with this one for number one, but I'm going to mention right, right out, get it right out of the way, because this is a Halloween read specifically, the Halloween tree. I made a video about this last year, so I don't want to go too far into it, but this is my favorite Halloween story period. A very close second is The Riggle Twins by Gregor Zane, which is in the first Bad Apples anthology. I happen to be, I have a story in that anthology also, but please, you can buy the story by itself. Do not think that I'm trying to get you to buy that collection. You can go buy The Riggle Twins by itself, so if you want to, go buy that story, because it is a perfect Halloween story. But yeah, the Halloween tree, boom. Next up is one that, I mean, it's in the title, but it's also, but it also, Lehmann also conveys the feeling of this time of year throughout the book. He does a really good job of that, and anytime somebody says, well, Raymond, yeah, Raymond, Richard Lehmann, is nothing but rapey and splatterpunk and all that stuff, I point to this book, because it's not, it does have those elements, but he also does a really good job with Atmosphere, and that's Night in the Lonesome October by Richard Lehmann. This book is terrific. I believe this is a later career book from him. I didn't do much research on this, so I could be lying through my teeth, but it's a very mature novel from a author who is not taken too seriously, and that's kind of upsetting. People, like I said, people read him and say, oh, he's just rapey and just kind of write him off as like an Edward Lee kind of character, and he really is much better. If you asked Lehmann while he was alive, he would have said he was a crime writer and not a horror writer, because a lot of his stuff was like catch-and-stuff, which it could happen. He did have some monster stories every now and again, but most of his stuff was crime fiction and not, and like I said, not horror or supernatural involved. Next up, well, actually, I have one that I don't have pictured, because I only own the audiobook, because that is my preferred way to read it or listen to it. The Books of Blood by Clyde Barker. Every single one of those stories evokes the sense of seasonal change or the sense of death or whatever it may be, whether it be Halloween, harvest season, whatever you want to call it, and that's one of those that I always return to this time of year is Clyde Barker's The Books of Blood, and if I had to rank him, I guess that would be number two on the list, but like I said, I'm not ranking him. It's a terrific collection, and I still don't think that anybody, since that collection has come out, has written a better short story collection. Mariana Enriquez with The Things We Lost in the Fire comes very close, but it's still not better, because there is one or two stories in there that are not perfect, whereas with Barker's collection, that entire book, the first book of blood, volume one is perfect in my opinion. Next up, we have another horror one, but it's more, this is, once again, it's not Halloween-related, but it does invoke, evoke? What is it? I'm a writer, y'all, but Victor Laval's The Ballad of Black Tom, which is the only, I don't want to call it fan fiction, but it's the only Lovecraft-themed work that I've ever enjoyed. I don't care for Lovecraft, period, I don't like his writing, it's too dry for my taste. I also like the history of him, him as an individual, so his writing sucked, he sucked as a person. Victor Laval, the exact opposite, he's a great person, and he writes terrifically. But this one is, this has one of the scariest scenes, not disturbing, it has one of the, one of the scariest ideas that I've come across. And yeah, I didn't land in my top five, but most disturbing books or scenes, it'd definitely be in the top 10. I can't even pronounce the thing that he mentions in here, but she has like a tail and there's something behind her. You know what scene I'm talking about, and you understand, I hope you understand what I'm getting at. I'm gonna go with the honorable mention before we get into the very last of this. I just got through reading this, and it was caused for much debate on the video, Hagg by Kathleen Kaufman. This book is fantastic, and I will definitely be reading it again next year, around this time. And I will tell you guys next year whether or not it evokes the same sense of, you know, Halloween or seasons or fall or any of that stuff. But this year it was perfect, and I'm almost positive. One of the reasons why it was perfect is because of the time here that I read it. So that's five right there, but one of those honorable mentions, the last one is very near and dear to my heart. It's one of the first literary fiction stories, the just a story about good character and heart and passion and sorrow and all that stuff, all that stuff that I still look for in fiction today. I just lean a little more toward the dark side. But if I were to ask, this book has one of the best villains of all time, and that is One Flu over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesse. Casey? I don't know. A buddy telling me to read Sometimes a Great Notion also. I just bought it. We'll get to it eventually. But this one is on my top 20 books of all time. It's somewhere in the middle, so around 10. This is terrific. It's one of the first, like I said, it's one of the first non-horror books I ever, or non-genre books that I ever finished. Nurse Ratchet is fucking terrifying. I'm just gonna go ahead and come out and say it. She's one of the scariest villains of all time, right up there with the Candyman from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. You know what I'm talking about? I think you do. I still watch that movie to this day, but maybe I should do a top five villain, just period, not just in books. If I did that, I think I'd have some interesting choices. Well, you guys know two of them now, but Nurse Ratchet was insane, and I loved reading about her. And then the ending just, of course, it just shattered my heart. Everything about this book was unexpected for me. I didn't expect to enjoy it because it was a school book that I had to read for school. I ended up getting into it, and I don't even know that it has chapters. It might have chapters. I don't think I remember that it does. No, it doesn't. So by the time I got to the second page break, I guess it was, I was hooked, and I love this one. I think the only one that I read in school that I love even close to as much as this is where the red fern grows. Should I do my top five favorite classics? Let me know down there in the comments below. But this is a fantastic book, and every time I read it, maybe because I was in school at that time, it was around Halloween when I first read it. But this is the book that I think of anytime I want to be taken back to Halloween as a kid or to fall festivals or any of that stuff. This is the book that really cements that feeling for me. I can smell wood burning. I can see the leaves falling. I can hear the crackle of a fire. There's all different kind of emotions and senses that pop up when I read this book. And it's very funny because it all happens inside of this hospital, this institute. Anyways, it's just a fantastic book, and I could go on forever, but it's not a review of the book. Maybe one of these days I'll do that too. I still have to do my top five books of all time. All these lists, man. I told you this series is going to go on forever. But that's it. Please let me know non-Steven King, please. The best books that put you in the fall season. Not just Halloween, but the fall season. Leave your list down there in the comments below. Stay away from Stephen King, please. Stay away from Stephen King. We already did that one. Go watch that video. I linked it down there in the doobly-doo. But until next time, I have an E, you have an U. This has been another top five Friday. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye-bye.