R.I.P. Challenge Summary

I had a fantastic time with the R.I.P. Challenge this year! Almost half of my TBR list was appropriate for this challenge so I had no problem finding books to read and I obviously far surpassed the four perilous reads for Peril the First.

Here are the links to all of our R.I.P. reads this year --

Three Spooky Kid Books (Dr. Seuss, Lemony Snicket and an illustrated story)

The Somnambulist (Jonathan Barnes)

The House at Midnight (Lucie Whitehouse)

Ghostwalk (Rebecca Stott)

The Ghost Stories of Muriel Spark (Muriel Spark, of course!)

The Man in the Picture (Susan Hill)

In A Glass Darkly (Sheridan Le Fanu)

The House of Lost Souls (F.G. Cottam)

Pretty Monsters (Kelly Link)

Half-Minute Horrors (Susan Rich, editor)

The Haunting of Hill House (Shirley Jackson)

The Cain Saga: Forgotten Juliet (Kaori Yuki)

Spellbinder (Helen Stringer)

The Manual of Detection (Jedediah Berry)

Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie: My Rotten Life (David Lubar)

The Unburied (Charles Palliser)

And don't forget our Poe Fridays selections. I tried to focus on spooky reads for the past few weeks and got through some fantastic poems and short stories.

Many thanks to Carl for running this great Challenge every year. I hope that everyone that participated had as much fun as we did!

Looking forward to a novel without ghosts or murder,
K

Poe Fridays: The Raven

This week's fantastic Poe Fridays poem is The Raven. If you haven't read it before, you can find it here. But even if you have read it, why not go back for a re-read ... I'll wait.

This is not only the most recognized Poe poem but I would venture that it is one of the most well-constructed poems of all time. The cadence is perfect, the word choice is inspired and the mounting tension throughout the poem provides for the perfect read-aloud experience.

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
"'Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door-
Only this, and nothing more."

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;- vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow- sorrow for the lost Lenore-
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore-
Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain
Thrilled me- filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;
So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating,
"'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door-
Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door;-
This it is, and nothing more."

I'm not sure I've revealed this little tidbit about myself yet but I adore Vincent Price. I love him in his classic horror films and also in his dramatic roles (like my favorite film noir, Laura). And as the most fabulous thing about him is his voice, I leave you on this Halloween Eve with his reading of The Raven.



And for J.T. -- I found the Simpsons version!

For next week's Poe Fridays, let's read the short story William Wilson.

Nevermore,
K

"Few books in recent times have created as much controversy as The Thurchester Mystery when it was published three years ago."

The book in my TBR pile that I was most looking forward to reading this fall was The Unburied by Charles Palliser. I saved it until last hoping it would be my best perilous read. I think it did turn out to be one of the strongest books I read this season but it wasn't quite as good as I hoped it would be after my experience with another Palliser book, The Quincunx. The story was compelling and interesting but also a bit vague in parts and there was some overuse of adverbs.

It's the late nineteenth century and Dr. Courtine, an academic from Cambridge, is traveling for the holidays but takes a detour to visit a friend who has contacted him after a twenty-year estrangement. Courtine had a falling out with this man, Austin, but hopes that he wants to renew the friendship. He also hopes to get some research done in the cathedral town of Thurchester where Austin lives. Instead of his intended studies, Courtine becomes interested in a two hundred year old murder mystery from the town. Eventually, he is also dragged into a modern murder mystery -- one that happens during his stay.

This was definitely an appropriate R.I.P. Challenge read. It's a very interesting historical mystery and for those interested in any of the time periods visited in this book, I think it's a strong offering. The atmosphere is well-set in the wintry Cathedral close and the mystery is unfolded in an academic manner. And yet, there was nothing incredibly compelling about any of the characters, suspects or victims. Courtine's account also used excessive emotional descriptions--every character was always saying something sharply or suspiciously or angrily or strangely--that became distracting. It's possible that Palliser wrote in this manner on purpose (the narrator being an imaginative professor and not a writer) but it seemed a bit flamboyant. Finally, some of the crimes were only mentioned in the vaguest terms and it was difficult to really put together everything that was supposed to have happened. However, these shortcomings weren't enough to outweigh the strengths of this book.

Hoping to never find skeletons (or rotting corpses) in the closet,
K


Support our site and buy The Unburied on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

New Release: My Rotten Life

Nathan Abercrombie is a slightly below average ten-year old who has problems with girls, sports and bullies. But on the worst day he's had in a long time, things get worse than he could ever imagine. Abigail, one of the quiet kids in school, tells Nathan that her neurobiologist uncle is working on a serum that dulls emotions. Joined by Nathan's clumsy best friend Mookie, the three kids head to the local community college. In an accident that only Mookie could have precipitated, Nathan ends up being overdosed with a formula made with one wrong ingredient. And this is the moment that Nathan becomes the titular Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie in My Rotten Life by David Lubar.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that this may be the first zombie book that has been called cute and sweet. Not that this isn't a respectable middle school entry into the zombie world. It's simple and amusing and the start of what should be a fun series. We got this as a review copy for Z but unfortunately it was a bit over his head -- not the zombie part but the fifth grade part. Luckily he doesn't understand bullies and mean girls yet! We will definitely keep this book on the shelf for a couple of years. The second book in the series, Dead Guy Spy is coming out in January.

I'm going to add this on to my R.I.P. Challenge reads list. Sure it wasn't the scariest book but it did have a good build-up of suspense and also some awesome zombie-based science. I think it's a great option too for parents that might have a younger boy that thinks books are boring. This is anything but boring with such grody things as regurgitation and dismemberment. It also has some loyal friends and a great sense of humor.

To avoid zombification, read ingredients list carefully --
K


Support our site and buy My Rotten Life (Nathan Abercrombie, Accidental Zombie) on Amazon or find it at your local library. We got our copy from the publisher.

"Lest details be mistaken for clues, note that Mr. Charles Unwin ... rode his bicycle to work every day, even when it was raining."

The summary on the back of Jedediah Berry's The Manual of Detection is longer than the average blurb. This is because this is a complex story that is difficult to summarize in a way that makes it sound as interesting and unique as it really is. Here's my attempt --

Charles Unwin works in a detective agency that has a unique hierarchy of clerks, detectives and watchers -- each assigned into a crime-solving trio and yet never meeting in person. All communication is passed between the team members by messenger. One day, Unwin is approached by a detective who tells him that he has been promoted to detective and hands him a book, The Manual of Detection. He knows that his detective, Travis Sivart, has recently gone missing and so as his first (and hopefully last) task of detection, he decides to find Sivart (a man he has never seen) so that Unwin can return to his clerking job. In the course of his task, he meets many people -- some helpful, some harmful and some dead.

The most perilous thing in my latest R.I.P. Challenge read is the femme fatale -- well, that and the separated conjoined twins who like to kill people. This story has a lot in common with old hard-boiled detective novels but it's set in a world of rogue circus folk, mind control and dream stealing. There are many fascinating (though somewhat one-dimensional) characters and the story is a real page-turner. This book has a complexity that makes it interesting but also a simplicity that makes it compelling. This is definitely a book that will offer up something different each time you read it and I plan on reading it more than once.

Folding myself a tin foil hat,
K


Support our site and buy The Manual of Detection on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our copy of this book.

New Release: Spellbinder

I know that many of us have the guilty (or not so guilty) pleasure of enjoying youth and YA fantasy books. These books take you away to another place, a world of magic and mystery. The only thing more magical than re-visiting a favorite book or series is finding a new favorite. My new favorite is the newly released Spellbinder by Helen Stringer -- and I can only hope that it will become a series!

From the publisher --

Belladonna Johnson can see ghosts. It's a trait she's inherited from her mother's side of the family, like blue eyes or straight hair. And it's a trait she could do without, because what twelve-year-old wants to be caught talking to someone invisible? It is convenient, though, after Belladonna's parents are killed in a car accident. They can live with her the same as always, watching the same old TV shows in their same old house. Nothing has changed ... until everything changes.

One night, with no warning, they vanish into thin air--along with every other ghost in the world. It's what some people think ghosts are supposed to do, but Belladonna knows it's all wrong. They may not be living, but they're not supposed to be gone.

With the help of her classmate Steve, a master of sneaking and spying, Belladonna is left to uncover what's become of the spirits and to navigate a whole world her parents have kept well-hidden. If she can't find her way, she'll lose them again--this time for good.

I was interested in the story based on this description but was pleasantly surprised to find even more depth of plot and character in this middle-grade book. This is a story about love and friendship and courage. The writing is fantastic for a first novel and very smart for the age it is written for.

How could I not classify this as another R.I.P. Challenge read? ::wink:: This book happened to arrive right as I was needing one more post and so I picked it up the day after it came. Now I'm glad that I could bring this to your attention just in time for you to grab it as a last minute seasonal read, an anytime fantasy read or as a holiday gift for your favorite middle schooler. The story focuses on ghosts but also has dragons, death hounds, "Night Ravens" and sprites. There is some magic but the story also proves the strength of a good old fashioned education. And there are still a couple of loose ends that leave me hoping that the story doesn't end here!

Bound by the spell cast by this book,
K


Support our site and buy Spellbinder on Amazon or find it at your local library. We have an advance review copy from the publisher and will be buying our own copy of the finished book.

Pretty Monsters Winner!

Random.org has helped me pick the winner of my copy of Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters. And the winner is ...

Nicole of My Book Views

Congratulations! I have sent you an e-mail. Thank you to everyone who entered the drawing!

Sharing the scare,
K

Poe Fridays: The Pit and the Pendulum

For Poe Fridays this week, I chose one of my favorite Poe horror stories, The Pit and the Pendulum. You can read it here.

This is a psychological thriller told in the first person. The narrator has been condemned to death by the Inquisition in Toledo. When his sentence is passed, he blacks out and awakes in a dark room with a slimy floor. We then experience with him the different tortures that he is subjected to. The "pit" and the "pendulum" are but two of these.

I love the darkness and the pacing of this story. It has the same escalation style as a few of Poe's other works. This is a paragraph from the middle of the tale --

What boots it to tell of the long, long hours of horror more than mortal, during which I counted the rushing vibrations of the steel! Inch by inch -- line by line -- with a descent only appreciable at intervals that seemed ages -- down and still down it came! Days passed -- it might have been that many days passed -- ere it swept so closely over me as to fan me with its acrid breath. The odor of the sharp steel forced itself into my nostrils. I prayed -- I wearied heaven with my prayer for its more speedy descent. I grew frantically mad, and struggled to force myself upward against the sweep of the fearful scimitar. And then I fell suddenly calm, and lay smiling at the glittering death, as a child at some rare bauble.

It would be impossible not to form a vivid picture of this horrific scene in your mind. Poe is fantastic at relaying both emotion and the physical environment in this tale. I love it!

As I'm sure you have been expecting, I couldn't pass up the chance for a Halloween Eve reading of the quintessential Poe, The Raven. I hope that you will all join me in revisiting this classic poem!

Fearing another Inquisition,
K

My First Manga

Tanabata at In Spring it is the Dawn has started a new challenge whose purpose is to introduce world readers to the culture of Japan. It's called Hello Japan! and consists of a monthly task. Here's the one for October --

The task this month is to read or watch something scary, spooky, or suspenseful, and Japanese of course! You can read a book (for those that like to multi-task, remember that a Japanese spooky read would also count for both the R.I.P. IV Challenge and the Japanese Literature Challenge 3!), but if you don't have time this month for a whole book you can read a short story, a ghostly folktale (there are some available to read online, see below), or a manga. Or you could watch a movie, or an anime.

I was searching through Netflix looking for a J-horror film but then decided to be a little more bold and try my first manga. I looked through some review sites and finally found one that looked interesting to me, The Cain Saga: Forgotten Juliet. Here's the brief description on Amazon --

Born under an evil moon harboring dark secrets, Earl Cain C. Hargreaves, the youthful heir of the aristocratic Hargreaves family, is a man on a quest to find the truth about his family's past. Written in dark, harrowing episodes, The Cain Saga chronicles how Cain solves the strange crimes that seem to plague his cursed existence, yet somehow bring him closer to deciphering the puzzling circumstances surrounding his father's tragic death.

Five gripping stories of love, friendship and betrayal--"Forgotten Juliet," "Branded Bibi," "The Youths Who Stopped Time," "Double," and "The Death of Cleo"--comprise this poignant first installment of Kaori Yuki's hit gothic manga series. Gothic fans will be left in awe long after this series has ended!

This is the start of a prequel series to the Godchild series by Kaori Yuki. She is apparently rather private although she has brief "letters" to her fans throughout her work that explain some of her influences like Twin Peaks, Young Sherlock Holmes and Dead Poets' Society. Funnily, I recognized some of these references and styles and was quite amused by them. The stories were all short but well fleshed-out and entertaining.

The hardest part of this reading was of course getting used to the right-to-left style. Also, I had trouble keeping track of characters because of changes in appearance. Still, I enjoyed reading these stories and am somewhat curious about the main series. Cain seems to be somewhat typical of the handsome loner that you see in other Japanese animation -- like Roger Smith in Big O. The husband and I used to watch a lot of Japanese series but it really is a different experience in print.

Since this read was mostly about learning more about Japan, I also went and read a bit about manga. This image is the kanji (Chinese characters) for manga and the word translates to "whimsical pictures". Most manga are in black-and-white and the artist of the manga is called the mangaka. Modern manga started showing up after World War II and incorporates both traditional Japanese themes and many American influences that came to Japan during the Occupation. You can find a manga about almost any topic or genre and just like graphic novels, many are written specifically for an adult audience. There are words designating whether the target audience is girls (shōjo manga), younger males (shōnen manga) or adult males (seinen manga). Some popular manga series in the U.S. are Sailor Moon, Ghost in the Shell and Akira -- though most Americans know these better as animated series and movies or anime.

I am going to count this one as another read for the R.I.P. Challenge. This little book had it all -- a poisoning, a stabbing, a shooting, an axe attack, a supernatural anti-aging potion and revenge, lots and lots of revenge. It was interesting to see these stories come to life through the illustrations. Since this manga was in black and white, it wasn't gory or anything but the faces of the characters were certainly expressive. Also, the text helped to fill in some of the details like in the story with the green poison. Yuri is a talented artist!

Using someone else's imagination for a bit,
K


Support our site and buy Forgotten Juliet (Cain Saga, Book 1) on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed this book from the library.

"No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality ..."

After reading We Have Always Lived in the Castle last year, I wanted to read another Shirley Jackson book this year. I chose The Haunting of Hill House because others have been enjoying it and because they had a copy available at the library. I had seen the 1999 film version, The Haunting, a few years back. Luckily I didn't remember much about it because they weren't very similar. This book was definitely a psychological thriller versus a gory, violent one.

A paranormal researcher selects a small group of people to accompany him to Hill House, a place built slightly off-kilter and with an inherent aura of gloom and despair. The professor, Dr. Montague, is hoping that a successful encounter with the spirit in the house will finally bring him the reputation he has been craving for years. Eleanor Vance is recovering from eleven years of nursing a demanding mother and so sees the chance to finally have an experience that is all her own. Theodora, a possible "sensitive", is high-spirited and makes a last-minute decision to join the group. Finally, Luke Sanderson is the future heir of Hill House and is joining the group as a condition of their being on the property. These four people bring their own shortcomings with them to the house but none are as severe as the issues the house already has inside its walls.

As you can guess, I chose this book as another read for the R.I.P. Challenge. From other people's reviews, I thought this would be a much scarier read than it turned out to be. I personally thought it was more disturbing than scary. It definitely fit in with what I expected from Shirley Jackson though. She specializes in exploring emotions and reactionary behavior in different situations. It's incredible to me how much depth she is able to fit into her novellas and short stories. I will definitely be reading more of her works soon -- perhaps with a re-read of The Lottery because I haven't read it since high school.

Comfortable in my house with no history,
K


Support our site and buy The Haunting of Hill House on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed our copy from the library.

Time Enough for Scaring

The back of this book asks "How scary can thirty seconds be!?" and now I know. Harper Collins has collected a ridiculous number of famous authors and asked them to pen very short stories for the young readers' anthology Half-Minute Horrors (edited by Susan Rich). Here's a glimpse at a small portion of the author list: Margaret Atwood, Avi, Michael Connelly, Neil Gaiman, Dan Gutman, Erin Hunter, Faye Kellerman, Gregory Maguire, James Patterson, Jon Scieszka, Lemony Snicket and R.L. Stine. If these folks can't scare your tweens, I don't know who can!

The stories in this book run the gamut of topics from monsters under the bed to ghosts to demonic pets to the most terrifying thing of all ... clowns. Of course it's impossible to summarize any of these stories without, well, reprinting the entire things so here are just some mentions of the ones that stood out to me --

Kenneth Oppel wrote In Hiding, an amusing twist on the standard monster-under-the-bed story.

Jon Klassen drew the hilarious but disturbing The Legend of Alexandra & Rose. Klassen also worked on the Coraline film and if you are a fan of illustrators, I highly suggest checking out his website.

Holly Black wrote the most touching and sad story of the book, A Very Short Story.

Lisa Brown drew the amusing "The Turn of the Screw by Henry James as Told by Lisa Brown in Fewer Than 30 Seconds". This three panel series is a must-see for anyone who has read or is planning to read The Turn of the Screw.

I was the most traumatized by Ayelet Waldman's story, At the Water's Edge. I think this would have been the one that recurred in my nightmares as a child.

The collaboration that was the most terrifying was The Final Word by Brett Helquist (your favorite Series of Unfortunate Events illustrator) and Josh Greenhut. This story features the creepy story staple - The Ouija Board.

These stories are just the tip of the iceberg in this fantastic anthology. And the best thing is that the royalties go to First Book, a very worthy cause that supports putting books into every child's home. And on the Half-Minute Horrors website, you can submit your own story and read the other submitted stories. How cool is that?

This was a quick, fun and yet discomforting read and though it wasn't incredibly scary for me as an adult, it did remind me of many of the things that I found most frightful when I was a kid. Z is too young for almost all of the stories in this book (luckily he's not afraid of the dark and I don't want to change that) but he did take a look at the cover only to declare that "it's a bunch of beetles in people suits" before he started chuckling. He's got a very interesting sense of humor!

Briefly renewing my childhood habit of checking under the bed,
K


Support our site (and First Book) and buy Half-Minute Horrors on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

Pretty Monsters and Giveaway!

I first saw Kelly Link's Pretty Monsters on Rob Around Books in one of his Daily Bookshot posts. Based solely on the cover, I jumped on Amazon and bought myself a copy. I'll admit that I was a bit disappointed when I didn't get the super awesome black-edged copy that Rob featured but I guess that was just for the U.K. edition. Then Rob started reading the stories on October 1 for his 31 Shots of Shock short story challenge. I decided to pick up my copy at the same time and read along. If you head to this search page, you can see his entries for each story and my quick comments on each one. He also has an eloquent Afterthoughts post about the entire book. (Have I plugged RobAroundBooks enough times yet?!)

Anyway, I know that a few of my readers are familiar with Kelly Link already and this is a collection of stories that have almost all been printed before. And yet I hadn't read anything by her until now so I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was a set of imaginative stories over a wide variety of topics and genres. The Wrong Grave and Monster are based on more classic horror themes while Pretty Monsters is classic but then again not. There are a couple of stories that are a bit more fantasy. My favorites were probably Magic for Beginners about teens that follow a pirate television show about a magical library and The Constable of Abal with its "ghosts on ribbons".

My only real complaint about this collection was that the stories are written for a young adult audience and yet the first three stories all dropped the f-bomb which limits some of the younger teens from picking up this book (if their parents happen to see it first). My fake complaint is that I wanted some of the stories to be more fleshed out but I guess then they wouldn't have been short stories! Some of them almost weren't anyway at anywhere from thirty to sixty pages. This didn't matter so much though as Link has a very conversational way of writing which makes even her longest stories quick-reading.

And now for the giveaway! I'm giving one of you the chance to win my gently-read copy (it does have a remainder mark on the bottom). I'm going to make this a U.S. and Canada only giveaway since it is a 400 page hardcover. To enter, give me two pieces of information in a comment -- your email address (if you don't have it in your commenter profile) and the story, book or movie that scared you most as a child. My favorite scary movie was The Watcher in the Woods (1980) which I watched a couple of dozen times and made all of my friends watch. It was also my first introduction to Bette Davis which makes it all the more memorable. The scariest book I remember is The Dollhouse Murders (1983) by Betty Ren Wright. I couldn't stop thinking about it for weeks and had problems sleeping while I was reading it. It was re-released a year ago to torment a new generation of girls.

Please get your entries in by midnight Pacific on Saturday October 24.

Pretty monsters make for pretty spooky stories,
K


Support our site and buy Pretty Monsters: Stories on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.

Recent Acquisitions or The Girl Can't Help It

Another trip to Half-Price Books, another four inches added to my TBR pile. I did happen to take a bag full of books to trade in though so it's not that bad! In fact, the books started setting off the seat sensor on the passenger side and so my car "ding"ed at me for half of the trip to the store. I thought it was an electrical glitch until I figured out the car thought there was a person-in-peril in the seat next to me! I ended up belting-in my books for the last couple miles.

So, I picked up

The Magicians by Lev Grossman -- the more I hear about this book, the more I want to read it.

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith -- I saw the movie a few years ago and have been thinking about reading the book for a while. Someone else read it recently (let me know if it was you!) and well, how could I pass up a $2 copy?

Big Fish by Daniel Wallace -- I actually own this movie because I loved it so much (and it was by Tim Burton who I adore). I've heard good things about the book too and so here it is.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith -- And yes, I also watched the first season of the cable series this past year and it whet my appetite for the books. So I guess that I have tv and movies to thank for three of my book acquisitions this time.

and The Big Science Fair by Dan Yaccarino -- this is another in the Blast Off Boy and Blorp series and Z was excited to find it!

I also won a $25 Amazon gift certificate during BBAW. I must have had good karma to get back exactly what I gave out. ::grin:: I used it to buy my own copies of The Magician's Elephant by Kate DiCamillo and The Serial Garden by Joan Aiken, both of which were library books that I reviewed recently and loved and wanted on our shelves for Z's future reading. In the meantime, I will most likely read them again!

I've also started getting a bunch of review copies again. I scaled it back for a while to work on my TBR piles and to have time for all of my R.I.P. reads but you will see more new and exciting titles here in November!

Seriously in need of a new bookshelf (or three),
K

Poe Fridays: Ulalume

This week's Poe Fridays poem was the October-themed Ulalume. You can read it here. My apologies for the link included last week that seems to have been missing a few of the stanzas.

I'll share the first three stanzas with you as Poe employs a very unusual technique of word repetition in this poem.

The skies they were ashen and sober;
The leaves they were crisped and sere--
The leaves they were withering and sere;
It was night in the lonesome October
Of my most immemorial year:
It was hard by the dim lake of Auber,
In the misty mid region of Weir--
It was down by the dank tarn of Auber,
In the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

Here once, through an alley Titanic,
Of cypress, I roamed with my Soul--
Of cypress, with Psyche, my Soul.
These were days when my heart was volcanic
As the scoriac rivers that roll--
As the lavas that restlessly roll
Their sulphurous currents down Yaanek
In the ultimate climes of the pole--
That groan as they roll down Mount Yaanek
In the realms of the boreal pole.

Our talk had been serious and sober,
But our thoughts they were palsied and sere--
Our memories were treacherous and sere,--
For we knew not the month was October,
And we marked not the night of the year
(Ah, night of all nights in the year!)--
We noted not the dim lake of Auber
(Though once we had journeyed down here)--
Remembered not the dank tarn of Auber,
Nor the ghoul-haunted woodland of Weir.

The first thing I had to do when I finished this poem for the first time was to find out the meanings of some of the words. Ulalume? It's a name. Sere means "dried-up". Scoriac refers to scoria - a type of volcanic rock similar to pumice but more cindery. Mount Yaanek is Mount Erebus, a volcano in Antarctica.

After clearing up some of the vocabulary, I appreciated this poem much more. It's actually a rather simple one that again explores one of Poe's preferred topics -- a dead lover. The narrator goes for a walk on a crisp October night, not realizing that his steps will take him to the burial chamber of his lost love, Ulalume, whom he buried a year ago on that day. His grief is still fresh and is exacerbated by this unconscious return to the crypt. As with all of Poe's poetry about loss, many different theories abound as to whether this poem was inspired by the death of Virginia or perhaps a more general musing about the many losses of women in his life. Whatever the influence, this is a touching poem and a great read for a cold October evening.

For next week I chose a horror classic, the short story The Pit and the Pendulum. I'm really excited to re-read this one.

Writing this on a crisp, October morn -- enjoying this on a brisk October morn,
K

New Release: The Age of Wonder

Though I've been busy with my seasonal reads, I took the time out to read a non-fiction title that proved almost as exciting as any of the sensational stories. Hiding behind the impressive title of The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science, Richard Holmes has written a highly accessible book about the progress of science in England during the Georgian and Regency times.

This book is more than a simple timeline of historical events related to science and natural philosophy. It is a string of biographies and also a period history including the politics, poetry and religion of the times. Holmes is a fantastic writer with a sense of humor and an easy way of presenting what could be a daunting subject. Whether discussing William Herschel and his expansion of our knowledge of the cosmos, Joseph Banks and his exploration and leadership skills or Humphry Davy and his chemistry and engineering genius, each man comes alive and his contribution to science during the Romantic Era is clear. And if you have no interest in these pioneers then perhaps you will enjoy reading about Mary Shelley and the effect of her well-known novel on the public view of science or about the poets Keats, Shelley and Coleridge and their support of and inclusion of science in their poetry and prose. I enjoyed seeing how the groundwork was laid for such geniuses as Darwin and Faraday -- the establishment of a climate in England that allowed these men (and a few women) to revolutionize our theories and our world during Victorian times.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in history, science or Georgian and Regency England.

Appreciating when fact proves as compelling as fiction,
K


Support our site and buy The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science on Amazon or find it at your local library. We asked the publisher for our copy.

Monster Poems That Frighten and Inform

Are you looking to frighten a child in your life? Not sure where to start? How about trying out the gamut of monsters and seeing what scares them the most? ::wink::

The Monsterologist: A Memoir in Rhyme is a book that came out this spring and introduces children (and their uninformed parents) to some common monsters that one may find in film, literature and everyday life. "Ghostwritten" by Bobbi Katz and illustrated by Adam McCauley, this is a somewhat tame outing that can be appreciated by most kids over the age of five or six. There isn't anything terribly scary in it and in fact most of the humor seems to be for the parents who get to read this out loud (like the Zombie census form). Being a classic monster fan, I loved introducing Z to some of my favorites like King Kong, the Loch Ness Monster, Kraken, Yeti and Doctor Frankenstein.

I found the illustrations in this book to be more consistently awesome than the writing. I loved some of the poems but others focused too much on rhyme and not enough on rhythm or content. Z shouted out "this is a rhyming poem!" during a couple of them because the rhymes were so heavy-handed and obvious. The author also didn't seem to "get" what makes some of these monsters so cool -- like turning King Kong into a Ping Pong opponent, having Godzilla be a fan of milkshakes (?) and revealing that the Yeti eats spaghetti. These just seemed a bit too cheesy and I was hoping for something a little more in the spirit of these scary classic monsters.



Still, many of the entries were totally amusing. There is a witchy version of the song "My Favorite Things" that is really clever. You will also not want to miss the recipe for Grendel's "Danish Pastry" -- full of lots of tasty Danes. The best poem is probably the one titled "From the desk of Count Dracula" and is an invitation to visit him in Transylvania.

Just buy a one-way ticket. There's no need to splurge.
I'd really love to see you. It's an overwhelming urge.
You'll find that I'm a genial host,
but at times I think I'll burst,
unless I drink a bit of blood to satisfy my thirst.
A friendly nip, a little sip is harmless, you'll agree.
It's natural and organic, and my castle is smoke-free."

My favorite part of the book though was teaching Z the song "The Worms Crawl In". He's been singing it for days and it cracks me up.

Head over to Adam McCauley's website to see his award-winning endpaper design for the book -- faux stamps based on classic movie monsters. They're fantastic!

I'm having a great time sharing some scary reads with Z this year. He's finally old enough for some gentle frights and I love seeing some of these things through fresh eyes -- like the fact that he thinks the Kraken is female (he calls her "Mrs. Kraken"). And I certainly never thought I would have the chance to explain The Golem to a five year old but suddenly "a man made of mud" sounds much cooler. Z's eyes lit up at that idea!

Monster poems are really great ... don't put them off 'til it's too late!
K and Z


Support our site and buy The Monsterologist: A Memoir in Rhyme on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed this book from the library.

"Nick Mason thought it ironic that he had always been so skilled at the covert aspect of the craft."

After a slow start where I considered setting the book aside, I eventually got wrapped up in the mystery and tragedy of F.G. Cottam's The House of Lost Souls. Though this wasn't a perfect book, it was an acceptable October read.

Paul Seaton is the only man who can help a trio of college students who are psychologically damaged after visiting a house where unspeakable evil lives -- because he is the only one to have defeated that evil once before. This is a story that visits the past -- the 1920s when a group of people gathered on the Isle of Wight at Fischer House for nefarious purposes under the watchful eye of real-life character Aleister Crowley. One of these people is the female photographer Pandora Gibson-Hoare. In the 1980's, Paul Seaton's girlfriend is a fashion student who wants to research Gibson-Hoare but has run out of time. Paul, as a journalist, steps in to help and precipitates an unbelievable chain of events. When Paul is approached years later to help the young women-- who are all now endangered after their trip to the Fischer house --he decides that this is a chance to help and to exorcise his own demons.

This was obviously another R.I.P. Challenge read. It was a good choice with more than enough ghosts and evil to tide one over for an entire season. Strangely, this wasn't as traumatic a book as I thought it would be. I tend to avoid plots that are strongly based in the evil that men do. While I feel rather safe from ghosts, vampires and magic, evil men exist and can be found anywhere. So I don't find a lot of entertainment in reading about murderers, sadists and other violent people. However, this book was much more about choices and consequences and this was a good balance for me. Some of the writing was a bit awkward and the book could have used more editing but it was a pretty solid horror/paranormal read.

Sticks and stones and vindictive ghosts may break my bones,
K


Support our site and buy The House of Lost Souls on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed this book from the library.

Release Announcement: Pendragon's Banner

In February I reviewed The Kingmaking, first in Helen Hollick's The Pendragon's Banner Trilogy. The first book followed a young Arthur Pendragon as he became King of the British Isles. I thought it was a strong book with well-formed characters that held my interest.

The second book in the series, Pendragon's Banner, has now been re-released and I invite you to check it out as I will be doing when I have the chance.

After claiming his throne on the blood-soaked fields of Rutupiae—striking fear into the hearts of his enemies—only Morgause “the witch” dared to challenge Arthur in this follow-up to Helen Hollick’s smash hit The Kingmaking. In a deadly game of politics and back-stabbing, Arthur must deal with the reality that taking a kingdom is far different from keeping one! Hollick’s new historical, Pendragon’s Banner, spans six years, from 459-465 A.D., and details Arthur’s struggle to stay in power and keep his family alive.

Two enemies in particular threaten everything that is dear to him: Winifred, Arthur's vindictive first wife, and Morgause, priestess of the Mother and malevolent Queen of the North. Both have royal ambitions of their own.

This is not a fairy tale or fantasy. There is no Merlin, no sword in the stone, and no Lancelot. This is a tale of battle, intrigue and an irate Morgause who delights in nurturing the belief that she is a witch—especially after her very public curse on Arthur’s sons. This is an account of Arthurian legend, based on historical evidence and meticulous research; a story of King Arthur as it may have actually unfolded.

Finding history that is fantastic without the fantasy,
K


Support our site and buy Pendragon's Banner: Book Two of the Pendragon's Banner Trilogy on Amazon or find it at your local library.

Mary ... ANN!!

I'll admit it ... I'm a toe-dipper. There's no jumping off the high dive for me. When I want to try out a new or seldomly read genre, I'm going to do it in the least risky way. This time it was the graphic novel Wonderland, written by Tommy Kovac and drawn by Sonny Liew and compiled from six individually released comics. I am a huge fan of Alice in Wonderland and this comic, based on both the Disney film and the original story, seemed like an easy way to explore a medium of story-telling that I rarely visit.

This is the story of Mary Ann ... yes, *the* Mary Ann ... maid in the household of the White Rabbit. She returns after Alice's visit to Wonderland and becomes enmeshed in the mess that Alice has left behind. Fans of the film will love the use of the Disney-imagined characters (like the fuchsia and lavender Cheshire cat and the flag-capped Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum) and also the little unrelated homages to the film (like the "little oysters" traveling across the beach). Fans of the original story will appreciate the use of the full "'Twas brillig" poem and the subsequent appearance of the Jabberwocky.

It takes me a little while to get used to the verbal simplicity of a graphic novel and to look away from the words and appreciate the other elements of the story that are shown visually. I think that this one warrants a second read-through to absorb things that I missed the first time through. I enjoyed reading this one!

Admitting that one of my favorite words has always been "outgrabe",
K


Support our site and buy Wonderland on Amazon or find it at your local library. We borrowed this one from the library.

Seattle Bookfest - October 24 and 25

Are there any Seattle area bloggers interested in meeting up or traveling together to Seattle Bookfest in two weeks?

Lena? J.T.? Robin? Scott?

Do we have any other Seattle bloggers on here or book bloggers that will be in Seattle in two weeks? I've also posted about this on the Book Blogs group for Bloggers in the PNW.

From the website:

Remember the old Northwest Bookfestival on the waterfront?
How much fun it was? Well, it's about to happen again!

Seattle's Columbia City neighborhood is bringing it back October 24-25 at the Columbia City Event Center, a former school that's one block from the new Columbia City light rail station.

The resurrected fair will feature more than 100 local authors, including poets and writers of fiction, nonfiction, mystery, romance, fantasy, and children's books. In addition, the fair will showcase over 50 area bookstores, nonprofits, and small but influential publishers as exhibitors. There is also a long list of panels, workshops and special events including a spelling bee, SCRABBLE contests, bookbinding demo, and a How-to-Write-a-Novel-in-a-Month workshop.

It's from 10am to 6pm each day but I don't see a schedule of the events anywhere yet. There's a five dollar suggested donation to get in.

Rounding up the book blogging troops,
K

Suspending The Re-Read Challenge

Folks, I hate to do this but I am going to suspend the Re-Read Challenge. There just isn't enough participation right now and we're already half-way through the time frame. I am going to re-run it in the spring or summer next year. I will give credit to those who have already signed up and re-read a book so your time wasn't wasted! Please comment here if you did a re-read in the past 6 weeks.

I really want this to be an annual challenge but I think that the end of the year is the wrong time to run it. Thanks for your understanding!

Still going to push the re-reads,
K

Poe Fridays: Some Words With A Mummy

This week's Poe Fridays short story was Some Words With A Mummy. You can read it here.

This story reminded me of one we read a few months ago -- The Angel of the Odd. It is another humorous tale that begins with an overindulging narrator. In The Angel it was a heavy drinker who has "odd" things happen all around him. In the current story it's a narrator that overindulges in food and stout. After he heads to bed with this large meal in his belly, he is woken by a message from a friend who intends to dissect a mummy that very night. A group of observers break through the many layers of papyrus coverings to find a very well preserved mummy. They decide to postpone the dissection until the next night until someone mentions trying some galvanic experiments (electrocution). You can imagine what happens in order to fulfill the title and for them to have "some words" with the mummy. In fact, the mummy shocks and humiliates the men with tales of Egyptian superiority to modern culture.

Refreshingly, Poe didn't spend the first page or two of this story setting up with a cryptic or dull background passage. The story starts immediately and is really funny and a nice satire of the elitist culture at the time. The men were so sure of their superiority and didn't take it well when the mummy reminded them of the proficiency of the Egyptians in so many scientific and mechanical fields. I can see though why this story didn't make it into any mummy short story anthologies. There's not a lot of scare behind a well-spoken yet somewhat smug ancient who might be in the dreams of a man who ate a few pounds of Welsh-rabbit and drank five bottles of stout for supper.

Next week's Poe Fridays selection will be the poem Ulalume.

Also, if you are near Baltimore this weekend, you can attend Poe's funeral on Sunday. There will be a limited number of tickets available at the door and a faux Poe will be in the coffin. He died at the age of 40 on October 7, 1849. Rest in peace, Mr. Poe.

Mentally preparing my own questions for a mummy (just in case),
K

"Though carefully educated in medicine and surgery, I have never practiced either."

Though I thought that this book would be a single story, I found out in the Introduction that In a Glass Darkly is actually a collection of short (and one longish) stories written by Sheridan Le Fanu. The subjects of the stories are hardly related except that they all are improbable. Some are rooted in the supernatural, others in the evil of men's hearts.

The first three stories, Green Tea, The Familiar and Mr. Justice Harbottle, were the most similar. Each dealt with someone plagued with madness though the sources of the madness were debatable. In one case, guilt was suspected though it could have been a ghost. In another story, the culprit may have been too much green tea. These were good solid Victorian stories of the supernatural though none of them were mind-blowing.

The fourth story in the book was the longest and was an adventure story with human villains. The Room in the Dragon Volant was maddening in the way of Victorian stories where the reader is far more sophisticated than the trusting, naive protagonist. From the start of the story, it was obvious what mistakes young Richard made when traveling to France. However, he is also our narrator and so we could assume that everything worked out for him somewhat in the end -- though one starts to worry when the premature burial scene comes around! Yet, by the end of this story, it was my favorite of the book.

The final story, Carmilla was shorter than the previous one but also pretty long for a short story. This was again another kind of story, one that I wasn't expecting after the other four -- a lesbian vampire story. I liked this story until it got toward the end when the situation was pretty obvious but again our oblivious young narrator and protagonist can't put together the clues that are spoken right at her. For some reason, it was a bit more maddening than in the previous story. However, I found it interesting that Carmilla was written in 1872-- twenty-five years before Dracula --and was a major influence on the classic vampire story.

This was one of the books that I really wanted to read this fall. I had already planned to read it for another challenge but held off until now and this definitely proved to be a perfect time of year (and a perfect day) for it. Sitting on the sofa with thunder and pouring rain while I got through Carmilla made the story that much spookier. This was one of the best R.I.P Challenge IV reads that I've had so far. The stories weren't perfect but they were very enjoyable. I will definitely read more Le Fanu in the future.

This book is also on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list. I can definitely see the influence of some of these stories on future fiction -- especially horror and vampire stories. I could even see The Room in the Dragon Volant being made into a film one day. I am making terrific progress with the 1% Well-Read Challenge as this is my eighth book for the challenge this year. I only have two more to read before the end of the year and then I will be more well-read ... at least by the standards of the current list!

You know I made it to the end of the book because I'm writing this post ...
K


Support our site and buy In A Glass Darkly on Amazon or find it at your local library. We bought our own copy.