January 2016 Group Read-The Bazaar of Bad Dreams

[Alondra]

Veronica wrote: "I just started the book and reading 81 Miles. This one is a little strange. [spoilers removed]"

hahahha... i read this one before, and loved it. Yeah, cars and stephen king have a history.

[Travis]

So far I've read Mile 81 (which I had previously read as an ebook single) , Premium Harmony, Batman and Robin Have an Altercation, and The Dune.

Mile 81 actually was a quicker, more enjoyable read this second time but that's also because I read it in one chunk; I read so few ebooks and tend to read them in bits spread out over time so all tension is lost.

The other three stories so far have really showed how King can transform the mundane into something dark and slightly sinister. The ending of each has also startled me. In Premium Harmony I totally forgot about (view spoiler)[the dog in the back seat (hide spoiler)]. In Batman and Robin I didn't really know where it was going at all (view spoiler)[and even got suckered into thinking the story would actually be about Batman and Robin (hide spoiler)]. In The Dune I got suckered into the same conclusion as Wayland.

I've heard the next story in line, Bad Little Kid, is a good one and some people's favorite, so I'm looking forward to it. I had no idea there was a poem later in the collection; I'm not usually a fan of poetry either but I'll give it a shot, it's still King after all.

[Eric]

Starting this one tonight. Like Travis I've read 'Mile 81' before. I've also read 'Blockade Billy', 'Morality' and 'UR' as well.

[Marc-Antoine]

I think Batman and Robin have an altercation was my favourite... And Drunken Fireworks...

[Veronica]

So far I liked Batman And Robin. Brings me back to my Mom who had an aneurysm in April and triggered form of dementia. I mean the doctors said she should have died. But shes a tough cookie. She's not the same. But she's alive... This story made me think of her.

[Veronica]

Right now I am reading Dune

[Alondra]

Okay, whats up with Premium Harmony? he rants, he raves (view spoiler)[ and his wife keels over in the shop & save; really?? am I missing something?? did he do something to her??? (hide spoiler)]

Loved Batman & Robin. Just when you thought it was one thing; pops steps in... i actually giggled at the end of that one. i am sick; i know.

Starting Dune, Veronica :D

[Char]

I'm loving the story notes.

[Walter]

I've put in for the book at my local library, but I think there's a bit of a line for it. If it gets too late in the month, I'll burn the last of my B&N gift cards I got for Christmas and pick it up.

[Shannon]

waiting on my library to get this one because i havent found it at our local book store yet and i really dont have the money to buy it new

[Eric]

Charlene wrote: "I'm loving the story notes."

Me too! Really adds some neat insight.

[Amanda]

The story notes are really lifting this book. Not so keen on poetry though, but that might be more a criticism of myself, poetry is something I've never really"got". I'm probably not supposed to admit that :-(

[Char]

Amanda wrote: "The story notes are really lifting this book. Not so keen on poetry though, but that might be more a criticism of myself, poetry is something I've never really"got". I'm probably not supposed to ad..."

We don't judge much around here. We like what we like and we don't have to be ashamed about it. Us horror lovers take enough crap as it is-"You're reading that trash?" "You like serial killer books? You must be sick!" We don't need to be judging our own.

[Andrew]

I just finished the book. My favorites were UR and Summer Thunder. But overall a very good collection.

[Eric]

Alondra wrote: "Okay, whats up with Premium Harmony? he rants, he raves [spoilers removed]

Yeah, read that one this morning. Not really sure what to make of it. (view spoiler)[Not sure if there was really much point in it. I mean I enjoyed it albeit an extremely depressing tale. Maybe King's view of childless marriage? Or the tiresome longevity of a failed marriage? I dunno what it really said to me. (hide spoiler)]

[Amanda]

Thanks Charlene! And yes us HA lovers must stick together. I like places of no judgement, wish the world was like that!

[Amanda]

Just finished reading Ur, really enjoyed it. Without giving away any spoilers this story does hit on themes that King has written about previously, but love the twist of a kindle!

[Char]

Amanda wrote: "Just finished reading Ur, really enjoyed it. Without giving away any spoilers this story does hit on themes that King has written about previously, but love the twist of a kindle!"

UR was the first thing I read on my first ever Kindle. I just thought it was the neatest thing ever. It seems so long ago to me, now.

[Jeremy]

I only bought the audiobook and am now regretting it as I am not able to reference passages, etc. The way he twists these tales with a humorous spin is what always gets me. This book just made me love Stephen King more.

[Lena]

Lol, yeah audiobooks are bitch like that. I have to "rewind" and write down quotes.

[Latasha]

Shannon wrote: "waiting on my library to get this one because i havent found it at our local book store yet and i really dont have the money to buy it new"

I'm on a waiting list too.

[Kevin]

What's interesting about this collection, for me, is that the lesser stories (or rather those that I enjoyed less) are those in which King invokes the names of other such as Raymond Carver in which we end up with a story like 'Premium Harmony' probably the least successful of the bunch.
Compare that to when King goes his own way and you get a story like 'Bad Little Kid' which as great as any short story he's written and its really no contest.
That said, its always interesting to hear him talk about other authors and this is an enjoyable book and one I'm glad I bought.
The only thing missing from it, for me, would have been a timeline of when each story was written to see how they compared to his other writings around the same time.

[Jack]

Just made a start on this last night. Being a horror writer I'm not sure I dare to admit this... It's the first Stephen King book I've ever read. I own loads of them, but it's this group read that made me actually start to read one!

Enjoying what I've read so far.

[Alondra]

Eric wrote: "Alondra wrote: "Okay, whats up with Premium Harmony? he rants, he raves [spoilers removed]

Yeah, read that one this morning. Not really sure what to make of it. [spoilers removed]"

Okay, i thought it was just me. so, this maybe one of the duds; but it was enjoyable enough... thank gooodness it was short.

[Veronica]

Alondra wrote: "Okay, whats up with Premium Harmony? he rants, he raves [spoilers removed]

Loved Batman & Robin. Just when you thought it was one thing; pops steps in... i actually giggled at the end of that one...."

LOL!!!

[Veronica]

Charlene wrote: "I'm loving the story notes."

Me too

[Kelly]

"Mile 81" was not really what I was expecting, but I didn't hate it. "Batman & Robin Have an Altercation" was wonderful.

[Kirstin]

I'm about half way through 'Obits' and I've enjoyed each story after 'Premium Harmony'.

'That Bus is Another World' reminded me of Shirley Jackson. :)

[Eric]

Read 'The Dune' this morning. LOVED it!

[Char]

I read Premium Harmony and Batman & Robin Have an Altercation last night. Batman was definitely the best of two.

[Canavan]

I have an e-copy of this month’s selection, but haven’t really started to dig into it yet. But I have already read a few of the stories in other places, and probably won’t re-read those (even though at least some of the previously stories have been revised for the present collection). So here are a few thoughts/opinions on them. (Since I read some of these quite a while ago, my thoughts are sadly on the fuzzy side.)

“Mile 81” ✭✭½

I first read this as a stand-alone electronic piece. (view spoiler)[Even if King is exploring what is for him old territory (sinister cars — or at least car-like entities), I still liked the premise. Perhaps because in my younger days I used to make fairly long cross-country drives and, a bit like King, sometimes idly speculated on the somewhat creepy nature of the more dilapidated roadside rest areas. I didn’t particularly care for the execution on this story — I found the characters and their actions rather unconvincing and I didn’t care for the ending. (hide spoiler)]

“Premium Harmony” ✭✭✭

King, in the foreword to this story, talks about the influence of Carver on its writing, and I can sorta see that. (view spoiler)[Nothing really supernatural going on here. It’s more or less a story about two flawed individuals in a flawed marriage. Again, not new territory for the author — I’m for some reason particularly reminded of “Lunch at the Gotham Café”. But the the events in “Premium Harmony” aren’t quite as dramatic as those in “Café”. The story also touches in interesting ways on addictions and the fragility of life. The finale involving the dog was interesting in how it highlighted certain aspects of the narrator’s character, but the foreshadowing was pretty heavy-handed. Solid story, but not a great one. (hide spoiler)]

“Batman and Robin Have an Altercation” ✭✭✭✭

Read this one in Harper’s. Of the stories in Bazaar that I’ve so far read, this one is the strongest (my opinion, of course). (view spoiler)[Maybe it’s my imagination, but as King grows older I fancy I see him writing more often about about the concerns associated with growing older. This story is about a father-son relationship, how the nature of that bond changes over time, and yet how in some ways it doesn’t really change at all. (hide spoiler)]

“The Dune” ✭✭✭½

Pretty sure I read this in Paula Guran’s The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror: 2012 . It a solid, creepy little piece. (view spoiler)[I appreciated that the story’s central idea is never over-explained. There’s a twist at the conclusion of the tale, but not a particularly interesting one. (hide spoiler)]

“Blockade Billy” ✭✭✭½

I read this one when it was first published as a stand-alone novella. My memories of this work are pretty darned fragmented. I liked the way King’s writing evoked memories of baseball as it was once played. The author’s love of the game is clearly evident. I found the story of Billy to be only mildly interesting.

“The Little Green God of Agony” ✭✭✭½

Read this novelette a number of years ago in Stephen Jones’ A Book of Horrors . Another one I don’t recall very clearly. (view spoiler)[The basic idea is a little on the wonky side for my tastes, but the writing is suitably terrifying in parts. Not sure I cared for the ending; perhaps I’m being too pedestrian, but I was expecting a bit more finality and perhaps a bit of a comeuppance for Newsome. (hide spoiler)]

“Summer Thunder” ✭✭✭½

Read this rather depressing piece about a year ago in Cemetery Dance. (view spoiler)[Everyone seems to be thinking about the apocalypse these days. Again, this isn’t exactly virgin territory as far as King is concerned. This story seems almost a bit of a throwback to the older post-apocalypse literature of the 50s and 60s that was so concerned with nuclear armageddon. As King notes in the intro, the focus is on the micro rather than the macro (i.e., the effect of the final days on a few individuals). In that way, I found it a bit reminiscent of some of the scenes in Nevil Shute’s On the Beach and Shute’s use of lines from the famous T. S. Eliot poem, The Hollow Men: “This is the way the world ends / Not with a bang but a whimper.” I thought the stuff with Gandalf touching. (hide spoiler)]

[Katie]

"Mile 81" & "Batman and Robin Have an Altercation" are my favorites so far! I love the story notes as well!

[Amanda]

Aw, just read under the weather, made me a little sad. A nice little melancholy story.

[Anthony]

I'm a little slower reader than many of you. So, far, I really enjoyed Dune and Batman and Robin... Didn't care for the poem - must be the way I'm wired, poetry doesn't do much for me. Now that I think about it, the Bad Little Kid was a blast too, although quite predictable.

[Alondra]

Bad Little Kid; ggrrr. I swear I knew kids like that, when I was growing up. Thank goodness, I don't know them anymore. Some folks are bad seed and grow up to be asses.

I liked that story though. The end was nniiiccceee

[Alex]

Just finished 'Morality' and 'Afterlife.' I enjoyed them both. The concept behind 'Afterlife' was interesting. I didn't think I would like the introductions between each story, but turns out I like them almost as much as the stories themselves. Go figure.

[Eric]

Read 'Bad Little Kid'. I liked the characters and pace really well.

[Alondra]

On morality now.

Wow.

[Jay]

Am bouncing through the book. Read "obits" "Fireworks" and "thunder", then hit the first three. Had already read "Dune", "Morality," and "Blockade Billy." "Mile 81" didn't thrill me, but it and "Morality" are the only ones I dislike so far. Is on par for a four-star collection.

[Hudson]

Bad Little Kid was great. Orange hair....hmm...where have we seen that before???
I'd like to think this was the childhood version of you know who...

[Alex]

Never thought of it that way, Hudson! I kinda like that theory though

[Tressa]

Ray wrote: "I am born and reared in the South therefore, Flannery O'Connor is a godess to me. Mr. King has a talent at which Flannery excelled, which is the ability to unveil the grotesque nature of people. ..."

Another proud, thankful southerner here and a big fan of Flannery O'Connor!

[Walter]

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is one of the greatest short stories ever written. I still find myself thinking about it occasionally decades after reading it for the first time.

[Chandra]

I thoroughly enjoy Stephen King. His short story collections are always fun to read. Even with some that you already know where the story is going like "Under the Weather". I did enjoy "Ur".. I've always had a love/hate relationship with my kindle! :) 3/4 of the way through. Phew!

[Tressa]

“She would've been a good woman," said The Misfit, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

It is a classic, Walter! But her other dozens of short stories are fantastic too: "Revelation," "Everything That Rises Must Converge," "Parker's Back," "The Displaced Person," and so many others.

[Chandra]

Haha. I always love it when he subtly refers to his other books in some way.

[Walter]

I agree, Tressa. One of my favorite books in my personal library is a collection of her short fiction. :)

[Chandra]

Haha. I always love it when he subtly refers to his other books in some way.

[Amanda]

So just finished, some really enjoyable stories. But will always enjoy King at his full length novel best.

[Tressa]

Walter wrote: "I agree, Tressa. One of my favorite books in my personal library is a collection of her short fiction. :)"

I have one too, a hardback I've had since the eighties.