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message 51:
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Marie-Therese
(new)
Sep 25, 2018 08:02PM
I'm going to nominate the newest The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume Three, the third book in their ongoing series released in October. I know a lot of us here read these so this might be a good pick for November or December.
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Marie-Therese wrote: "Just FYI, but I've read The Woman in Black It's not very good and I can't say I'd recommend it to anyone here. It's a flat, predictable tale with very little depth and pedestrian prose..."I trust Marie. May I please recall my nomination?
We are reading a short story collection next month. Trying to avoid another for the month after....
Is there a better book from that list I linked to in message 62 I'm overlooking?
I've read the Joe Hill collection, but am happy to revisit it. From what I know of the Valancourt anthology (which I'm keen to check out sometime), the two will probably be very different.These items from my to-read list might be appropriate:
The Hospital
The Taiga Syndrome
In the House in the Dark of the Woods
Dan wrote: "I trust Marie. May I please recall my nomination? "*blushes* Thanks, Dan! I should note that a few folks here that I respect greatly have read the book and liked it more than I did, but other trusted friends (Jack Tripper, for example) felt the same as me. So maybe it's divisive.
Good point on the short stories. Let's save the Valancourt Three for December or January, perhaps.
Bill wrote: "These items from my to-read list might be appropriate:The Hospital
The Taiga Syndrome
In the House in the Dark of the Woods
In the House in the Dark of the Woods sounds perfect for this group! I nominate this for November or some other future read.
Dan wrote: "Is there a better book from that list I linked to in message 62 I'm overlooking?"That's certainly a good list. Of the books I haven't yet read there these were the ones that captured my attention (not sure if they've featured as group reads here, though):
Little Star A lesser known work from the 'Let the Right One In' author. The internet based story line sounds very timely.
The Elementals McDowell is experiencing something of a renaissance with recent republication. I'd be very interested in reading this if it hasn't been featured as a monthly read before.
I'm not familiar with Michael Talbot but Night Things sounds really intriguing.
Marie-Therese wrote: "That's certainly a good list. Of the books I haven't yet read there these were the ones that captured ..."The last two are haunted house stories. Not my cup of tea, which is partly why I didn't join the group on The Hill, besides which I've never really gotten the appeal of Shirley Jackson. I suspect it may be in part that she 1) writes short novels with easy words, like Vonnegut, and 2) is female, a little unusual in a horror writer, especially an early one.
The other book looks intriguing. It makes me realize I have never read a Swedish author. (Ibsen is Norwegian, I just rediscovered.) Researching who writes Swedish horror, one quickly discovers the name John Ajvide Lindqvist is inescapable. His most reviewed novel is far and away 'Let the Right One In', previously mentioned in posts in this group. It's a vampire novel though, which may put many off.
So, I nominate (finally) Little Star by John Ajvide Lindqvist. I just hope it's more different from the movie 'August Rush' than the blurb leads me to think.
Dan wrote: "Marie-Therese wrote: "That's certainly a good list. Of the books I haven't yet read there these were the ones that captured ..."The last two are haunted house stories. Not my cup of tea, which is..."
Hmm... that is a bit of an odd comment (referencing your reason #2 for Shirley Jackson's lack of appeal). I am by no means a Shirley Jackson fan (I have only read the Lottery, which I liked), nor am I trying to stir the pot.
Maybe I'm not fully understanding what you mean by Shirley Jackson being a female is correlated to your lack of appeal for her writing.
Perhaps I misread or misunderstood that comment...?
Little Star is great though I don't know that I would call it "literary."
Benjamin wrote: "Maybe I'm not fully understanding what you mean by Shirley Jackson being a female is correlated to your lack of appeal for her writing."I provided two reasons why I think Shirley Jackson's stature is higher than her writing merits.
Marie-Therese wrote: "Dan wrote: "Is there a better book from that list I linked to in message 62 I'm overlooking?"That's certainly a good list. Of the books I haven't yet read there these were the ones that captured ..."
The Elementals was already a Group Read.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
But this group could read it again. We've done that sort of thing before. Heh.
Ronald wrote: "The Elementals was already a Group Read.https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
But this group could read it again. We've done that sort of thing before. Heh. "
No, I personally think it's better that we do fresh reads. That's one of the reasons I like to nominate relatively new books like the upcoming Valancourt volume. I also like the idea of the new works Bill Hsu mentioned.
I prefer new reads too, but have long recognized there are two schools of thought on the issue of repeats. One school likes to watch repeats on television, see favorite films multiple times, read same books over again, because they know for certain of the quality of the product they're getting. I'm in the other school because I have a better than average memory and thus grow bored seeing something I've already seen before, especially if recently. Besides, there are so many other good experiences out there awaiting my attention, only a small fraction of which I will realistically be able to attend to before I shuffle. For these two reasons I, too, eschew repetition (except when propounding my opinion).
Dan wrote: "Benjamin wrote: "Maybe I'm not fully understanding what you mean by Shirley Jackson being a female is correlated to your lack of appeal for her writing."I provided two reasons why I think Shirley..."
Yup... her novels not long enough and her words too short (paraphrasing your #1). I don't know if this is a reasonably concluded opinion, I have not read enough Jackson to form my own opinion.
Still not clear what you meant by reason #2 for her lack of appeal for you (regarding her gender). I'm not trying to argue with you nor do I want to draw any unfair conclusions about opinion #2... just trying to get a better understanding of your verbiage.
Scott wrote: "I nominate The Rim of Morning: Two Tales of Cosmic Horror."This sounds great! It's been on my list forever.
Now accepting suggestions for the poll that will decide the Group Read for December 2018.
Benjamin wrote: "Maybe I'm not fully understanding what you mean by Shirley Jackson being a female is correlated to your lack of appeal for her writing."I wasn't as clear with #2 as I thought I was being at the time of my writing it. I'm sorry. Most horror authors are men. A female author is therefore a novelty. It's this novelty factor that I hypothesize in part elevates Ms. Jackson's stature higher than is merited. The main factor, I still believe, is the shortness of her words and brevity of length of her works, which seems to more than compensate (for most) for her lack of coherence (or intelligibility).
I have not had a chance to see the Netflix series The Haunting of Hill House yet, but it's getting good reviews, even a sincere rave from Stephen King. I just finished Spike TV's The Mist series on Netflix, which was much better than I expected given how badly it was panned. Maybe Jackson's story told in Netflix's visual form will be more appealing.
I wish to nominate Kill Creek by Scott Thomas. It was short-listed for the Bram Stoker and is now in development for television at Showtime!
Hi, I just joined this group and was reading through the different topics. I don't want to start on the wrong foot here but just wanted to quickly say that it is a bit bad form to say an author is overrated or has a 'stature higher than it's merited for being female', just because you personally 'don't see the appeal'. One's opinion is not a deciding factor of whether someone has literary merit or not. Look, it's fine if you don't like Jackson, or don't get it, but please don't reduce it to 'she's a novelty', that's just not nice and frankly incorrect. She is one of my favourite authors (and I'm certainly not alone in this) and it has nothing to do with the fact that she is female. I happen to think that she is brilliant, completely intelligible and most lastly, simple does not mean she is nor literary or 'lesser', you might just prefer elaborate prose...
Almost all of what I stated is clearly opinion. I challenge you to show where I state that my opinion needs to be "the deciding factor" in anything. (Why would anyone want to assert I do?)I delete the rest of what I wrote here earlier. This is not the thread for discussing Ms. Jackson's many shortcomings as an author since it's titled "Monthly Read Suggestions".
Uh Dan, now would be a good time to put the shovel down.
Dan, even if you state that in your opinion, she gets more credit than deserved for subpar work just because she is a woman, you are implying that in the world women get kudos and acclaim just for being women in the horror field as the underlying fact... In any case, you are right this is not the right thread for this.
The December 2018 group read will be Let the Right One In. It got the most votes.Now accepting suggestions for the January 2019 group read poll.
Two nominations:Nothing is Everything by Simon Strantzas
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
Available in print and electronically. I haven't read this book but I liked his previous story collections.
The Other Place, and Other Stories of the Same Sort by J. B. Priestly
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
I'm currently reading it now, for me these Twilight Zone-style stories
range from 4 to 5 stars. Available in print and electronically.
The January 2019 Group Read will be Kill Creek:https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Now accepting nominations for the February 2019 Group read poll.
Since Dan mentioned Two Dollar Radio in another thread, I'm happy to read or revisit any of these:Melanie Finn's The Underneath
Bennett Sims' White Dialogues
Simon Jacobs' Palaces
N.J. Campbell's Found Audio
Nicholas Rombes' The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing
Bill wrote: "Since Dan mentioned Two Dollar Radio in another thread, I'm happy to read or revisit any of these:..."All five of your selections look so good (Palaces from the description intrigues me the most. How much can one write a novel about empty buildings?) that I withdraw my nomination. I'd vote for any of these five first.
Nicholas Rombes' The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing has been on my tbr list for quite a while!
Bruna wrote: "Nicholas Rombes' The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing has been on my tbr list for quite a while!"You should definitely read it, Bruna! Bill Hsu and I read it together a while ago and really liked it. Since our tastes are very similar, I suspect you will enjoy it too.
OK, we got two nominations for the monthly group read, before I made an official announcement:The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Nicholas Rombes' The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing
More nominations for the March 2019 group read are welcome.
Ronald wrote: "OK, we got two nominations for the monthly group read, before I made an official announcement:The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
Nicholas Rombes' The Absolution of Roberto Acestes Laing
"
I'm a big fan of the Rombes, and will vote for it and definitely participate in the group read if it wins.
I can't get excited about the Kostova, from the description. If the Kostova wins, I hope Kostova supporters will actually participate. This has not been happening in recent monthly reads in this group; usually we see just poor Ronald trying to drum up interest on his own. (I'm wondering, where are you Kill Creek supporters?)
Randolph wrote: "I don’t know what month we’re nominating for but I have two that are floating around in my head. If you go back to my first post here I mentioned the collection Stay Awake by [autho..."The recent poll is for the February group read.
I just discovered that I put the wrong end date for the poll. I have just now edited the poll for it to end today.
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...
The current nominations are for the March group read poll. I intend to put that poll up on Feb 1, 2019.
I don't intend to put up a poll for the April group read. I don't mind if the other moderators create a poll.
Ronald wrote: "The recent poll is for the February group read. "I see Some of Your Blood is actually in the lead by a hair!
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...
It wasn't my first choice, but I voted for it, and will definitely participate in the group read.
Of Randolph's suggestions for March, I've read Stay Awake and am not a fan. You guys should go for it, of course.I love Windeye, but have read all the stories at least 2-3 times (once as a group read in Literary Darkness). I'm fine with revisiting it (esp. Grottor, Sladen Suit, the title story, yow). Other Evenson suggestions:
Last Days
Fugue State
I didn't vote for Sturgeon, but I have the book and would certainly read it if it won.
As for Randolph's March suggestions, I read Fog Heart last year and thought it was very good. Hopefully I'll still remember it well enough to talk about it (I'm sure others will refresh my memory.) (Nothing to do with the quality of the book, I assure you; I'm just at that age when things tend to go out of my head pretty quickly for the most part.)
I've never read Some of Your Blood but have heard good, even great, things about it, so I'm in for the February read if it wins.Off to check out the March suggestions...
Both those books are great but I gave my copies away recently.
A couple possibilities from my to-read list (all available as inexpensive ebooks):Richard Thomas, Staring Into the Abyss
John Claude Smith, Occasional Beasts: Tales
I'm currently reading and enjoying Occasional Beasts: Tales by John Claude Smith.
Ronald wrote: "I'm currently reading and enjoying Occasional Beasts: Tales by John Claude Smith."Ah, maybe we shouldn't consider it as an option for March then.
I just bought Occasional Beasts: Tales yesterday and would be up for that if Ronald didn't mind. I'd also be happy to read anything by Michael Blumlein, as I've been wowed by the short stories I've encountered in anthologies. I do agree with Randolph that it's time to clean the nomination slate. There are just too many old books on it, most of them eking out only a single vote. Some of the yearly anthologies on the list are already on to the next release and the Valancourt collections are also out of date. Most of us who follow those type of books have read them by now, so they could be dropped without anyone making much of a fuss, I imagine.
March is just around the corner. Ronald, maybe it's time to confirm the Monthly Read so people can get copies? The top book has a huge lead.
Yes, please, it would be good to know what the March read is and if plans for an April poll are in the works.
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