Monthly Read Suggestions

[Scott]

Damn, I must have missed that poll.

[Bill]

Ronald wrote: "I posted about this back on Feb 15, 2019:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1..."

Hmm, that's the link to the poll itself. It's conceivable (though unlikely) that at the last minute, one of the other books will suddenly get a spike of new votes to a higher total. Did you make an announcement elsewhere that The Auctioneer will be the March monthly read? I don't think I got the note; would be helpful. (If you like, I can post the announcement, once you confirm.)

[Bill]

From my to-read list:

Samanta Schweblin, Mouthful of Birds
Richard Thomas, Staring Into the Abyss
Livia Llewellyn, The One That Comes Before

[Dan]

I nominate The Graveyard Reader, an anthology edited by Groff Conklin.

[Scott]

Dan wrote: "I nominate The Graveyard Reader, an anthology edited by Groff Conklin."

He put together a lot of great collections.

[Dan]

Yeah. The least expensive copy of The Graveyard Reader I saw available on bookfinder.com was $9 (including shipping), but if seven or eight of us were to buy copies, the last person could easily be spending $13 or $14 for a used book. And then there's the fact many of us strongly prefer electronic reading now. Best to keep it off.

I love anthologies and short stories and am really excited about the new short story read every month. Can't wait for the polls to open.

[Dan]

I have a nomination to kick off the short story concept: "The Challenge from Beyond" by C.L. Moore, A. Merritt, H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and Frank Belknap Long. Each author wrote a section of the story picking up from where the last left off and they wrote their parts in the order given above.

At this site, https://skullsinthestars.com/2013/09/..., where an audio version is available, a reviewer writes this about the story (I must warn you some possible spoilers follow, therefore let me protect you if you're already sold on reading this story.): (view spoiler)[
"C.L. Moore probably got things off on the wrong foot to begin with, by setting the story in the wilderness with a single character. We are introduced to George Campbell, a professor of geology who is enjoying a small sabbatical by camping in the Canadian wilderness. By pure chance, he stumbles across a strange and ancient artifact, a crystal fashioned into a cubical shape.

In A. Merritt’s portion of the tale, Campbell investigates the cube further, causing it to awaken and propel him through space and time towards another world. Lovecraft narrates this journey through the cosmos, providing a fictional back-story about the cube and its creators.

This all would seem rather mundane stuff, and would not be worth reading at all, if not for Howard’s work. I have mentioned that the authors of round robins often tend to try and stump one another; Lovecraft ends his section with the most horrific and terrible twist he could imagine. Without giving too much away, Robert E. Howard takes this twist — and turns it into something positive and absolutely hilarious! With the entire tone of the story changed, Frank Belknap Long manages to wrap up the tale with a satisfactory ending.

I recommend reading ‘Challenge simply to see Howard’s dramatic course-correction to the story, and it can be read either at Project Gutenberg or at Wikisource. (hide spoiler)]

The story is available at Gutenberg here: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1304...

[Bill]

Randolph wrote: "A poll for the April 2019 Literary Horror monthly short story collection read will go live in a couple of hours."
The Schweblin and Thomas collections are on my to-read list. If they win, I will obviously be delighted to participate. (I've read the John Claude Smith and am not a fan, but don't let me stop you guys.)

Randolph, what do you think of stating clearly that voters for a book should feel some obligation to participate in the group read?

[Benjamin]

As for novels... I would be interested in either Our Lady of Darkness by Leiber or The Ceremonies by Klein.

[Benjamin]

Yeah... I read Conjure Wife awhile back and I think I had plans on reading OLoD right after and never did (I have the Centipede Press editions and both were published at the same time). Some folks think Lady is a better novel than CW.

I have always enjoyed Leiber.

[Scott]

Conjure Wife was okay. I would be interested in reading Our Lady if I can get a copy.

[Benjamin]

For future short story reads... I would like to nominate Reggie Oliver's newest Tartarus press collection, Ballet of Dr. Caligari and other Madder Mysteries. Tartarus has taken to releasing everything they are doing in e-pub... so these previously not so accessible hardback books are now very accessible to all.

[Scott]

...if you have an e-reader.

[Benjamin]

Scott wrote: "...if you have an e-reader."

fair point... I do not have an e-reader and will likely never have one. I'm just acknowledging a reality that more and more folks on GR do use e-readers, which is totally fine. I'm glad to see that Tartarus is recognizing this trend as well + its super cheap via e-reader.

[Dan]

I still prefer printed page, and there are many things in print an e-reader only person can't access still. But now there are almost as many things being printed in electronic form that can really only be read that way. You need both.

I got an e-reader from Amazon last year for $60. One of my best purchases ever. My only regret, it doesn't have its own light source. Being able to read in the dark (or in poorly sourced light areas) is really nice sometimes, especially when people around don't want to have lights on, and only maybe $20 more. I recommend it.

[Marie-Therese]

I'd be fine with any of the choices mentioned (Lieber, Klein, Oliver). I have copies of all three on my e-reader so I am ready to go anytime.

[Marie-Therese]

Dan wrote: "I still prefer printed page, and there are many things in print an e-reader only person can't access still. But now there are almost as many things being printed in electronic form that can really only be read that way. You need both."

I'm embarrassed to admit, that after having been an e-reader hold-out for the first few years they were available, I've now become addicted to mine (a Kindle Paperwhite). I honestly find it hard to sit down with a paper book now as I do so much of my reading at night in bed or on the go. It's taking me forever to get through Colin Insole's Valerie and Other Stories because my copy is in paperback and I find it inconvenient to read.

I still feel that paper books are best for poetry, art books, anything with tricky graphics or lots of pictures, but for plain text I love my e-reader and feel like I'd read a great deal less without it.

[Marie-Therese]

Bill wrote: "From my to-read list:

Samanta Schweblin, Mouthful of Birds
Richard Thomas, Staring Into the Abyss
Livia Llewellyn, The One That Comes Before"

These all sound grand to me! I have the Schweblin already and may have the Llewellyn. In any case, I imagine all three are readily available.

[Marie-Therese]

Randolph wrote: "Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss. Just a place keeper so I don’t forget it. Things I run across that might be appropriate for a group monthly read."

Nice to see this here. I'd suggested this to Bill as a possible buddy read but think it would be a good monthly read too.

[Scott]

The Unorthodox Dr. Draper and Other Stories

[Scott]

Randolph wrote: "Scott wrote: "The Unorthodox Dr. Draper and Other Stories"

That looks pretty good."

I love this author. I have read one of the stories before (in one of Ellen Datlow's recent series I think) and as I recall it was great.

[Bill]

Last month I suggested
Samantha Schweblin, Mouthful of Birds

... which lost by one vote to Blumlein (sniff).

Also on my to-read list (I enjoyed the author's last collection):
Aimee Parkison, Girl Zoo

Marie-Therese and Mimi also had a couple suggestions for buddy reads. But I'll let them chime in.

[Benjamin]

I think I had thrown out Ballet of Dr. Caligari and other Madder Mysteries by Oliver a month or two ago for the anthologies

[Bill]

Randolph wrote: "Thanks, I don’t always know where to gather things."
There are too many places. You need one of those paramentals to zip around and collect the information.

[Marie-Therese]

Bill wrote: "There are too many places. You need one of those paramentals to zip around and collect the information."

LOL! That would be convenient.

I second the Schweblin and Reggie Oliver suggestions for the group read. I think the Buzzati would make a good buddy read as it's a little more obscure and less obviously "horror" and I vote that as our next buddy read choice. What say you, Bill?

I'd also like to propose that we consider the fifth and last (*sob*) volume of Year's Best Weird Fiction, Vol. 5 edited by the most excellent Robert Shearman, as a future group read. Maybe in early summer?

[Zach]

Where is this poll you speak of Randolph? (Sorry, new to the group) - side note: where did you all get your copy of Our Lady of Darkness? Amazon asking 30 bucks minimum for it.. or do you read electronically

[Zach]

Awesome. Thanks!

[Bill]

Zach wrote: "Awesome. Thanks!"
Our Lady of Darkness is also available as an ebook.

[Zach]

Haha. It’s on the way! I’ll keep that in mind -.-

[Zach]

My seniority in this group is low, so I say ye

[Marie-Therese]

Randolph wrote: "Ya know, I might just take Bill’s suggestion and drop Mouthful of Birds into the May read because I’m lazy, er, I mean, it came so close to winning last month. What’s the consensus?..."

Sounds great to me, Randolph! I vote yea.

[Bill]

Well obviously I can't protest! Thanks. (Yay.)

[Bill]

Ok, to start the Schweblin in May, we should probably make the announcement now. Randolph, would you like me to do this, since I was kind of the troublemaker? Happy for you to handle it as well.

[Bill]

I'll take care of everything. Thanks.

[Dan]

Cool! I loves me a short story. What was the April SS read? I still have time to read and chat about that.

Recommendation: The April SS can be posted from the group home page as one of the current reads. The May read, since it's announced, can also be posted there as an upcoming read. It's a bit tricky but not impossible for a new moderator to figure it all out. You can do it, Bill.

[Bill]

Dan wrote: "Cool! I loves me a short story. What was the April SS read?"
Michael Blumlein's The Brains of Rats:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

"The April SS can be posted from the group home page as one of the current reads."
It was posted. It's not posted any more, because it was set to end mid-April, to make room for the April novel group read.

[Dan]

I see. You didn't want them to run at the same time. Some discussion groups run group reads concurrently, particularly when one of the reads is just a short story.

Thanks for letting me know April's Short Story read. I'll get on it before the end of the month.

edit: Wait a minute! Brain of Rats was 197 pages, no short story! I'll have to give that a pass for now.

[Bill]

Dan wrote: "I see. You didn't want them to run at the same time. Some discussion groups run group reads concurrently, particularly when one of the reads is just a short story."
As you discovered later, the Short Story reads are short story collections/anthologies. Randolph managed the April setup, and set the end date to be middle of the month. People keep commenting after the end date; it's just a target.

[Benjamin]

I'm a little confused... are we only doing a short story collection May read or we are doing a short story collection AND a novel May read? If we are also doing a novel read, I would similarly point out that the second place vote getter from the April was Ceremonies by Klein, and it actually got a fair number of votes... third place isn't even close. It may save time on throwing up a new poll for the May, assuming we are doing a novel group read.

[Benjamin]

Ok... so what I am about to suggest might fall best under our short story reads or maybe it’s a whole other category of group read... but... do folks in this group have any interest in looking at literary journals for the Weird genre?

There are some really good ones that contain both interesting short fiction as well as insightful critical essays on the genre and its development. From many of our group reads, I have the impression that folks are very passionate about fiction in this genre and we have a large amount of diverse opinion on what constitutes good fiction and/or what kind of fiction passes for literary. I think a fair number of folks would enjoy reading some critical essays on this genre... I think it would definitely spark additional and very interesting conversations in this group.

One journal that immediately comes to mind is the Ligottian journal, Vastarien. It is available in print and electronically. The other one is Wormwood.

Just wanted to throw that out there...

[Bill]

Benjamin wrote: "If we are also doing a novel read, I would similarly point out that the second place vote getter from the April was Ceremonies by Klein, and it actually got a fair number of votes... "

Having a monthly novel read was Randolph's idea. I'd say the first one turned out well. Randolph?

I probably won't read the Klein novel in May (though I've enjoyed some of his stories in the past). It's 500+ pages, and I'll be juggling other projects.

[Ronald]

Benjamin wrote: "Ok... so what I am about to suggest might fall best under our short story reads or maybe it’s a whole other category of group read... but... do folks in this group have any interest in looking at l..."

I'm interested in literary journals for the Weird genre.

I recently read Tekeli-li!: Journal of Terror Issue 4
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

though it was published in the early 1990s and is not easy to obtain a copy.

I was almost stunned at my luck coming across it in a book fair, going for $7.

Another is Irish Gothic Journal:
https://irishgothicjournal.net/issue-...

It has pdfs online for free. This issue has a review of a book of movie criticism. The book analyzes the movie Don't Look Now.

[Whitney]

There are plenty of people reading things like Vastarien and Wormwood, but the nature of longer or more esoteric works doesn't lend itself well to the immediacy of social media. "Hey everyone, we're reading Don Quixote next week, come on by!" is probably destined to fail. Interested people have frequently read it, but too long ago to discuss, or can't drop everything to read it on short notice.

When I've been in well attended discussions of books like The Waves or Ulysses, it's been because there's a moderator who's worked their ass off planning and scheduling discussions, as well as doing a shit ton of research to keep the discussion interesting. Not to mention getting buy-in from a large enough group of people that it will still happen when 80% of them don't actually show up.

Cook books and recipes, on the other hand, are easy to dip into when someone has a spare 15 minutes. (I don't belong to those groups, but only because I'm mostly an indifferent cook.)

[Whitney]

I wasn't implying inferior moderating, sorry if I came across that way. Just taking exception to the idea that because there aren't a lot of people discussing journals or difficult books, that no one was reading them.

It started with me thinking that starting a side group devoted to new issues of Vastarien might be somewhat popular, and then reflecting on how much work moderators of other groups have had to dedicate to that kind of thing. I'm a mod in a different group, and I don't want to do that kind of work, either.

[Dan]

Randolph wrote: "I have the hide of a rhinoceros so not easily upset."

I'm a thin-skinned delicate flower, so please be very careful.

More seriously, if the journal is on a topic of sufficient interest to me, I would read and comment on articles in it we agreed to consider. In fact, I think GoodReads discussion groups is a good format for that because reading articles is almost as short as reading recipes, which apparently has been tested and proven. I've seen short story discussions work well in other groups as well, a similar concept. Why knock it before we try it?

[Marie-Therese]

Randolph, I always say I have the skin of an elephant when these kinds of discussions come up and now I'm wondering which of us is more impervious to minor criticism-elephant or rhino? Any zoologists in the group? ;-p

Re the journal read question: I like the idea but journals can be pricey and quite hard to come by. One of the ways to make a read like this easier is to make it pot-luck. Anyone who wants to participate picks a relevant journal available to them and reports back on it after reading. This can give a broad overview of the general journal landscape, allows folks from all over to participate, and can be illuminating as to where your friends are and what they can find to read (always good to know, as I tend to think we often imagine every reader is just like ourselves), and might bring to light new and intriguing authors.

If Benjamin wants to host something like this, I would be all in and willing to assist him in any way I could.

[Dan]

I believed the article we would be reading would be from a magazine (when did this become about a journal) available and free online. For example, we could discuss this article: http://weirdfictionreview.com/2017/02.... One natural question I have of it (because I am a big fan of Edith Wharton's work) is if it is possible for Edith Wharton to write anything that could possibly be called Weird.

[Marie-Therese]

Dan wrote: "I believed the article we would be reading would be from a magazine (when did this become about a journal) available and free online."

I'm confused then. I thought Benjamin was talking about reading journals like Wormword, etc. and not specific articles. Perhaps he can chime in and clarify.

[Dan]

I don't think I've ever read a journal before, not even when pursuing degrees, only articles in journals. Don't know if I'd want to read an entire journal. That does sound too much like work. Articles worthy of discussion also appear in online magazines.

[Benjamin]

Well... I'm glad this has generated both discussion and further thought/questions. As I was the one the brought it up, allow me to provide some further clarity on what I was thinking about when I threw the idea of reading a journal as a group read out there.

I regularly read two journals that have some focus on the weird genre, and one other on and off. They include, Vastarien, Wormwood, and Weird Fiction Review. Wormwood is probably most focused on non-fiction articles surrounding the genre *usually and author review or key topic in the field" or there will be articles reviewing new or old works of fiction.

In the case of Vastarien and Weird Fiction review, you get a potpourri of short fiction (usually short stories, poems, or flash fiction) as well as some interesting non-fiction pieces.

I think the most accessible of all of the 3 is Vastarien, printed in both a physical edition ($20 each issue) or an epub/kindle edition ($4.50)... not a major hit to the wallet, particularly taking into account that the journal is published 3 times a year... particularly if you go for the e-pub edition... but pricing is relative to the buyer.

I have read all 3 issues so far of Vastarien (currently reading the 4th issue) and have found both the fiction as well as the non-fiction to be very interesting and insightful. I can't say there are any long pieces in any of these issues and it would seem that we could approach a discussion as though we were reading through a short story anthology, take it one piece at a time or whatever.

As for moderating, I am happy to set up a Vastarien folder and even moderate discussion moving forward if we get enough people interested in reading the journal issues as they come out every 4 months. But if its just me and one other person... not sure it is worth the time.

Let me put it this way, if there are at least 5 other people interested in doing this and actually participating... not just lurking, I will put the time into it.

For those that are curious, you can check out Vastarien here... https://vastarien-journal.com/