Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion
Common reads
>
What are we going to read in this group?
Tasha, that one looks good! I'd say that should be a good prospect for putting in the poll.
Woot I finally found one that works. :)
We can usually assume that any book published by one of the larger presses, like Del Rey, is likely to be in a pretty fair number of libraries. Those books have more publicity behind them, and they're more apt to be reviewed in library trade journals like Library Journal and Booklist.This book was also published in 2010, so it's been out for awhile. Books that just appeared in the past year or so aren't usually good bets for a common read, since many libraries have policies against lending their new books to other libraries (though we don't have such a policy here at BC).
Those were the criteria I used when going through my books this last time. LOL I'm learning.
Well, we haven't come up with a lot of common read suggestions --just four, and as we noted above, two of those present access problems, unless everybody who takes part is willing to buy the book. I'll toss out four more suggestions, from my humungous physical to-read piles, to see what you all think of them:Bloodlist is the first novel in P. N. Elrod's popular Vampire Files series. It's a mixture of the supernatural and noir detective genres (but won't please those who prefer their literary vampires evil and homicidal).
Moon Called is the opening volume in Patricia Briggs' very popular Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series, with a shape-shifting heroine.
Linda Howard's Son of the Morning is a supernatural read with links to the romance genre, but it's gotten a number of good reviews here for qualities that transcend that genre and add more substance than we usually associate with "romance." However, readers should be warned that it apparently does have some explicit sex.
If anyone's in the mood for a humorous common read, Gil's All Fright Diner by A. Lee Martinez might have possibilities. It was reviewed favorably in the library reviewing media when it was first published.
I would throw out Laird Barron's newest release of short stories... "The Beautiful Things that Awaits Us All, and others". Not sure if this is something in the library system, although, I'm pretty sure Barron is popular enough for Libraries to pick up his trade hardback.
Benjamin, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All is scheduled to be published for the first time next month (Sept. 3). For that reason alone, it's going to present major access issues. Not only do many libraries refuse to loan their very new books to other libraries; even they don't have such a policy, it's going to be really unlikely that many will have ordered and cataloged this book by October.
Hey Werner,That date is erroneous. The e-doc has been available for at least a month and Amazon has been shipping the hard cover since August 19. I speak from experience having received the title late last week.
Benjamin, thanks for giving us the correct date! As a Goodreads librarian, I've just now corrected the book description to reflect this.As a practical matter, however, I doubt if the roughly two-week difference will matter much in terms of the availability of the book for ILL. :-( (It does look like an interesting story collection, though!)
Hey Warner, no worries. There had been some serious concerns with publication of this book, as the publisher (Night Shade) went belly up. Thank god it got published.Any one of Barron's previous two collections would make for a great group read as well.
Occultation and Other Stories
The Imago Sequence and Other Stories
Occultation and Other Stories has been in print for three years (since 2010) and at least 291 libraries worldwide have it. So it shouldn't pose any access problems! I'm game to put that one in the poll. (It's probably better if we just include one collection by Barron; otherwise, his fans might wind up splitting their votes between the two. He has a fairer chance of being the author selected if we give his fans just one selection to rally around, IMO. :-) )
Sounds good Warner. I'd be happy with Occultation.
Good, Benjamin; that gives us seven viable suggestions nobody's objected to! I don't want to put more than six in the poll (and we don't have to have that many, if people prefer a shorter ballot?). So, to winnow the field a bit, I'll withdraw my suggestion of Son of the Morning, since it's not as well-known as my other four, and might be too risque' for our younger readers.
So, are we all on board with this roster for the poll: Bloodlist, Gil's All-Fright Diner, Little Women and Werewolves, Moon Called, Occultation and Other Stories, and Storm Front?
Works for me :D we are a hard group to call to action.
Okay, the poll is up; it'll run for two weeks, through Sept. 15! Tonight or tomorrow, I'll try to send everybody a general invitation to vote.
We had a strong field in our poll this time, and a good level of participation! With the results now in, our winner is Storm Front, with 14 votes. Moon Called and Occultation and Other Stories were a strong second and third, with 10 and eight votes respectively; Little Women and Werewolves and Gil's All Fright Diner tied with five votes apiece, and Bloodlist (somewhat to my surprise) came in last with four.For those who want to take part, we'll start our read of Storm Front on October 1. I'm looking forward to it; I've heard so many good things about this series that I'm really anxious to make Harry Dresden's acquaintance! (Okay, I was a fan of the short-lived TV series inspired by the books; but they tell me that the former didn't really closely resemble the latter.)
I am a new member and wasn't here for the vote, but I am very happy to join the reading of Storm Front.
Glad to have you with us, Elisabeth! I'll try to get a thread started for Storm Front tomorrow.
The pages of the calendar keep turning, and we're at the time of year when we should start seriously thinking about what book we want to choose for our (voluntary) common read in October. Any suggestions?One book I'd like to have considered is Shiver, the first book in the popular The Wolves of Mercy Falls series by Maggie Stiefvater. I've heard nothing but good things about this one!
Hi Werner,Shiver looks great. I'll throw another choice on the table--The Bone Key by Monette. Multoghost wrote an interesting review of that book and the author's homage to Lovecraft: http://bit.ly/1m9hfrl. For that matter, I have yet to read Lovecraft. Perhaps another possibility...
Okay, Deb, we'll keep The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth in mind. Before I put the poll up in September, we'll see how many suggestions we get, and whether we have to do any winnowing to make the number manageable. (I wouldn't recommend more than six, but so far we've just got two, well within the manageable range!)Lovecraft is a favorite author of mine, so I wouldn't hesitate to recommend him for your personal reading. It's also true that he wrote macabre fiction, with a dark, scary tone and an emphasis on out-of-the-way settings, ancient tomes, and dark mysteries out of the past; it certainly reads a lot like horrific supernatural fiction. At its core, though, it isn't; like Poe (who greatly influenced him, and who similarly has a pop-culture reputation for supernatural fiction though he hardly ever wrote any) Lovecraft greatly preferred naturalistic explanations for his horror --in his case, usually science-fictional ones involving sinister alien entities. (In writings like Supernatural Horror in Literature, he used the term "supernatural" in a broader sense, meaning something like "out of the normal course of everyday events.")
I have read The Wolves of Mercy Falls three or four times and have all the audios (Shiver being the first book). I LOVE this series and her writing. I will say it is not for everyone, but then what books are. One of my granddaughters considers it her favorite series and the other one could not get through the first book. Of course we think she is odd. LOL I just read the fourth book which is more of a spinoff and just got the audio.
Terry wrote: "...it is not for everyone, but then what books are." That's very true; there aren't many books ever written that manage to appeal to every reader. I've never made a study of it, but my impression is that the great majority of books in the Goodreads database have gotten ratings that span the scale all the way from five stars to one, which vividly illustrates the point!
Werner wrote: "Terry wrote: "...it is not for everyone, but then what books are." That's very true; there aren't many books ever written that manage to appeal to every reader. I've never made a study of it, but..."So true about the ratings, Werner. Some of the most interesting books have almost equal 1's and 5's. I almost didn't read Donaghue's Room (seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it novel) because of all the 1's but took a chance and ended up in the 4-5 star group.
Deb, I'm sure others have had experiences similar to yours, as well! Star ratings by themselves tell you what a given person's reaction to a book was; but unless you know the person, or he/she wrote a review, they don't give you any real clue as to why the person reacted that way --or whether or not you'd agree!
I wish more people did reviews rather than just give the stars. When deciding whether to buy a book I like to read some positive ones and some negative ones to get an idea whether it will fit my own preferences. And I wish they would do less of telling the story in their reviews. But I am a bit off topic. LOL
Werner wrote: "Deb, I'm sure others have had experiences similar to yours, as well! Star ratings by themselves tell you what a given person's reaction to a book was; but unless you know the person, or he/she wro..."I read the reviews as well as looking at the stars. I wouldn't go by low stars alone because of the unfortunate troll factor. Also, I look for intelligent, thoughtful reviews, something other than the "not my cup of tea" variety, which I dismiss. In the case of Room (I know, not supernatural) reviewers had valid reasons for disliking the book.
I don't mind the "not my cup of tea" if they say why. Without the why it is meaningless.
So far, as nominees for the October read, we have just two: Maggie Stiefvater's series opener Shiver, and Sarah Monette's story collection The Bone Key: The Necromantic Mysteries of Kyle Murchison Booth. Are we satisfied with only those two? I know at least one member of our group dislikes both short stories and novels that have a lot of romantic content (and I understand that Shiver has at least some of the latter). The poll won't be posted until after Labor Day, so there's still time for more suggestions!)
Shiver is a love story (YA) but it's sure not a romance novel bey any stretch of the imagination. How about a really different read and The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Or Nevermore by Kelly Creagh. Just some thoughts. The first one is a stand alone and the other one is the first book of a trilogy (last book not out yet)
Terry, both The Night Circus and Nevermore look like good suggestions. That fleshes out our list a bit more; thanks!
I've read them both of course but would love to discuss them. - and re-read. I have both the book and audio of The Night Circus. I need to re-read Nevermore before the third book comes out.
Elisabeth, right now, we're just brainstorming titles of books to put in the poll (which I'll set up after Labor Day). That way, the whole group can have a chance to vote on the final decision (and still leave time for people to secure a copy of the chosen book by October).
Werner wrote: "Elisabeth, right now, we're just brainstorming titles of books to put in the poll (which I'll set up after Labor Day). That way, the whole group can have a chance to vote on the final decision (an..."Okay sounds good - I would like to recommend Metaxy Project by Layton Green (which was just recommended to me by a great writer & editor) or anything from H.P. Lovecraft, because you can never go wrong with his work.
Elisabeth, I checked out The Metaxy Project, and it turns out it was just published in May of this year. That would make it very difficult for readers to obtain by interlibrary loan, which might exclude a lot of people from taking part in the read. That's why I've generally taken a position against including very new books in these polls.On the other hand, something by Lovecraft might be a possibility (I'm a huge fan of HPL myself, as it sounds like you are too :-) ). Technically, he didn't write supernatural fiction, in our sense; he much preferred naturalistic explanations for his horrors. But much of his work doesn't have a lot of apparent difference from supernatural horror; for all that his horrors may be "natural," their effects, and the countermeasures, seemingly operate very much like magic. How about The Case of Charles Dexter Ward (which is a perfect example of this)?
Okay, the poll is now up and running. I think we have some good choices this year (as we do every year)! I've just sent a Goodreads personal message to (hopefully) the whole membership, inviting everyone to vote; but if you didn't get one, here's the link to the poll: www.goodreads.com/poll/show/107969-wh... . It'll run through Sept. 14, and I'll hope to announce the results here promptly on Sept. 15.
Although the poll results are in, we still don't have our book picked for next month. Shiver and The Night Circus, with ten votes apiece, tied for the top spot, edging out The Case of Charles Dexter Ward and The Bone Key, which polled nine and eight votes, respectively. (Nevermore finished in a distant last place, with three.) So we'll have to have a run-off poll. It's already up, and a group invitation to vote has been sent. It'll run through midnight on Sept. 24.
Werner wrote: "Elisabeth, I checked out The Metaxy Project, and it turns out it was just published in May of this year. That would make it very difficult for readers to obtain by interlibrary loa..."I voted for the tie off and checking into re-reading some HP. Yes we are both fans - I like to team up history, science and the paranormal because it always makes for a good story.
Elisabeth wrote: "I like to team up history, science and the paranormal because it always makes for a good story." My sentiments exactly, Elisabeth!
The votes are in, the calorically-challenged lady has sung, and the run-off poll is history. Though the vote was pretty close (17-15), we've picked a definite winner: Erin Morgenstern's The Night Circus. (And since it did so well this time, Shiver will probably turn up in next year's poll!) The group read will start on Oct. 1; hopefully those who want to take part and need to get a copy by interlibrary loan will have time enough to do that by then, or soon after. (The college library where I work doesn't have the book, but I'm going to check our local public libraries.)
Yay! The public library here in Bluefield, VA has a copy of The Night Circus, and it's not checked out. I'm planning to pick it up on Thursday or Friday, assuming I can finish my currently-reading book in time to start it then. :-)
I've read it (have the book) and listened to the audio but the same for Shiver - have no problem reading either of them again so Night Circus it is. It's one of those books that you need to pay attention and even so I've picked up little things each time through it. It will be interesting to discuss.
I'm new to the genre, but I'd like to hear what other people think of
because it really got me thinking.
Time flies by, and it'll be October before we know it. Since that's the month of our group's traditional annual (voluntary) common read, it's not too early to begin some serious brainstorming about what books to put in the poll, which I'll plan to post at the beginning of next month. As usual, I'd like to narrow it down to no more than six nominees (and we don't need to have that many!); and we need books that aren't so new they'd be hard to get by interlibrary loan.Over on one of our other threads, earlier this year, the idea was broached of including Deborah Harkness' series opener A Discovery of Witches in the poll. And as I mentioned last year, another series opener, Shiver (the first book in Maggie Stiefvater's Wolves of Mercy Falls series) garnered 15 votes in last year's poll to place as a strong second; I'm guessing it would have strong support this year as well if it's in this poll.
Ed, The Hollow Places certainly looks interesting; and having been published in Oct. 2014, it's probably not so brand new that most libraries would be reluctant to loan it to other libraries. But as nearly as I could tell, there's no print edition. It's good to pick a common read that's available as an e-book, for readers who want that format. But if it's only available as an e-book, we exclude those readers who only read paper books. Most books nowadays are available in both formats, and my preference is to pick one that is. Does that make sense?
Ed, just now I did a search for The Hollow Places in the World Catalog database, which is basically the main online source that libraries use for interlibrary loan. Unfortunately, the book has no entry at all there. So unless people wanted to buy it, they wouldn't be able to read it. Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable picking a book for a common read that readers couldn't obtain without buying it; in effect, that would require people to pay to take part.
Hmmm. I couldn't help but notice that since last year's read (which was quite successful) only one person besides me has commented on this thread, and that was last November. So far, no one's joined me in brainstorming about what to read this October, and we're already half through August. Of course, it's possible that everybody's satisfied with the two books I mentioned above for the poll, and feels no need for other ideas. But somehow I find that hard to believe.There are 1,441 of us in the group now, a LOT more members than we had when we did our first common read back in 2008. It's possible that we've outgrown the common reads; and it's possible too that members would prefer to take a break from them this year. In either case, the wishes of the group is what should prevail! Is there anyone in the group who's looking forward to doing a common read this October, and wants it to happen?
Sorry I haven't commented yet. Summer is my busiest work time, but that's no excuse. I do like the idea of doing Shiver; I was a little disappointed it didn't win last year (although I really enjoyed my re-read, or in my case, re-listen of The Night Circus).As a ghost enthusiast, I should put forward a ghost novel as well...perhaps Second Glance by Picoult or Haunted by Herbert. Both of those have been out long enough to be in libraries or used book stores.
Supernatural Fiction Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
The Cold Visitor (other topics)The Cold Visitor (other topics)
The Stones of Muncaster Cathedral (other topics)
The Jewel of Seven Stars (other topics)
The Jewel of Seven Stars (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Robert Westall (other topics)Bram Stoker (other topics)
Robert Westall (other topics)
Anthony Trollope (other topics)
Antonia Barber (other topics)
More...
Little Women is a timeless classic. But Louisa May Alcott’s first draft—before her editor sunk his teeth into it—was even better. Now the original text has at last been exhumed. In this uncensored version, the March girls learn some biting lessons, transforming from wild girls into little women—just as their friends and neighbors transform into vicious, bloodthirsty werewolves! ...