Five friends arrive at a decaying Heian era mansion in Japan. Two of them have invited the rest to celebrate their wedding and to spend the night telling ghost stories. Okay, I’ll play along. I think I’ve heard this story before, but it sounds like a good time. And it was. Though it took me a while to warm up to it, Nothing but Blackened … Continue reading Nothing but Blackened Teeth by Cassandra Khaw
Are you someone who will read a random book you picked up in a thrift store? Such people must exist since there are so many thrift stores still carrying old paperbacks. My copy of Booked to Die has a 1992 copyright way back when the cover price for a paperback was $5.99. It’s already been resold at least once for $4.00 according to the penciled … Continue reading Booked to Die by John Dunning
This is the second Lovecraftesque book I’ve read this year. (The first was The House on the Borderland, see review here.) Both The Twenty Days of Turin and William Hope Hodgson’s The House on the Borderland share a narrator’s P.O.V. and a godlike evil force that remains unexplained by the novel’s end. In both books the narrator is basically reconstructing historical events long separated from … Continue reading The Twenty Days of Turin by Giorgio De Maria, translated from the Italian by Ramon Glazov
This book is not very good. But I can see why the publishers had it translated into English. It hits three very sweet spots as far as sales go: Japanese books in translation have a definite fan base these days; it’s about books and bookstores and it features a cat. Three things with very clear audience appeal. I’ve seen it in lots of shops and … Continue reading The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa; translated by Louise Heal Kawai
The library book club, which meets above the witchcraft supply store here in Grass Valley, met yesterday. They did not like the book Continue reading White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi
My new favorite book. I am a fan of crime fiction, but I’ll admit the genre can be a bit stale at times. Someone I know, not a fan, described it as too “rat-a-tat-tat” for his taste. Fair enough, I guess. Much of the time the formula is part of the fun. Readers of crime fiction don’t necessarily want to be challenged with experimentation or … Continue reading Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
When I say that When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen is an airplane read, I don’t mean that as an insult. Not at all. I value good airplane reads. I want an airplane read to do is to keep me entertained for the duration of the flight, which When the Reckoning Comes definitely did, or would have had I been on a plane, probably … Continue reading When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen
The detective in Syndrome E is a paranoid schizophrenic. While solving cases he is constantly accompanied by his hallucinations of his deceased six-year-old daughter. She is not giving him hints to help solve the case but acting like a six-year-old: crying out for attention; becoming sick at the sight of bloody crime scenes; complaining that she wants her father to play with her, feed her … Continue reading Syndrome E by Franck Thilliez – translated from the French by Mark Poliotti
Last summer I joined Camp TOB 2022, my first time with the Tournament of Books summer reading game. I’ve enjoyed reading along and voting in the Tournament of Books for the last couple of years, and I’ve even found a few “new favorite books” as a result. So, I thought I’d give the summer reading game a go. I did find a “new favorite book,” … Continue reading Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
About halfway through Becky Chambers’ A Prayer for the Crown-shy I realized what it was reminding me of: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig’s 1974 novel. I’m not a fan of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Mr. Pirsig’s novel is an autobiographical account of a cross-country trip he took with his young son. Along the way he reviews the history … Continue reading A Prayer for the Crown-shy by Becky Chambers
I bought this book because of the cover. Not the cover pictured here on the left but a different cover. I get regular posts about retro-science fiction/fantasy book covers on Instagram. A while ago, there was one featuring a cover for William Hope Hodgson’s novella, The House on the Borderland. The cover featured a bunch of nude human figures all reaching for a glowing sphere … Continue reading The House on the Borderland by Willaim Hope Hodgson
I saw it. I bought it. I read it. It was okay. Continue reading My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby
May Contain Spoilers 