October Books

I love October, mostly because I love all things spooky. Every year I try to be purposeful about the entertainment I’d like to consume, and this year my list was probably my most ambitious yet. I’ll start with my TBR list.

Image result for paul tremblay growing thingsGrowing Things by Paul Tremblay
My favorite kind of horror is the kind that gets into your head and under your skin and makes you think about the story long after you’ve left it. Paul Tremblay excels at this kind of horror. Head Full of Ghosts is one of the scariest books I’ve ever read, and I’ve been excited to dig into this collection of short stories. I’ve been savoring it slowly, mostly during my lunch hour, and while that isn’t the most idyllic setting for consuming scary stuff, I’m actually sort of glad I’m not reading at home because I already find myself squirming in my seat and looking around at the world around me suspiciously in broad daylight.

 

Image result for pet semataryPet Semetary by Stephen King
I’m a little embarrassed by how few Stephen King books I’ve read, but it makes October and the dull, gray winter fun, because that’s when I’m in the mood to catch up. I’ve never really been interested in reading Pet Semetery, mostly because the movie, while creepy, seemed like enough. But I recently read a Reddit thread on horror recommendations and quite a few people recommended it. Stephen King himself calls it his scariest book. So I figured I should probably check it out.

 

Image result for your house is on fire book

Your House is on Fire, Your Children All Gone by Stefan Kiesbye
I think I heard about this book on BookTube, which can be an excellent source for obscure (at least to me) horror recommendations. Isn’t the cover incredibly creepy? It’s described as Children of the Corn meets Grimms Fairy Tales, and that was good enough for me.

 

 


Image result for house of leavesHouse of Leaves
by Mark Danielewski
I have a rather sad confession to make: I have tried to read this book at least five times and every. single. time I have to stop because I get really creeped out. Actually, not just creeped out. I get a feeling of being completely unsettled and goosebumps and chills, and since I usually read while staying up later than anyone else in my house, and it’s a story about a haunted house that is bigger on the inside that it is on the outside, I just can’t handle it. I am determined to finish it this year though.

 

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The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters
I have another confession: I’ve never read anything by Sarah Waters, and I have been told that that is a mistake. I’m a sucker for haunted house stories that I have a hard time reading when I’m home, so I figured this was right up my alley!

 

 

 

 

Image result for the shining stephen kingThe Shining by Stephen King
Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining is hands down my favorite horror movie, and I like to rewatch it right around Halloween every year. I read the novel as a teenager, thanks to my dad going on and on about how scary he found it, but I haven’t read it since. I wasn’t even going to put it on my already probably unrealistic list this year, but a friend is reading it and made me want to too. I’m really excited to revisit The Overlook.

 

 

Link Love

Here are some of my favorite things this week:

  • I love the song Georgia by Vance Joy so so much, and YouTube kindly recommended an acoustic rendition that I, no lie, looped for the last three hours of my workday yesterday. Still not tired of it.
  • Roxane Gay on “The Pleasure of Clapping Back
  • A former coworker recommended “The Dream” and for some dumb reason, I didn’t immediately listen to it. I should have. It’s good.
  • ASMR versions of iconic Real Housewives scenes had me CACKLING.
  • I really enjoy reading Emily Nussbaum’s take on pretty much anything, so I’m excited for her new book.

Happy weekend!

Happy National Poetry Day!

One of my favorite collections of poetry is Averno by Louise Gluck, and this is my favorite poem from that collection:

A Myth of Devotion

When Hades decided he loved this girl
he built for her a duplicate of earth,
everything the same, down to the meadow,
but with a bed added.

Everything the same, including sunlight,
because it would be hard on a young girl
to go so quickly from bright light to utter darkness

Gradually, he thought, he’d introduce the night,
first as the shadows of fluttering leaves.
Then moon, then stars. Then no moon, no stars.
Let Persephone get used to it slowly.
In the end, he thought, she’d find it comforting.

A replica of earth
except there was love here.
Doesn’t everyone want love?

He waited many years,
building a world, watching
Persephone in the meadow.
Persephone, a smeller, a taster.
If you have one appetite, he thought,
you have them all.

Doesn’t everyone want to feel in the night
the beloved body, compass, polestar,
to hear the quiet breathing that says
I am alive, that means also
you are alive, because you hear me,
you are here with me. And when one turns,
the other turns—

That’s what he felt, the lord of darkness,
looking at the world he had
constructed for Persephone. It never crossed his mind
that there’d be no more smelling here,
certainly no more eating.

Guilt? Terror? The fear of love?
These things he couldn’t imagine;
no lover ever imagines them.

He dreams, he wonders what to call this place.
First he thinks: The New Hell. Then: The Garden.
In the end, he decides to name it
Persephone’s Girlhood.

A soft light rising above the level meadow,
behind the bed. He takes her in his arms.
He wants to say I love you, nothing can hurt you

but he thinks
this is a lie, so he says in the end
you’re dead, nothing can hurt you
which seems to him
a more promising beginning, more true.

Link Love

Here are some of my favorite things I found around the internet this week:

  • Beauty and the Beast is out today! And it’s getting mixed reviews :/ But even so, I’m still excited to see my favorite Disney movie brought to life.
  • I’ve been meaning to check out Ryan Murphy’s Feud on FX (but wanted to watch Whatever Happened to Baby Jane first), and this review made me want to get on with it posthaste.
  • My favorite part of Game of Thrones is arguably the dragons. And they are ‘the size of 747s’ in season 7. As in, this fan art may become canon. Eeep!
  • I’ve written before about my affinity for StoryWonk, and I was really bummed when Lani left. But then I was super stoked when she started a new media company, Chipperish!
  • I love the Watch What Crappens podcast, and have also been loving Ronnie’s audio recaps of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills episodes. If you’re a fan of the show, you’ll definitely be a fan of these too.
  • Finally, I’m incredibly late to this party, but I recently, finally watched Moonlight, and thought it was SO deserving of the hype and the awards and think you should watch it and hope you agree that it’s really something special. I’m still thinking about it, and reading as much as I can about it. I sat down to write a review and ended up with “it’s just a moving, beautiful film that made me feel lots of things and cry, both happy and sad tears.” This review does a much better job of explaining why than I could.

Happy perusing and happy weekend!

Link Love

This week has been horrible. Leonard Cohen is dead. Everything seems hopeless. And I’d very much like to be distracted right now, so that seems like a good reason to focus on other things and finally follow through on my intention to get back to writing here

So, without further ado, here are some of my favorite things I found around the internet this week:

  • I was so sad to hear that Leonard Cohen passed away this week. I have turned to his music whenever I find myself in a quiet, contemplative mood, and his poetry has inspired me so much. Bob Dylan was spot on when he told Cohen that his “songs were like prayers.” You should listen to his final interview with The New Yorker.
  • When things aren’t going well, I turn to the written word. So I loved this piece from the Atlantic about deriving comfort from poetry.
  • I have been loving the My Favorite Murder podcast for months now, and this weeks episode, chock full of hometown murders, is already one of my favorites so far.
  • Finally, this letter from Leslie Knope about the election was exactly what I needed to read this week.
Source

Happy perusing and happy weekend! Well…we can try, anyway.