Christine

I finally finished my Jólabókaflóð gift from last year! I'm not sure what took me so long - I guess there is a double challenge at the start of the story. First, we're introduced to a whole cast of characters (of course - you need a pool of suspects!) and it's tricky keeping them straight at the beginning. Second, this is chock full of contemporary slang and cultural references, so it can be downright baffling at times.

Still, this is a great classic murder mystery that almost out-Christies Christie. A bunch of people congregate in an English country manor to play “The Murder Game,” and of course someone actually gets murdered. It follows all the beats, but does a pretty good job of it. It definitely had me paranoid about who done it! And there are some fun side-notes like the gardener's daughter, and Inspector Alleyn himself is intriguing - sometimes comic, sometimes tragic, and sometime and verging on sociopathic in his dedication to solving the crime. If I read more Ngaio March, it will be to find out more about him.

A really fascinating and useful book, especially for anyone who has suffered chronic pain. As much as I knew that our brains create all our experience, this taught me a lot about how context and memory influence not just the ability to cope with pain, but the literal level of pain felt.

The book has a lot of theory, all packaged in friendly and straightforward terms any layperson can understand. Then it ends with descriptions of various exercises one can try (in conjunction with professional medical care) to decouple the “pain neurotag” in the mind from tissues that may no longer be damaged.

The only thing I didn't like about this was the art! I feel bad because they clearly made an effort to use art to keep the information accessible and fun, as well as to illustrate concepts. But the artist's style is very off-putting to me, reading as grotesque rather than whimsical to my eyes. Still, some of it avoided this style, such as charts and the stick figures demonstrating exercises. Those were quite useful and less weird.

I could have sworn I read this long ago, having been a Sherlock fan by my early teens. But while the murder scene rings a bell, I had no recollection whatsoever of Evil Mormons or the motivations and identity of the killer. I suspect my youthful mind lost traction when the extended flashback (with NO Sherlock!) began, and I never actually read the whole thing!

I've got to give this at least four stars - it's the original Sherlock tale, and establishes so many of the well-loved tropes of his adventures. It's amazingly readable for a modern audience - it's funny reading the satirical take on various biased newspapers spinning the murder story to their own political ends. Unfortunately as fresh and relevant as when it was written! And I'd wager this story is the main source of the phrase “judge, jury, and executioner,” how cool is that? (Defoe evidently used it earlier but in a much lesser known work.)

There is of course rampant and casual sexism and racism sprinkled throughout, but I try to read and judge a work in historical context and on that score I don't think I can dock stars. This is what white English dudes were soaking in in 1887, unfortunately.

However, I am deducting a star for two items that irritated me beyond that. First, Ferrier is supposed to be wise, shrewd, and stoic, but he's literally Too Stupid to Live when the plot requires it. One would think he could have managed to play along a bit and not set himself and Lucy up for disaster!

The other thing is What the fuck, Hope? You're the toughest Terminator ever when it comes to revenge, but you don't even try to rescue your true love? YOU HAD A MONTH, but you just wandered away because I guess once her hymen was torn she was as good as dead or something? Ugh.

This was a great, economical adventure. Sometimes I find YA to set the quality bar too low, but this is a shining example of a story told well for a young audience, without sacrificing artistry. In fact, I preferred the YA angle on this tale, because in a novel for grown-ups, the descriptions of how bad the camp was, and the abuse from other inmates, would have gone on for, like, 150 soul-crushing pages. Sachar keeps it efficient, giving us enough detail so we know how bad conditions are, but without belaboring the point and getting too depressing.

He skillfully treads the line between pathos and whimsy throughout, and gives a satisfying ending that ties up every thread - even ones I didn't realize were still running through the story! There's a reason this is an award-winning book, and I recommend it to readers from middle grade through adulthood.

First, the most important thing: I couldn't stop reading this. So you know this qualifies as a really good book, no matter what the downsides were.

My reading experience had two layers: at one level, I was just absorbed in the melodrama. The characters are engaging, and somehow even though I knew the basic outcome of Helen's diary flashback, I was still driven to find out what happened next! The story is romantic and shocking; characters develop from ignorant and impetuous to wise and principled; True Love is viewed from various points of view - naive, cynical, selfless, and hopeful. It basically has everything to delight the romantic heart. (Well, the climax is overly complicated and delayed, and uses some romance tropes that are real chestnuts by now, but if you skim Gilbert's silliness toward the end, it's fine.)

On another level, I was reflecting on this as a modern, atheistic feminist. From this point of view, the story often reveals surprising insight into patterns that remain highly relevant (e.g., the “Nice Guy” who tries to maneuver out of the friendzone; the plight of an introvert at a party who is tortured by a well-intentioned extrovert; the dangers of using pantsfeelings to choose a mate; and the horrible choices faced by an abused spouse when their abuser controls their housing and money, and puts their children at risk).

But of course, there's a lot that strained my sympathy as well. Helen is admirable only in the context of the moral code of the time. If one doesn't share her Christian beliefs about salvation, marital sanctity, and the duties of a wife, she comes off as far too eager to play the suffering martyr. She makes you want to tear your hair out with her willful blindness, naivete, and ridiculous devotion to forgiveness.

At the same time, it's clear that the social restrictions of the day set women up for failure - they were sheltered to the point that protective relatives couldn't plainly describe a man's bad behavior and its implications for a marriage. “He has an infamous reputation!” has much less impact than, “He screws anything in a skirt, coerces his friends into alcoholism, abuses puppies, and will probably give you and your children syphilis. Run!” Not to mention that guardians often basically pimped out their charges - shopping for rich men willing to leverage their fortunes for what amounted to ownership of a much younger, virginal girl/woman.

This tension between crafting Helen to be the Most Upright, Most Patient, Most Honorable Epitome of Womanhood, and yet clearly questioning the cultural requirements that put women in so many lose-lose situations, is probably why this is considered one of the earliest feminist novels. And it's done so artfully, and against such a poignant romantic story, that I couldn't put it down.

It took me five years to follow John Scalzi's advice and read this, but I'm so glad I kept it in mind. I do think that [b:Fuzzy Nation 9647532 Fuzzy Nation John Scalzi https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1316132345s/9647532.jpg 18280046] runs with the ideas with a little more success, but this is so charming, it really should be read for its own merits. Just the descriptions of Jack's interactions with the Fuzzies are worth it. Sure, the courtroom logistics are as tortured and silly as any Hollywood has ever turned out, and the “far future” is quaintly outdated, with baked-in sexism and amusingly analog technology. There are a few too many characters to easily keep track of. But the ones who stand out are so lovable and clever, it's well worth paging back once in a while to track whether a minor player is Company or Government aligned, etc.Check this out - it's a quick read, and it's full of wonderful characters and concepts.

I remember having this book as a kid - this may have been the book that sparked my love of weird fiction and horror. But somehow I retained no memories of the plot; I only remembered that I had read it and that it had great illustrations by Edward Gorey.

So it was delightful to revisit this with a fresh mind - experiencing the story all over again. And I was not disappointed! Uncle Jonathan and Mrs. Zimmerman are awesome, fun grownups and Lewis is a believable, sympathetic character, even when he's making some bone-headed decisions.

I'm really looking forward to seeing the movie with Jack Black and Cate Blanchett! I guess a lot of people will assume the movie is just an imitation of Harry Potter - isolated orphan child goes to live with quirky, loving guardians who show him that magic is real. But of course, this was written 24 years earlier than Rowling's first volume. It stands up surprisingly well, and was enchanting and amusing.

One star above “did not like it” for a pretty creepy monster/ghost and suitably nihilistic ending.

Minus all other stars for constant dangling participles and other offenses against writing, plus a boringly recursive character arc - “This house is creepy - I'm going to leave . . . but fame awaits!”x1000

I really liked the ideas in this story - creepy Paris catacombs and dangerous mutants, wary alliances, and kickass fights! Unfortunately the writing (as in, the grammar and sentence structure) were often confusing and would disrupt my momentum as I paused to puzzle out meaning. So, all in all 3 stars, but well worth an hour or so of your time if you like the Wild Cards world.

I'm so glad I found this gem! I was looking for a novel based on a true story for my 2019 reading challenge, and I wanted something that dovetails with my tastes. A few Google searches later, and I discovered a strange and darkly humorous take on the origins of the Winchester Mystery House. It's full of weird and eerie characters from the fringes of society, a peek at the underbelly of a wealthy household, plentiful ghosts, curses (accidental and deliberate), sentient buildings, mediums, theater folk, and a determined patent medicine showman.

Templeton really goes for it, using unconventional characters, unexpected plot turns, distinctive language, and gallows humor to tell a fantastical story that may be more true to Sarah Winchester than the common accounts of her. She's also not afraid to engage some real pathos, violence, and disturbing ideas. The haunting of Sarah isn't scary in the traditional ghost story sense, but horrifying in a very sad and affecting way.

But the real driver of the story is the unforgettable Hester Garlan. She's beautiful, clever, resourceful, and an absolute psychopath. I would hate to meet her, but I adored reading about her. (In my headcanon she's portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter with the perfect mix of beauty and dangerous insanity.)

We know all along that the main characters will come together somehow, but there are twists and turns along the way. Sometimes people sit out much of the action, only to pop in for the climax, and people who seem to be done for may actually have plenty of life left in them, while some who die of course stick around and participate anyway. It was fun seeing all the threads develop and come together.

The story is as captivating as ever, and the Audible version read by Rosamund Pike does it great justice. I'll probably listen to this again within a year!

This was reasonably entertaining. I guess it's from a series of short fiction, so maybe Demmer was working with an extreme word limit or something, but this seemed underdeveloped and a little abrupt. Still, the ideas had potential and the setting was suitably creepy.

Shea does something truly extraordinary here - he faithfully recreates the outlines and the emotional impact of Lovecraft's mythos, but sheds the blue-blood New England setting and the upper class, educated white dude protagonists. You wouldn't think that homeless people, prostitutes, drug dealers, and alcoholics would be suitable as Lovecraftian heroes, but Shea makes it seem perfectly natural.

“Copping Squid” is the clear winner of all the stories. Creepy and otherwordly, while grounded and gritty. Loved it.

“Fat Face” is pretty effective too, although the reveal is unsurprising to any savvy mythos reader.

“Nemo Me Impune Lacessit” and “Dagoniad” are campy fun. I feel like Sam Raimi should adapt “Dagoniad” for film - the super gross-out horror melded with silly slapstick is just his thing.

The other stories range from OK to awful. “Under the Shelf” in particular squanders its strong opening in a laughably stupid climax and resolution.

Worth checking out if you're a Lovecraft fan! Though I did notice that my Kindle version had lots of misprints, unfortunately.

This seemed a fun, charming idea, but I was left to wonder more and more, “Who is this book for?” As a pretty die-hard Janeite, I found it became kind of dull, since it merely recycles plots from her various novels. Meanwhile, I think a newcomer might be puzzled and put off by the mismatch of Lizzie to the other plots.

After an early death that I found stupid, I did enjoy some of the alternate endings. Some are incredibly outlandish, but that's the intent. I particularly enjoyed seeing Fordyce's Sermons put to its best possible use!

Eventually I got a little impatient with the diversions into other novels, since it's obvious the “correct” answers follow the plot of Pride & Prejudice. Thank goodness I didn't bother trying to keep track of my various scores - it would have been tiresome and pointless. (Am I going to refrain from reading the alternative that doesn't match my score? Of course not.)

That said, if you like Austen and don't mind some silliness, this is worth checking out!

2018 update: still yes to all of the below. Although the last paragraph is a pretty weird, ambivalent way to end the story, everything that leads up to it is masterful. Wentworth>Darcy 4EVA.

**I avoid sappy romance, but my heart would skip a beat when Captain Wentworth betrayed a possible remnant of affection for Anne.I'm a liberal, egalitarian, modern American woman, but somehow I can sympathize with Austen's shock at “unsuitable” marriages below one's station (never mind *gasp premarital sex!).

I'm probably more like sister Mary than I'd like to admit, but I can laugh at her hypochondria and negativity.

I'm naturally sarcastic and impatient with stupidity and . . . well, yeah, there I'm in perfect alignment with Jane.

I can never decide if Persuasion or Pride & Prejudice is my favorite Austen novel. Her wit is so sharp, and her characters so delightful, she's always a joy to read. This story of love, rejection, grief, and second chances is amusing, thrilling, and heart-warming.

This time around, I listened to Juliet Stevenson's reading, and she does an amazing job of bringing the story to life. I look forward to revisiting Persuasion again and again.

Hoo boy, is this blasphemous! If you revere the Bible, maybe you shouldn't read this. (Or maybe you really really need to?)

This book portrays Yahweh as vulgar, foolish, perverse, juvenile, and above all insecure - and it is absolutely 100% consistent with the Bible.

It's also quite hilarious, and has a certain pathos as well. God practically face-palming himself after calling bats birds, or telling himself in the middle of a tirade, “Stop talking. STOP. You're making it worse!” can evoke a sympathetic response from anyone who's suffered foot-in-mouth disease. But ultimately, we get a point of view that underlines (with Satan's help) just how self-deluded God is about his perfection.

The one complaint I have is this could have been a bit more fleshed out. It's rather short, and the pacing falls off when we get to the new testament (understandably, given the length of the Jesus story compared to the old testament). I would have loved to see Satan developed more, and while I like the idea of the ending, it felt a little underwritten.

Still, when your only complaint about a book is you wish there were more of it, that deserves at least 4 stars.

This was cute, but wasn't entirely engaging for me. Per his usual M.O., Dahl includes some pretty harrowing content, but ultimately this is definitely a kids' story.

The audiobook gained a lot by Miranda Richardson's enthusiastic reading - that may have been my favorite part of reading this!

This book is a ton of fun. I HIGHLY recommend getting the audio book so you can hear Greg Sestero's dead-on impression of Tommy Wiseau. And honestly, his affection for (and intermittent frustration with) him. There are a few “bless his heart” moments where Sestero stumbles over what is clearly Tom Bissell's wording, but overall he does a lovely job of bringing the whole tale to life, and generally seems like a nice, talented guy. The collaboration of Sestero and Bissell works perfectly - clearly Greg provided the story, and the emotions, and Tom wove it all into evocative, flowing narration.

This story does a wonderful job of showing that Tommy can be unreasonable, obnoxious, deluded, immune to feedback and indeed reality, but also that he's sympathetic in some ways. This was exactly the right tack to take. It lets the audience continue to laugh at Tommy's creation and at Tommy himself, but also recognize his longing for the Hollywood dream and appreciate his grit and hard work.

This was cute - I would give it 3.5 stars.

For a romantic farcical comedy, it was really good. I guess the genre isn't totally my thing, but this was pretty fun. Sometimes it seemed too silly for the emotional heft it occasionally tried to bring, or vice versa - too randomly emotional for the overall effervescent tone. But overall I liked Samantha and got invested in her learning how to have a life and maybe still use her brain.

I did feel like the ending left things quite open - it seemed like once the romantic subplot was resolved, the author dusted her hands and let us speculate on the rest. I might have liked more exploration on where Samantha landed with her career.

Still, a good palate-cleanser after some heavy duty reading. Now back to Lovecraftian fiction for a while. :) ~^(;,;)^~

Thoroughly engaging, funny, touching, and enlightening. The view from inside Christopher's mind is fascinating, and I often laughed out loud in agreement with one of his judgments (often they're reactions that I have myself but cover or morph with emotional intelligence or at least diplomacy).

I think what makes this novel rise above similar stories is the consistent linkage of external behaviors that would be deemed problematic, anti-social, and inexplicable with understandable, logical, and sympathetic internal reactions and reasoning. This book about a kid who struggles to imagine the internal lives of others actually enables readers to have a much richer and kinder idea of what's happening in other people's heads.

A true mixed bag, but well worth it for the high points.

The Barrens - 5/5 - nice evocation of the Lovecraft feel
Pickman's Modem - 2/5 - silly
Shaft Number 247 - 3/5 - intriguing and disturbing, but ultimately a bit too open-ended for me
His Mouth Will Taste of Wormwood - 3/5 - well, now we know some specifics of what one gets up to when Baudelaire is passe and ennui is leading down the path to grave-robbing. And we probably prefer Howard's elided version. Yikes!
The Adder - 3/5 - promising premise, ridiculous wrap-up
Fat Face - 4/5 - a classic Shea tale, but not as good as “Copping Squid”
The Big Fish - 2/5 - private eye stories aren't my thing
I Had Vacantly Crumpled It into My Pocket ... But By God, Eliot, It Was a Photograph from Life! - 3/5 - dreamy and compelling, but I don't fully get the connection to Pickman
H.P.L. - 1/5 - Ugh. I hate it when HPL shows up as a character in weird stories, and this is the worst example I've encountered.
The Unthinkable - 2/5 - I'll give the story this -it's unapologetically Out There.
Black Man with a Horn - 5/5 - a must-read for any Lovecraft fan
Love's Eldritch Ichor - 3/5 - self-consciously silly, but fun and has many great turns of phrase
The Last Feast of Harlequin - 4/5 - wasn't confident about the “I study clowns” intro, but it really delves into the folklore research aspect and sticks with you in a nasty (i.e., successful) way
The Shadow on the Doorstep - 1/5 - what even is this? Didn't care, had to plow through it
Lord of the Land - 3/5 - pretty creepy
The Faces at Pine Dunes - 4/5 - very effective first-person account that pulls you in for the ride
On the Slab - 2/5 - I found this to be meh with delusions of profundity
24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai - 4/5 - not sure it's strictly speaking Lovecraftian, despite name-dropping R'lyeh, but it's extremely effective (and affecting) weird fiction

I'm both fascinated and terrified.

I'm coming to grips with the realization that a cookbook can fall into the Uncanny Valley.

Here's my guess at this book's origin story:

ESTABLISHING SHOT:

KALININGRAD - SOOTY BRUTALIST STRUCTURE, EXT. - DAY

CUT TO INT. OFFICE

VLADISLAV
OK, bots are trawling the web for recipes with “sweet potato” in the title. You have image search prepared?

PETRU
да, will pull images based on key words in recipe title.

VLADISLAV
But how will we filter out logos and watermarks?

PETRU (laughing)
Who cares?

VLADISLAV
Good point! Now, content farm has requested author biography. What do you think of this:

Nancy's greatest joy is cooking in her modern kitchen. Being a technological savvy woman, she felt the e-book realm would be a good fit. As of today, Nancy has sold over 1,000 e-books -

possible

Sweet Potato Falafel with Tomato Couscous

Rich Veggie Chilli [sic]

Dairy-Free Sweet Potato Ice Cream

Sweet Potato Peanut Butter Brownies

Sweet Potato and Caramel Cheesecake

Sweet Potato, Avocado and Feta Muffins

This had some really good creep factors - extremely atmospheric, with plenty of dread. I think it's brilliant to marry nuclear contamination with Nyarlathotep - it brings that concept into modern times, but still gets the feel of that horror perfectly on point.

This is only 3.5 stars for me because it felt a bit underwritten. I would love to see this as a novel, with more time to flesh out Victoria and where she's coming from before arriving at the site, more time to see a slow deterioration of Swan, and a little more elegance and subtlety about what's really going on. It felt rushed to have the computer screens spell out exactly what we're dealing with, and Gramma Exposition was clunky - a little too informed and too willing and able to convey all her information.

Also, there's an annoying thread that I found sexist and tiresome, but I'll say that the culmination of that thread took a different direction and was pretty bold. So I'm more willing to forgive what came before.

Still, I highly recommend checking this out if you like horror or weird fiction!

3.5 stars - some good creepy tales, and Priestley is very good at ending a story before it wears out its welcome. However, I found [b:Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror 1900124 Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror (Tales of Terror, #1) Chris Priestley https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1429587759l/1900124.SY75.jpg 2047392] and [b:Tales of Terror from the Black Ship 2934112 Tales of Terror from the Black Ship (Tales of Terror, #2) Chris Priestley https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1433281794l/2934112.SY75.jpg 2961560] to have better stories and more effective frame tales. They really got under my skin, while this was more a pleasant diversion. I did really enjoy the bonus story and the shout outs to Uncle Montague!

DNF. We just got the Bertha reveal, and there's still SEVEN HOURS of book left? I'm done.

This doesn't even have a plot - it's a stultifying series of events that occasionally runs across a brief plot, then moves on to resume a mere catalog of experiences by the protagonist, most of them ridiculously dolorous, and told in the most verbose and moralizing way possible. How did I manage to read this in junior high?

Thandie Newton does a lovely job, but cannot save this.

(For the record, I understand the important influence of this book in western literature - hence the second star. It can be revolutionary and influential without actually being, you know, good.)