September and October Books (Part II and Part I Respectively)
Reading took a bit of a back seat to art and writing this month as it sometimes does; 30 hour days would solve my problem nicely but, alas, I don’t have a Tardis or a Time Stone so I’m stuck having to make a choice. Rude, universe. Rude. Back seat simply means less, however, not a life bereft of and here are the texts that made their way into my eyeballs over the last few weeks.
How To Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix (January 17, 2023)
CW: Child in danger, creepy dolls
Grady Hendrix is one of my favorite horror writers and one of my favorite authors period. The Final Girl’s Support Group, his last offering, is one of my favorite books of all time, oozing suspense, inside baseball winks and nudges, darkest of dark humor, and an obvious love of genre. He is also master of my favorite authorial trick: writing the thing while gently mocking the thing, which one can only do if one truly loves the thing and he so very clearly does, as much, if not more, than his readers.
How to Sell a Haunted House is another home run in the same vein with a side of Shirley Jackson “the most evil of all evils is the human mind” even when the person with said mind is extremely deceased. Plus family drama which really, is the best and most plausible reason for ghosts (I mean, if anyone is going to haunt me, it’s definitely going to be my mother).
As always, Hendrix takes a horror trope and twists it, strangles it, shakes it, stabs it a few times, drains its blood, and reinfuses it with antifreeze, creating a tale adjacent but far, far more horrifying than any haunted house story you’ve imbibed before (except maybe We Have Always Lived in This Castle which will always be the most terrifying book I’ve ever read). And there are puppets. So. Many. Puppets.
Gah.
My only gripe, as is so often the case these days, is that Hedrix’ yarns are usually a bit more taut and How to Sell a Haunted House would have been equally as fantastic had it been 50-75 pages shorter. Otherwise? Bring on the next Hendrix.
Quackery by Linda Kang MD and Nate Pederson
It is amazing that the human race has survived long enough to get into this current mess. The things we’ve done to ourselves in the names of health, longevity, and cure in our desperation to outwit death go from logical but misguided to outright malicious. Also disgusting. Unbelievably disgusting. Like, you will not believe how disgusting.
And yet, here we are. Because we’re also ingenious, creative, learn from our mistakes (well, some of us, sometimes), and possess the ability to think critically (again, some of us). Because we want to learn, want to solve, want to do better.
So have a look at where we came from and how far we’ve come. I can’t promise it will restore your faith in humanity but it may give you a few laughs. Skip the part about “blowing smoke up your ass” if you’re easily made queasy though.
Sign Here by Claudia Lux (10/25)
Have you ever wanted something so badly, you’re willing to make a deal with the Devil to get it? Or a devil anyway, the big guy is pretty busy. Hell’s representatives are always ready to answer your call; in fact, they can’t wait - every signature they gather ensures them at least one more day’s safety from the torture chambers.
And that’s all most of them want. Most of them. A select few, however, a very determined few…
Well, I’m not going to tell you, spoilers, darling. Let’s just say those select few have something much more interesting on their Level Five issued tablets.
A twist on the typical Faustian trope, and managing to incorporate both pitchfork sharp humor and genuine pathos, Sign Here both breaks the mold and shines it up as a still- relevant foundation for cross-genre stories written by authors who know how to use it as exactly that: a foundation.
Especially good for your spooky season TBR.
Young Men in Love edited by Joe Glass and Matt Minter
Young Men in Love is an absolutely delightful anthology of own voices romance written and illustrated by some of the best comic talent working today.
Stories of various genres drawn in each artist’s style of choice some of the stories focus on the couple while others are about lives that happen to include MLM couples and both are wonderful and sometimes difficult and important and honest and compelling.
I don’t have much else to say other than everyone should buy this book and read it.
A Rather Haunted Life by Ruth Franklin
I am doing a writing project that involves Shirley Jackson. This is one of two biographies I’ve read so far, and definitely the one I prefer over Oppenheimer’s. More balanced, more reasonable, more well-reasoned, and definitely more neutral (Oppenheimer’s clearly favors Stanley Hyman, Jackson’s husband, when writing about his infidelity, his influence and participation in her work, and his often cruel treatment of her), Franklin treated her subject as worthy of a respect, an individual who was many things rather than as a mother and bad housekeeper who happened to write.
Franklin also didn’t feel it necessary to mention Jackson was overweight every other page.
Life Among Savages by Shirley Jackson
Many people complain that the stories in Life Among Savages are, at best, exaggerations and, at worst, fictions. They feel this makes the collection, somehow, less worthy of consideration.
I recently read a biography about Zora Neale Hurston, however, in which, discussing that author’s memoir, the writer pointed out that autobiography is meant to be fact while memoir is meant to give the reader a sense of the person rather than relaying a chronicle of their life. If one approaches Life Among the Savages from that angle, then the truth matters less than the way the stories are presented and I, personally, as a writer and a mother, was riveted and laughing out loud.
Did the story of taking Laurie and Joanie shopping happen exactly as it was relayed? Who cares? It was close enough to what happened the times I took my kids shopping to make me feel better about my personal disaster. The time one of the kids said something embarrassing at the wrong wrong time? To what parent has that not happened? The rush to find housing? Everything breaking down when you’re alone with the kids and no help in sight?
Epic. Amazing. And even better read aloud.
Hoping for more time next month. 35 hours maybe? 40?
Happy reading