I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much! This "lost horror novel" is written in two parts that each have a slightly different tone and genre. PaI wasn't expecting to enjoy this book so much! This "lost horror novel" is written in two parts that each have a slightly different tone and genre. Part One focuses on spouse-murder and its resulting paranoia, in the style of Patricia Highsmith. Part Two is the creature-feature that brings out the worms. Sometimes the tone is Gothic, sometimes darkly humorous, sometimes strictly horror. It's a fast read and thoroughly entertaining....more
I was disappointed by this collection as I feel it's not Matheson's strongest material. Even he admits in the afterword of some stories that they're wI was disappointed by this collection as I feel it's not Matheson's strongest material. Even he admits in the afterword of some stories that they're weak. That being said, "weak" Matheson stories are still better than most authors' efforts. But I only enjoyed two or three of these....more
Ten pages into this book, I was smiling because it turns out Jennings and I had a very similar childhood fascination with maps. Finally, I thought, soTen pages into this book, I was smiling because it turns out Jennings and I had a very similar childhood fascination with maps. Finally, I thought, someone who GETS ME! I was so nerdy about maps and geography that in high school I took a dual-enrollment college course in cartography (I think I was the only student who actively wanted to be there rather than just breeze through to fulfill a credit requirement.) This is a book made for map geeks, mapheads, and geography wonks. I especially enjoyed the chapter on the Geography Bee (I entered one in middle school but was eliminated on the first question, about Lake Baikal), the illustrations of countries and states with very similar shapes, and the geography quiz in the back (I scored 22/40, gotta brush up on my trivia!).
Overall the book is engaging, but there are a few chapters and topics that I felt were too broad in scope; I'm not into geocaching, and the chapter about the Traveler's Century Club seemed like it was more focused on people who want to check countries off a list rather than actual geography nerds. I would have preferred a little more focus on the history of cartography, or more examples of how maps have influenced politics or culture, or interesting facts about geographical borders, etc. And more illustrations! But this is a fun book regardless and definitely worth a read if you are a maphead....more
Terrible excuse for a biography: no interviews, no sources cited, full of typos, incoherence, and no editorial oversight. There are sentences that makTerrible excuse for a biography: no interviews, no sources cited, full of typos, incoherence, and no editorial oversight. There are sentences that make no sense; the subject and verb don't align, sentences and phrases are repeated verbatim in different paragraphs as though copy + paste were used, the wrong person's name appears as the subject of a sentence, etc. Multiple times I had to go back and re-read to see if I'd skipped some information; no, it turns out the author neglected to mention some vital detail that became important later. The book opens with an unbearably long, pointless, and tedious history of John Phillips' ancestors and his childhood that I skipped for several CHAPTERS until I finally got to the formation of the group. No other member gets more than a few paragraphs of background information. Also the book is filled with dialogue but no citations. Where did Shea get his information? Did he just make up all the conversations depicted in the book? There's a bibliography in the back, but no sense of what was used for source material.
The section about the Monterey Pop Festival takes over 60 pages and describes in detail every single act, what time they played on stage, which songs they played, who was in the band, what they wore, how they were received by the audience, etc...which would be great if this were a book strictly about the Festival, but that wasn't supposed to be the book's focus....more
The quotes and reviews on the cover of my 1973 copy make this book out to be the most terrifying thing you'll ever read. I feel sorry for people in 19The quotes and reviews on the cover of my 1973 copy make this book out to be the most terrifying thing you'll ever read. I feel sorry for people in 1973 if this is what passed for horror before Stephen King came along. Burnt Offerings is in fact a slow burn that fizzles out, and barely qualifies as suspenseful. It's a cliched story by now: happy family moves into a stunningly cheap house and they become possessed by the malevolent spirits within. I haven't read enough from the pre-1970s era to know if "haunted house possesses a new family" was a trope at the time or if it became a trope later. But there's nothing noteworthy or memorable here....more
I picked this book up at a library sale because of my interest in anthropology. I liked it up until I decided to do a deep-dive into the author's backI picked this book up at a library sale because of my interest in anthropology. I liked it up until I decided to do a deep-dive into the author's background. My deep dive proved shallow, as I discovered that her account of a spontaneous year living with the Yanomami of northern Brazil likely never actually happened. Born Regine Thal, she did study anthropology but then gave up her doctoral studies to become a cult follower of Carlos Casteneda. She changed her name, obscured her background, and published this supposedly true account that has been panned in anthropological journals and is almost certainly fictional.
How convenient that she burned all her field notes and gave away her camera to an Indian who deliberately exposed the film - yet she remembered everything about that year in precise detail. How convenient that she had no pressing matters, no obligations, and literally no responsibilities anywhere, so that she could give up her current field work and trek into the jungle on a whim and be gone for an entire year with no outside contact. How convenient that she was "immune" to mosquitoes and snakebite, never got her period the entire time, and apart from a brief fever never experienced any illness or physical discomfort. How convenient that her only pair of underwear lasted an entire year in the jungle intact despite her not wearing any pants.
She claimed to have struggled to learned the tribe's language and dismissed herself as not being fluent. But all conversations rendered in the text (in proper English syntax and grammar) are deep, advanced, occasionally philosophical, rich in vocabulary as well as poetry and song. She relates conversations that would be impossible for anyone not fluent in a language. She immediately made friends with everyone and had a deep sister-wife connection with several women in the tribe. She had no enemies apart from the men in another tribe who wanted to kidnap her for the novelty of having a white woman. She thought this was funny. She giggled way too much throughout the entire book, even at the thought of rape. And yes, she was raped - by a shaman, and she enjoyed it.
Despite those disappointments, it's actually written well, very lyrical, and the descriptions of the village were so precise that when I saw photos of a Yanomamo shabono they were exactly what I'd pictured in my head when reading. But it shouldn't be regarded as anything but fiction that was patched together from other researchers' field studies and publications. ...more
Another book that was falsely marketed as a horror novel, this is about a mentally disturbed teenage girl (Danielle) who can't cope with her mother's Another book that was falsely marketed as a horror novel, this is about a mentally disturbed teenage girl (Danielle) who can't cope with her mother's suicide so she disassociates and hallucinates that she's a fish. Her father's an ichthyologist who runs a fish farm and has aquariums all over the house, so it doesn't come out of nowhere. Frankly, it would have been more psychologically interesting if her dad sold insurance or something, so that her fish hallucinations would have no clear origin. Later she has nightmares that she's part of a violent Amazonian tribe from her mother's native home in Brazil. At first I thought the nightmares were leading somewhere, and that there would be a suspenseful denouement, but no. There's no clear connection at all about why she's hallucinating about being part of the Yanomamo tribe, especially when we learn at the end that mom's ethnic heritage is actually from Spain???
Both Danielle and her therapist are afraid that her father murdered her mother, but it turns out they're wrong; mom committed suicide for unknown reasons. And once Danielle learns this, she's magically better, I guess?
This book is also way more sexual than I was expecting. Danielle's new therapist and her father instantly are attracted to each other and WAY too much of the book is devoted to their sex scenes. Like the latter half of the book becomes some romance novel, it's really boring. Danielle's hallucinations of being a fish also involve sex. I get it, she's a teenager going through puberty and trauma and has no physical outlet, but it's weird. ...more
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