en-US Wed, 11 Sep 2024 10:20:21 -0700 60 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg 36397547 In Act One, readers are presented with a serial killer in Victorian London, a lighthouse keeper with an eerie legacy, a murderous spouse that seems to have walked right out of a mystery novel, and a treacherous Japanese lady who wants to stay immortal. The heightened fears in the twilight of your minds will seep into the blackest of your nights, where you have to breathe in rhythm to stay alive.
In Act Two, the poetry turns more internal and pierces through the wall of denial and pain, bringing visceral emotions to the surface unleashing traumas such as domestic abuse, violence, and illness.
In the short stories, you’ll meet residents of Valhalla Lane whose lives are on a violent parallel track to collision, a man who is driven mad by the sound of a woodpecker, a teenage girl who wakes up on the beach and can’t find another soul in sight, a woman caught in a time shift pitting her against the Egyptian goddess Anuket, and a little girl whose whole world changes when her favorite dandelion yellow crayon is discontinued.
Amid these pages the haunting themes of oppression, isolation, revenge, and madness unfold through folklore, nightmares, and often times, raw, impulsive passion crafted to sear from the inside out.
With a touching foreword by the Bram Stoker nominated author Brian Kirk, Breathe. Breathe. will at times unsettle you, and at times embrace you. Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi, a veteran writer and editor of the written word, offers up a mixed set of pieces, identifying her as a strong, new voice in dark fiction that will tear the heart from your chest, all the while reminding you to breathe.]]> 100 Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi 0995975337 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.50 2017
author: Erin Sweet Al-Mehairi
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.50
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2024/09/11
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]]> 99300
Written from a feminist perspective, often focusing on the inferior status accorded to women by society, the tales include "turned," an ironic story with a startling twist, in which a husband seduces and impregnates a naïve servant; "Cottagette," concerning the romance of a young artist and a man who's apparently too good to be true; "Mr. Peebles' Heart," a liberating tale of a fiftyish shopkeeper whose sister-in-law, a doctor, persuades him to take a solo trip to Europe, with revivifying results; "The Yellow Wallpaper"; and three other outstanding stories.

These charming tales are not only highly readable and full of humor and invention, but also offer ample food for thought about the social, economic, and personal relationship of men and women � and how they might be improved.

Collects:
—The Yellow Wallpaper
—Three Thanksgivings
—The Cottagette
—T³Ü°ù²Ô±ð»å
—Making a Change
—If I Were a Man
—Mr. Peebles' Heart]]> 129 Charlotte Perkins Gilman 0486298574 Gwendolyn 5 4.05 1892
author: Charlotte Perkins Gilman
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1892
rating: 5
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date added: 2024/09/06
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]]> 121329032 Paloma has been watching the Grand Vespertilio Show her entire life. Grand, America’s most beloved horror host showcases classic, low-budget and cult horror movies with a flourish, wearing his black tuxedo and hat, but Paloma has noticed something strange about Grand, stranger than his dark make-up and Gothic television set.
After Paloma’s husband, a homicide detective, discovers an obscure movie poster pinned on a mutilated corpse on stage at the Chicago Theater, she knows that the only person that can help solve this mystery is Grand. When another body appears at an abandoned historic movie palace the deaths prove to be connected to a silent film, lost to the ages, but somehow at the center of countless tragedies in Chicago.
The closer Paloma gets to Grand she discovers that his reach is far greater than her first love, horror movies, and even this film. And she soon becomes trapped between protecting a silent movie that’s contributed to so much death in her city and the life of her young son.]]> 336 Cynthia Pelayo 1957957107 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.51 2023
author: Cynthia Pelayo
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.51
book published: 2023
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/05/26
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]]> 17707005 San Francisco’s Playland at the Beach: The Early Years, this keepsake covers the years 1945 to 1972, showcasing both the height of Playland’s postwar popularity and its decline, closure, and destruction during its final years. Illustrated by a huge collection of rare black-and-white and color photographs, it lets the reader experience the rides, attractions, restaurants, and behind-the-scenes operations of the great amusement park during its best-remembered period.]]> 152 James R. Smith 1610351932 Gwendolyn 5 4.20
author: James R. Smith
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.20
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/09/23
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]]> 36309774 Darkest Hours, people make decisions that lead them into extreme scenarios � sometimes bizarre, often horrific, always unexpected. Between this book’s covers you will find academics in distress; monsters abused by people; people terrorized by demons; ghostly reminiscences; resurrected trauma; and occult filmmaking. Ranging from satirical to dreadful, these stories share a distinct voice: urgent, sardonic, brutal, but always empathetic.

"In these sharply compelling stories Mike Thorn intertwines the bizarre and the quotidian to form seamless chronicles of personal disaster. The protagonist may not know the precise nature of the catastrophe heading his way, but you get the feeling he's been anticipating something bad—and inexorable—for a long time. This rueful wisdom, a product of youthful disappointment and early trauma, informs each tale as it winds its way toward a natural yet surprising conclusion. The element of surprise is a tribute to Thorn's ingenuity; the assuredness of his prose is due to his extensive knowledge of the horror genre. Perfectly paced from the first sentence, these stories grab you by the collar with the urgency of mortal danger. Highly recommended."
-- S.P. Miskowski, author of Strange is the Night

"Everyone has their own mythology. Most people, however, don’t recognize it as such. Mike Thorn gets it. His fiction seems to blur distinctions between horror and noir, between science fiction and fantasy. Between dream and reality. They’re all here. Demons. Monsters. Big ones, little ones. (Sometimes the things done to them are worse than the things they do.) When you first encounter Thorn’s writing, a number of qualities impress themselves: the macabre intelligence (brutal really), the chilling wit, the naturalness of the dialogue. Plus there’s the skill and style of the prose. It may all play out like a nightmare, but a terrible logic remains inherent. His characters make bad choices, and it’s those decisions that bring on calamity. At once, the reader recognizes this. Mike Thorn is inescapable, and he understands that most terrifying variety of monsters, the hidden ones, the inner ones. They’re on display here. Savor the experience."
-- Robert Dunbar, author of The Pines and Willy

"Darkest Hours is for readers wishing to take a thrilling walk on the dark side. Mike Thorn has delivered a promising debut with this collection showing off his commitment to stories of nuance, heart, and of course� darkness."
-- Daniel Braum, author of The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales

"I've long been a fan of authors who can create a style and allow it to be as important as the story itself. Mike Thorn is a prime example of an author who builds off the baseline mechanics of prose on his own terms, and in the process writes witty and honest, dark literary stories, as is the case with Darkest Hours. Mike Thorn's debut story collection is not to be missed by those who enjoy an academic intellect with a potent flair for fiction."
-- Dustin LaValley, author of A Soundless Dawn

"Fast, fun and full of fear, Darkest Hours turns on a dime from a laugh to a scream. Terrifying and sly, Mike Thorn writes with refreshing originality and hides fangs behind a smile."
-- John C. Foster, author of Mister White]]> 252 Mike Thorn 0995975353 Gwendolyn 5 4.19 2021
author: Mike Thorn
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2021
rating: 5
read at: 2018/03/11
date added: 2022/09/19
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]]> 59835051 Shortlisted for the 2022 Shirley Jackson Award




Unwieldy Creatures, a biracial, queer, nonbinary retelling of Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein, follows the story of three beings who all navigate life from the Plum, a queer biracial Chinese intern at one of the world's top embryology labs, who runs away from home to openly be with her girlfriend only to be left on her own; Dr. Frank, a queer biracial Indonesian scientist, who compromises everything she claims to love in the name of science and ambition when she sets out to procreate without sperm or egg; and Dr. Frank's nonbinary creation who, painstakingly brought into the world, is abandoned due to complications at birth that result from a cruel twist of revenge. Plum struggles to determine the limits of her own ambition when Dr. Frank offers her a chance to assist with her next project. How far will Plum go in the name of scientific advancement and what is she willing to risk?]]> 244 Addie Brook Tsai 1938841352 Gwendolyn 5 3.93 2022
author: Addie Brook Tsai
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2022
rating: 5
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date added: 2022/09/01
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]]> 52712888
Book 8 in the Rewind-or-Die series: imagine your local movie rental store back in the �70s, �80s, and �90s, remember all those fantastic covers. Remember taking those movies home and watching in awe as the stories unfolded in nasty rainbows of gore, remember the atmosphere and textures. Remember the blood.]]> 140 Lisa Quigley Gwendolyn 5 3.70 2020
author: Lisa Quigley
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2020
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/05/11
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]]> 53147667 383 Robert S. Wilson Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.79
author: Robert S. Wilson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.79
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2020/04/12
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]]> 52774878
These are the stories of things out of water—of sea bed deserts choked with ghosts; of the lonely, roving children of the fen. Here your garden grows belowground. You will be born into a cradle of your own bones, shadows will burst from your eyes, and your mouth will fill with thorns. Storms will twist inside you, and the ghosts of your past will follow you and chart your future.

Here, things are out of place—ectopic and unviable—and you will mourn the unborn, those underwater things out of water.]]> 242 Sarah Read 1950305058 Gwendolyn 5 3.95 2019
author: Sarah Read
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/03/28
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]]> 52706542
Limited to 130 hand-numbered copies.]]> 52 Brooke Warra Gwendolyn 5 4.50
author: Brooke Warra
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.50
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/03/25
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]]> 652386 44 Miriam Young 1930900287 Gwendolyn 5 4.55 1964
author: Miriam Young
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.55
book published: 1964
rating: 5
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date added: 2020/03/11
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]]> 46027922
"S.L. Edwards is a natural storyteller, with a keen command of voice, a delightfully twisted imagination and a wily, prodigious intellect. Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts lives up to its inventive title with tales of hauntings that are chilling, funny, moving and—quite often—all three at once. I loved this collection." - Jon Padgett, Author of THE SECRET OF VENTRILOQUISM

“In these perfectly constructed, intimately detailed, and emotionally charged tales, Edwards isolates the silent horrors underscoring our lives and woven into our closest relationships, urging them to take psychological and physical form. In the cold hours before dawn his creatures rise, arch their backs, and begin the search for sustenance, feeding off of childhood fears and lifelong grievances. Hidden in memories, abandoned rooms, and forgotten trails, adorned with the fantasies we invent to conceal their nature, our monsters merely postpone the moment of revelation until we’re far too vulnerable to escape.� � S.P. Miskowski, author of THE WORST IS YET TO COME

"S.L. Edwards has crafted something truly special with Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts. Phantoms and monsters haunt these pages, but so do far greater demons: loneliness, addiction, lost love. In these stories, there's pain, there's beauty, and beyond it all, there's a profound humanity that will by turns unsettle you as well as break your heart. A sublime debut, and one that should jump to the top of your reading list immediately." - Gwendolyn Kiste, author of THE RUST MAIDENS and PRETTY MARYS ALL IN A ROW

"Armed with a taut understanding of power and the damage that power can do, Sam's stories are conscientious, unsparing, and a reflection of the world we've broken. A writer with a vision to watch." - Nadia Bulkin, Author of SHE SAID DESTROY

"Whiskey and Other Unusual Ghosts by S.L. Edwards is a startling debut collection whose author has unflinching insight into the political and the personal, into the human and the inhuman alike. A true standout among the new voices in modern Horror. Fans of Nadia Bulkin will find a lot to love here." � Matthew M. Bartlett, author of GATEWAYS TO ABOMINATION

With an introduction by Gwendolyn Kiste.]]> 191 S.L. Edwards Gwendolyn 5 3.94 2019
author: S.L. Edwards
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2019
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/07/19
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]]> 40499855 188 Christa Carmen Gwendolyn 5 3.89 2018
author: Christa Carmen
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2019/06/23
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]]> 45285321 Graduate student Xavier Wentworth has been drawn to Shimmer, hoping to study the work of artists like quilter Hazel Whitby and landscape painter Shadrach Grayson in detail, having experienced something akin to an epiphany when viewing a Hazel Whitby tapestry as a child. Xavier will find that others, too, have been drawn to Shimmer, called by something more than art, something in the marsh itself, a mysterious, spectral hue.

From Lambda Literary Award-nominated author Craig Laurance Gidney (Sea, Swallow Me & Other Stories, Skin Deep Magic) comes A Spectral Hue, a novel of art, obsession, and the ghosts that haunt us all.]]> 218 Craig Laurance Gidney 1939905508 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.99 2019
author: Craig Laurance Gidney
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/05/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 45181073
Blood may be thicker than water, but fire destroys all.

Sammi Hayes is a Thai-American from a damaged family with a seriously ill mother, a naïve immigrant cousin, and a possessive ex-boyfriend. When her cousin meets an avoidably horrific fate and the person responsible gets off easy, Sammi embarks on a personal odyssey to set things straight. But getting justice might just bring a world of chaos beyond what she ever could have imagined.

From the author of glass slipper dreams, shattered comes a tale of identity, revenge, and the dark red hope of redemption in the face of horror and trauma.]]> 40 Doungjai Gam Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.57
author: Doungjai Gam
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.57
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/04/20
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]]> 28591784
The signals are already inside you. You never even had a chance.

Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing brings you Lost Signals, a tome of horror fiction featuring radio waves, numbers stations, rogue transmissions, and other unimaginable sounds you only wish were fiction. Forget about what’s hiding in the shadows, and start worrying about what’s hiding in the dead air.

Edited by Max Booth III and Lori Michelle, featuring a front cover design by Matthew Revert and 25 interior illustrations by Luke Spooner, this 130,000 word collection is a must-have for any serious fan of horror.]]> 378 Max Booth III 1943720088 Gwendolyn 0 3.57 2016
author: Max Booth III
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2016
rating: 0
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date added: 2019/03/10
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]]> 42170555 280 Anya Martin Gwendolyn 5 4.13
author: Anya Martin
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.13
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/12/12
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I was lucky enough to receive an advance reading copy of this title, and let's just say: this collection is one of the major debuts of the year. An intoxicating blend of weird fiction, horror, and dark fantasy, SLEEPING WITH THE MONSTER is a beautiful and unnerving ode to the strange, to cinema, and to those of us weirdos searching for somewhere to belong. My personal favorite story in the book is "The Un-Bride, or No Gods and Marxists," which is a fantastic homage to Bride of Frankenstein actress Elsa Lanchester. Anya Martin has been steadily building a solid reputation as a fiction author over the last few years, and this collection will no doubt cement her status as one of the leading weird fiction and horror writers out there today. Definitely a book that's worth adding to your to-be-read pile immediately.
]]> 43128270
It’s just a tall tale. That’s what they tell Charley when he sees the ragged grey figure stalking the abbey halls at night.

When Charley follows his pet insects to a pool of blood behind a false wall, he could run and let those stones bury their secrets. He could assimilate, focus on his studies, and wait for his father to send for him. Or he could walk the dark tunnels of the school’s heart, scour its abandoned passages, and pick at the scab of a family’s legacy of madness and murder.

With the help of Sam Forster, the school’s gardener, and Matron Grace, the staff nurse, Charley unravels Old Cross� history and exposes a scandal stretching back to when the school was a home with a noble family and a dark secret—a secret that still haunts its halls with scraping steps, twisting its bones into a new generation of nightmares.]]> 192 Sarah Read Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.80 2019
author: Sarah Read
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/12/09
shelves: to-read
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]]> 42448518
When a law enforcer named Zhin appears like a living flame, a family war that's been sizzling for decades finally ignites. It drags Vijeren in, revealing secrets of a long-forgotten past and a family torn asunder in recesses of lost memories. Only Zhin knows how to kill the Grand Apwor, but the answer rests on the love between a father and son--something that Vijeren doesn't have...]]> 321 Julia Benally 1723035564 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 5.00
author: Julia Benally
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 5.00
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/11/01
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]]> 36510973 263 Sean M. Thompson Gwendolyn 5
As a huge fan of his 2016 collection, TOO LATE, I was looking very forward to seeing what Thompson could do with a longer form, so I dug in as soon as I received this ARC. Fortunately, TH3 D3M0N does not disappoint. This story is dark and twisted and unlike anything else you’ve ever read. Without giving too much away, it is fair to say there is so much pain here, and so much raw honesty as well. A grim book to be sure, it also explores and deconstructs what makes us human---displaying all the cruelty and violent predilections that come much too easy to people. TH3 D3M0N will stick with you for a long time, lingering in the back of your mind, nagging at you in the way that only a great story can. Highly recommended.]]> 4.46 2017
author: Sean M. Thompson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/10/31
shelves:
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Social media and the internet at large can be terrifying. That’s a tacit truth that many of us don’t give much thought as we interact with the virtual world day after day. Sean M. Thompson, however, dives headfirst into this concept, and what he’s created in his debut novel is at once gruesome and thought-provoking.

As a huge fan of his 2016 collection, TOO LATE, I was looking very forward to seeing what Thompson could do with a longer form, so I dug in as soon as I received this ARC. Fortunately, TH3 D3M0N does not disappoint. This story is dark and twisted and unlike anything else you’ve ever read. Without giving too much away, it is fair to say there is so much pain here, and so much raw honesty as well. A grim book to be sure, it also explores and deconstructs what makes us human---displaying all the cruelty and violent predilections that come much too easy to people. TH3 D3M0N will stick with you for a long time, lingering in the back of your mind, nagging at you in the way that only a great story can. Highly recommended.
]]> 40007595 218 Tevis Shkodra Gwendolyn 5
I'm looking very forward to what Aphotic Realm puts out next; if it's as enjoyable as this anthology, then it will be well worth any reader's time.

Please note that I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]]> 4.81
author: Tevis Shkodra
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.81
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/10/31
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A highly enjoyable and solid anthology, Tales from the Realm: Volume One features a wonderful array of speculative fiction stories. Many of the authors are new to me, which is always a real treat, since I love reading work by new writers. Of those names I recognized and have read before, S.J. Budd is one of my favorites; her writing never fails to impress and entertain, and her story, "The Forgotten House," is among the creepiest and most memorable entry in the book.

I'm looking very forward to what Aphotic Realm puts out next; if it's as enjoyable as this anthology, then it will be well worth any reader's time.

Please note that I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 40766350 82 Doungjai Gam Gwendolyn 5 4.71
author: Doungjai Gam
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.71
book published:
rating: 5
read at: 2018/08/22
date added: 2018/08/22
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This beautiful and lyrical collection is at turns heartbreaking, fierce, and never anything short of devastating. While the pieces in the book tend toward the shorter side--most are flash, and many read like absolutely breathtaking prose poetry--don't let the length fool you: every page will leave an indelible impact. You can probably get through this book in one sitting, but you'll want to read it again and again, just to unpack all the gems within. The imagery is razor-sharp and unforgettable, and the emotions evoked are so raw yet so incredibly honest and relatable. An absolutely lovely and brilliant debut collection.
]]> 36675752 126 Farah Rose Smith 1621052583 Gwendolyn 5 4.10 2018
author: Farah Rose Smith
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 2018
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2018/06/25
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]]> 27399612 54 Craig Laurance Gidney Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.03 2015
author: Craig Laurance Gidney
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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date added: 2018/05/06
shelves: to-read
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]]> 38197382 91 Claire C. Holland Gwendolyn 5 3.68 2018
author: Claire C. Holland
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.68
book published: 2018
rating: 5
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date added: 2018/03/11
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]]> 38894103
Featuring stories by Ramsey Campbell, Gemma Files, Orrin Grey, H. P. Lovecraft, Christopher Slatsky, Sarah Peploe, David Stevens, and more. With stunning black and white interior illustrations by aclaimed weird artist Fufu Fruenwahl. Edited by Scott R Jones.]]> 288 Scott R. Jones 1927673259 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.18 2018
author: Scott R. Jones
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2018/03/05
shelves: to-read
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]]> 34220644
Literary Witches draws a connection between witches and visionary writers: both are figures of formidable creativity, empowerment, and general badassery. Through poetic portraits, Taisia Kitaiskaia and Katy Horan honor the witchy qualities of well-known and obscure authors alike, including Virginia Woolf, Mira Bai, Toni Morrison, Emily Dickinson, Octavia E. Butler, Sandra Cisneros, and many more.

Perfect for both book lovers and coven members, Literary Witches is a treasure and a source of inspiration. Kitaiskaia and Horan bring fresh insights on your most beloved authors, suggest enchanting new writers, and invite you to rediscover the magic of literature.]]> 166 Taisia Kitaiskaia 1580056733 Gwendolyn 5 3.98 2017
author: Taisia Kitaiskaia
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/11/25
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]]> 36595730 Hardened Hearts spills the sum of darkness and light concerning the measures of love; including works from Meg Elison, author of The Book of the Unnamed Midwife (Winner of the Philip K. Dick Award), Tom Deady, author of Haven (Winner of the Bram Stoker award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel), Gwendolyn Kiste, author of And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe and Pretty Marys All in a Row, and many more.

Hardened Hearts dips from speculative, horror, science fiction, fantasy, into literary and then out of the classifiable and into the waters of unpinned genres, but pure entertainment nonetheless.]]> 260 Eddie Generous 0995975388 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.23 2017
author: Eddie Generous
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/11/14
shelves: to-read
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]]> 34957719
Emily B. Cataneo's debut fiction collection is rife with the decayed grandeur of old Europe, girls who love and loathe ghosts, and magic that comes with a price. These stories, many of which have appeared on year's best longlists, span the gamut from soft science fiction to noir, to high fantasy and everything in between. They unfold in settings rendered both beautiful and sinister: a wintry post-Revolution Russia, a gossipy New England town, a lonely bathhouse where robots go to die.

As the characters in these tales live out their lives, from childhood to death and beyond, they search for meaning, connection, and safety, struggling to transcend their circumstances and ultimately grappling with the question: how far will they go to escape?]]> 204 Emily B. Cataneo Gwendolyn 5 4.46 2017
author: Emily B. Cataneo
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/11/12
date added: 2017/11/12
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]]> 34014900
When Guy's marriage of two decades unravels, he's driven from his previously stable domestic life and ends up renting a room in the houseboat of his much younger co-worker Karl. Pushed outside his comfort zone, Guy tries to follow Karl's example, until he ends up exploring entirely new frontiers, both natural and uncanny.

He finally encounters the enigmatic Lily, who offers to share with Guy her own arcane language, a mix of incomprehensible symbols, rough bits of nature and dark pleasures of the flesh. Guy finds himself obsessed, as if powerless under Lily's spell.

Will he recognize in time the many secrets she keeps hidden in plain sight, or will allow himself to be pulled downstream toward an inescapable vortex?]]> 176 Michael Griffin 1945373520 Gwendolyn 5
A day of fishing in the Northwestern woods becomes the catalyst for Guy's descent into a world that's far beyond his humdrum existence. The elements of witchcraft here---if calling it witchcraft at all is a fair description; the specifics of the magic system are left open-ended---are dealt with in such a wholly original and enthralling way. There's an undeniable air of foreboding that swirls around the magic of the novel, but there's a sensuality too, one that draws Guy closer both in spite of himself and precisely because it's what he most desires: an escape from the mundane, from the past, from everything that shackles him to his own unhappiness. Here, the forest operates both as savior and destroyer, like a kind of bizarre post-modern fairy tale. Lost in spirit and body, Guy repeatedly wanders into the unknown of the woods, but in lieu of a traditional witch in the vein of Baba Yaga, he discovers Lily, enchanting and wild and absolutely not at all what he's expecting.

And let's talk about Lily for a moment. She's not on the page as much as she could be (I could read a whole book series about her and the contents of the strange leather-bound tomes she creates). But even with her relatively small role, her presence brims at the edges of virtually every scene, as she keeps a strange yet watchful eye over things. At once a seer and a remote manipulator and a direct player in her own right, her character could have easily been one-dimensional and disposable, but instead, she becomes the most powerful and fascinating force of the book. As their relationship develops, the push and pull between Lily and Guy is at points playful and sweet, and at other times deeply frightening (blood and bone are in the title for a reason). It's a fascinating dynamic, and one that lives at the heart of this very dark journey.

From beginning to end, Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone maintains a constant sense of unreality, as Guy struggles to differentiate between what's true and what's fantasy. Before it's over, he loses all sense of time, and eventually loses all sense of place as well. There are no neat, easy answers here, and for a work of weird fiction as intricate and unique as this one, that's exactly how it should be. A mesmerizing novel to be sure, and undoubtedly a herald of great works to come.]]> 4.28 2017
author: Michael Griffin
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2017
rating: 5
read at: 2017/09/25
date added: 2017/10/21
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Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone is no ordinary genre novel. The horror here is subtle, though perhaps of the most profound variety: the terror of losing one's self. After his divorce, Guy is utterly unmoored. He's relegated to the spare room of his bro coworker’s houseboat, with virtually no possessions of his own (the running tally of his meager book collection is an appropriately dreary detail). It’s a depressing coda to his life as he’s known it so far.

A day of fishing in the Northwestern woods becomes the catalyst for Guy's descent into a world that's far beyond his humdrum existence. The elements of witchcraft here---if calling it witchcraft at all is a fair description; the specifics of the magic system are left open-ended---are dealt with in such a wholly original and enthralling way. There's an undeniable air of foreboding that swirls around the magic of the novel, but there's a sensuality too, one that draws Guy closer both in spite of himself and precisely because it's what he most desires: an escape from the mundane, from the past, from everything that shackles him to his own unhappiness. Here, the forest operates both as savior and destroyer, like a kind of bizarre post-modern fairy tale. Lost in spirit and body, Guy repeatedly wanders into the unknown of the woods, but in lieu of a traditional witch in the vein of Baba Yaga, he discovers Lily, enchanting and wild and absolutely not at all what he's expecting.

And let's talk about Lily for a moment. She's not on the page as much as she could be (I could read a whole book series about her and the contents of the strange leather-bound tomes she creates). But even with her relatively small role, her presence brims at the edges of virtually every scene, as she keeps a strange yet watchful eye over things. At once a seer and a remote manipulator and a direct player in her own right, her character could have easily been one-dimensional and disposable, but instead, she becomes the most powerful and fascinating force of the book. As their relationship develops, the push and pull between Lily and Guy is at points playful and sweet, and at other times deeply frightening (blood and bone are in the title for a reason). It's a fascinating dynamic, and one that lives at the heart of this very dark journey.

From beginning to end, Hieroglyphs of Blood and Bone maintains a constant sense of unreality, as Guy struggles to differentiate between what's true and what's fantasy. Before it's over, he loses all sense of time, and eventually loses all sense of place as well. There are no neat, easy answers here, and for a work of weird fiction as intricate and unique as this one, that's exactly how it should be. A mesmerizing novel to be sure, and undoubtedly a herald of great works to come.
]]> 36266927
Where space opera meets the weird. An anthology of 29 illustrated short stories that blend the weird cosmic horror of the Cthulhu Mythos with the star-spanning vistas of space opera by a diverse array of all-star authors...

Remy Nakamura � Lucy A. Snyder � J.E. Bates � Gord Sellar � Brian Evenson � Heather Hatch � Desirina Boskovich � DaVaun Sanders � D.W. Baldwin � J. Edward Tremlett � D.A. Xiaolin Spires � Tom Dullemond � Premee Mohamed � Wendy N. Wagner � Kara Dennison � Brandon O'Brien � Heather Terry � Wendy Nikel � Robert White � Ingrid Garcia � Richard Lee Byers � Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. � Tim Curran � Angus McIntyre � Ada Hoffmann � Bogi Takács � Wendi Dunlap � Cody Goodfellow � Nadia Bulkin

You'll meet soldiers and scientists, starship captains and intrepid explorers, each with secrets to hide and a story to tell. And then there's the aliens. So many aliens. Some friendly, some monstrous, but all of them exciting.

Engines full. Course set. We're going in.]]> 458 Scott Gable 1940372305 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.98 2017
author: Scott Gable
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/28
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36236806 30 Ronald Malfi Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.29
author: Ronald Malfi
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/24
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36187457 264 C.M. Muller 197614048X Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.81 2017
author: C.M. Muller
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/23
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]]> 93251
Contents:

· The Dwarf · ss Fantastic Jan/Feb �54
· The Next in Line · nv Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· The Watchful Poker Chip of H. Matisse · ss Beyond Fantasy Fiction Mar �54
· Skeleton · ss Weird Tales Sep �45
· The Jar · ss Weird Tales Nov �44
· The Lake · ss Weird Tales May �44
· The Emissary · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· Touched with Fire [“Shopping for Death�] · ss Maclean’s Jun 1 �54
· The Small Assassin · ss Dime Mystery Magazine Nov �46
· The Crowd · ss Weird Tales May �43
· Jack-in-the-Box · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· The Scythe · ss Weird Tales Jul �43
· Uncle Einar · ss Dark Carnival, Arkham House: Sauk City, WI, 1947
· The Wind · ss Weird Tales Mar �43
· The Man Upstairs · ss Harper’s Mar �47
· There Was an Old Woman · ss Weird Tales Jul �44
· The Cistern · ss Mademoiselle May �47
· Homecoming · ss Mademoiselle Oct �46
· The Wonderful Death of Dudley Stone · ss Charm Jul �54]]> 334 Ray Bradbury 0380973871 Gwendolyn 5 4.13 1955
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1955
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/09/22
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]]> 36157562 Winter in Budapest. In the midst of a terrible personal tragedy, singer/songwriter Krisztina Ligetti discovers she can hear songs of mortality. She spends her days following these songs until they lead her to people at the precipice of death. From the fading bars of their final breath, Krisztina takes the story of their lives and turns them into music.
When Krisztina is reunited with her father, a reclusive 60s pop star, she believes that she has finally found a way out of the darkness, but then she begins to receive news clippings detailing each of the deaths she has been witness to. A man in a porcelain mask who seems to be everywhere she looks and a faded writer who shares Krisztina's gift seem to know her, know that the past has a hold on them all, and that it won't stop until someone has paid the price.

‘The Teardrop Method is a story about stories; a beautiful novella about love and loss and the connections people make and then sometimes break. It’s quiet, haunting, and ultimately moving.� Gary McMahon

‘Nightmare plotting infused with an aching mitteleuropäische sadness, Simon Avery’s tale of music and mortality could be the novelisation of a lost Argento movie.� Nicholas Royle

‘Without any prep or background, I started reading the novella The Teardrop Method by British author Simon Avery, and was immediately engaged by the moodiness, the bleakness, the desperation and creaky, world-weariness of the setting and characters. These appealing elements perfectly coalesced into a tragic and fervent eulogy to the creative process � to Art with a capital A � as a means of salvation and transcendence and doom, and to love itself in all its complex iterations, exploring the concept of loving, dying, and even killing, in order to achieve the proper reception code from the eternal Muse while the roaring Danube drowns out the rest of the world. This is a very European story, in all its faded baroque finery and cafe claustrophobia. The snow is heavier here, the dawn ever more surprising. The supernatural and the natural are not so far removed in places like this. The old and the new forever caught in a twirling waltz.
The Teardop Method is also a brilliant showreel for Simon Avery, a relatively new author that I had not previously read. His balanced prose and mature grasp of doomed love (both romantic and familial), the transience of corporeal existence, and the grim hidden realities of even the most outwardly charmed lives mark him as an author of dark fiction florets already fully in bloom, growing big and tall and dangerously beautiful in a corroded hothouse hidden away in a backstreet of a crumbling cobblestone city five hundred years past its prime.
I highly recommend this novella, and cannot wait to see what melody Mr. Avery pens next. I’ll be listening.� T.E. Grau



Buy it from
]]> 160 Simon Avery 0955368391 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.04 2017
author: Simon Avery
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/21
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]]> 35254620
Greta didn't set out to solve a murder. But if the first thing you see when you come home after a long day at a lousy job is your own dead body, it can make even the most cynical non-starter in 1994 Seattle take an interest. Refusing to believe her dead eyes, the one-time theater editor at the city's least noteworthy periodical - now a bitter ghost haunting the streets and busways of the Emerald City - will happily break every rule of crime fiction to tell her story and prove she didn't die a lame-ass, suicidal Cobain imitator. If Greta manages to figure out who really killed her, in the process? That's just an extra shot in her overpriced espresso.

Hauntingly scary, darkly funny, and occasionally nostalgic, I Wish I Was Like You is one vengeful spirit's look at a city learning to embrace narcissism and the dead inhabitants who will always call it home.]]> 252 S.P. Miskowski 1945373784 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.84 2017
author: S.P. Miskowski
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.84
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 485894 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 0553213695 / 9780553213690

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was laying on his hard, as it were armor-plated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes."

With it's startling, bizarre, yet surprisingly funny first opening, Kafka begins his masterpiece, The Metamorphosis. It is the story of a young man who, transformed overnight into a giant beetle-like insect, becomes an object of disgrace to his family, an outsider in his own home, a quintessentially alienated man. A harrowing—though absurdly comic—meditation on human feelings of inadequacy, guilt, and isolation, The Metamorphosis has taken its place as one of the most widely read and influential works of twentieth-century fiction. As W.H. Auden wrote, "Kafka is important to us because his predicament is the predicament of modern man."]]> 201 Franz Kafka 0553213695 Gwendolyn 5 3.90 1915
author: Franz Kafka
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1915
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/09/20
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]]> 616828 Heart Of Darkness. The story of the civilized, enlightened Mr. Kurtz who embarks on a harrowing "night journey" into the savage heart of Africa, only to find his dark and evil soul.

The Secret Sharer. The saga of a young, inexperienced skipper forced to decide the fate of a fugitive sailor who killed a man in self-defense. As he faces his first moral test the skipper discovers a terrifying truth -- and comes face to face with the secret itself.

Heart Of Darkness and The Secret Sharer draw on actual events and people that Conrad met or heard about during his many far-flung travels. In portraying men whose incredible journeys on land and at sea are also symbolic voyages into their own mysterious depths, these two masterful works give credence to Conrad's acclaim as a major psychological writer.]]> 168 Joseph Conrad 0451526570 Gwendolyn 4 3.51 1910
author: Joseph Conrad
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.51
book published: 1910
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2017/09/20
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]]> 114230 Moby-Dick�Bartleby the Scrivener is simply one of the most absorbing and moving novellas ever. Set in the mid-19th century on New York City's Wall Street, it was also, perhaps, Herman Melville's most prescient story: what if a young man caught up in the rat race of commerce finally just said, "I would prefer not to"?

The tale is one of the final works of fiction published by Melville before, slipping into despair over the continuing critical dismissal of his work after Moby-Dick, he abandoned publishing fiction. The work is presented here exactly as it was originally published in Putnam's magazine—to, sadly, critical disdain.]]> 64 Herman Melville 0974607800 Gwendolyn 4 3.91 1853
author: Herman Melville
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.91
book published: 1853
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/09/20
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]]> 37796 An alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here

Delivering three distinct and powerful visions of characters who choose to defy convention in the pursuit of happiness, Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House and Other Plays is translated with an introduction by Peter Watts in Penguin Classics.
The League of Youth was Ibsen's first venture into realistic social drama and marks a turning-point in his style. By 1879 Ibsen was convinced that women suffer an inevitable violation of their personalities within the context of marriage. In A Doll's House, Ibsen caused a sensation with the his portrayal of Nora Helmer, a woman who, gradually arriving at an understanding of her own misery, struggles to break free from the stifling confines of her marriage. Continuing the theme of tensions within the family in The Lady from the Sea, Ibsen put forward the view that freedom with responsibility might at least be a step in the right direction. Peter Watts's lively modern translation is accompanied by an introduction examining Ibsen's life and times, with individual discussions of each of the three plays.
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.]]> 336 Henrik Ibsen 0140441468 Gwendolyn 4 3.94 1960
author: Henrik Ibsen
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.94
book published: 1960
rating: 4
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date added: 2017/09/20
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]]> 18423 The Left Hand of Darkness tells the story of a lone human emissary to Winter, an alien world whose inhabitants spend most of their time without a gender. His goal is to facilitate Winter's inclusion in a growing intergalactic civilization. But to do so he must bridge the gulf between his own views and those of the completely dissimilar culture that he encounters.

Embracing the aspects of psychology, society, and human emotion on an alien world, The Left Hand of Darkness stands as a landmark achievement in the annals of intellectual science fiction.]]> 304 Ursula K. Le Guin Gwendolyn 5 4.11 1969
author: Ursula K. Le Guin
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1969
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/09/20
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]]> 36070824
21 stories by L Chan, Gordon B. White, Aaron Vlek, Cody Goodfellow, Sam Schreiber, Luke R. J. Maynard, H. P. Lovecraft, Sam Grieve, Premee Mohamed, Edward Morris, Jonathan Raab, Garrett Cook, Andrew Kozma, Morgan Crooks, Matthew M. Bartlett, Megan Arkenberg, Autumn Christian, Rodney Turner, Erica Ruppert, Anton Rose, and Seras Niketa.]]> 378 Scott R. Jones 1927673224 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.40 2017
author: Scott R. Jones
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.40
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/09/20
shelves: to-read
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]]> 36083781
While visiting fellow writer, Frank Harlan Marshall, Derek Gray senses a palpable dread within Frank's house and the forest that surrounds it; a subtle, malignant sentience. What should be a joyous event, as they await the surprise arrival of a long-lost friend, comedian "Dizzy Izzy" Haberstein, is fraught with unease Derek does not understand.

Derek's confusion is upended by the chance meeting with musician Alethea, formerly of Dark Angel Asylum, a band that dropped out of sight once the leader, Aleister Blut, ended up in an insane asylum. As their relationship blossoms, Derek's disorientation at the hands of the forest manifests as his world turns sideways...and one of Frank's fictional creations--a murderous monster named Average Joe--gains foothold in the surreal, psychological terrain.

As the worlds of reality and fantasy meld, what transpires bounds from deeply profound to pure madness.]]> 258 John Claude Smith 1945373938 Gwendolyn 5 2.76
author: John Claude Smith
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 2.76
book published:
rating: 5
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]]> 36245622
Turns out you *can* go home again, and the shadows will be waiting for you. Bram Stoker Award® nominated editors Doug Murano and D. Alexander Ward bring you the next installment of their best selling, critically acclaimed small-town Lovecraftian anthology series: Shadows Over Main Street, Volume 2. Within these pages, you’ll discover:

� America’s pastime awakening dark secrets buried deep within the earth.
� Vietnam War heroes who glimpse something worse than war and return home to discover a new kind of hell waiting for them.
� The music of a generation—of many generations—revealed as something older, hungrier and more insidious than a bad acid trip.
� A war-widow who rediscovers love and passion� only to cultivate the world’s end.

Featuring stories by: Joyce Carol Oates, Joe R. Lansdale, Gary A. Braunbeck, John F.D. Taff, Lucy A. Snyder, William Meikle, Ronald Malfi, Damien Angelica Walters, and others. With a foreword by Laird Barron and stunning illustrations by Luke Spooner.

Every turn you take leads back to Main Street. We’ve been waiting. Welcome home.]]> 228 Doug Murano 0996115994 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.11 2017
author: Doug Murano
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/09/18
shelves: to-read
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]]> 35483180 258 Nadia Bulkin 1939905338 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.16 2017
author: Nadia Bulkin
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2017/09/15
shelves: to-read
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]]> 12873 Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...

Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise. She accepts, but whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to the ominous and brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory of his dead wife Rebecca is forever kept alive by the forbidding housekeeper, Mrs Danvers...

Not since Jane Eyre has a heroine faced such difficulty with the Other Woman. An international bestseller that has never gone out of print, Rebecca is the haunting story of a young girl consumed by love and the struggle to find her identity.]]> 428 Daphne du Maurier 1844080382 Gwendolyn 5 4.19 1938
author: Daphne du Maurier
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1938
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2017/09/06
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]]> 248596 Something Wicked This Way Comes, now featuring a new introduction and material about its longstanding influence on culture and genre.

For those who still dream and remember, for those yet to experience the hypnotic power of its dark poetry, step inside. The show is about to begin. Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Show has come to Green Town, Illinois, to destroy every life touched by its strange and sinister mystery. The carnival rolls in sometime after midnight, ushering in Halloween a week early. A calliope’s shrill siren song beckons to all with a seductive promise of dreams and youth regained. Two boys will discover the secret of its smoke, mazes, and mirrors; two friends who will soon know all too well the heavy cost of wishes…and the stuff of nightmares.

Few novels have endured in the heart and memory as has Ray Bradbury’s unparalleled literary masterpiece Something Wicked This Way Comes. Scary and suspenseful, it is a timeless classic in the American canon.]]> 293 Ray Bradbury 0380729407 Gwendolyn 5 3.92 1962
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1962
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/09/06
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]]> 25558451
Sinister shopkeepers whose goods hold the highest price, a woman’s search for her mother drags her into the binding embrace of a monster, a witchdoctor’s young niece tells him a life-altering secret, an investigator who knows how to keep a 100% confession rate�.

These are stories where the setting itself becomes a character—fog laced cemeteries, sulfur rich salt marshes—places housing creatures that defy understanding and where the grotesque and macabre are celebrated.]]> 135 Eden Royce Gwendolyn 5 4.11 2015
author: Eden Royce
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.11
book published: 2015
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/08/28
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]]> 32732003
Sycorax’s Daughters� stories and poems delve into demons and shape shifters from Carole McDonnell’s “How to Speak to the Bogeyman� and Sheree Renée Thomas� “Tree of the Forest Seven Bells Turns the World Round Midnight� to far future offerings from Kiini Ibura Salaam’s “The Malady of Need�, Valjeanne Jeffers� steampunk female detective in “Mona Livelong: Paranormal Detective II� and others.

These thought-provoking twenty-eight stories and fourteen poems cover creatures imagined�
vampires, ghosts, and mermaids, as well as the unexpected price paid by women struggling for freedom and validation in the past—slavery to science-fiction futures with transhumans and alternate realities.

Leave the lights on and join these amazing authors as they share their unique vision of fear.

Tiffany Austin - Tracey Baptiste - Regina N. Bradley - Patricia E. Canterbury - Crystal Connor - Joy M. Copeland - Amber Doe - Tish Jackson - Valjeanne Jeffers - Tenea D. Johnson - R. J. Joseph - A. D. Koboah Nicole Givens Kurtz - Kai Leakes - A. J. Locke - Carole McDonnell -Dana T. McKnight - LH Moore - L. Penelope - Zin E. Rocklyn - Eden Royce - Kiini Ibura Salaam - Andrea Vocab Sanderson - Nicole D. Sconiers - Cherene Sherrard - RaShell R. Smith-Spears - Sheree Renée Thomas - Lori Titus - Tanesha Nicole Tyler - Deborah Elizabeth Whaley - L. Marie Wood - K. Ceres Wright - Deana Zhollis]]> 525 Kinitra Brooks 1941958443 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.02 2017
author: Kinitra Brooks
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.02
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/08/04
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]]> 34997872
Alessa Spiteri survives a bombing incident on the London Underground only to discover that the horror she experienced there is only the beginning of the nightmare.

As she struggles to rebuild her life, she finds herself haunted by grotesque, shadowy creatures � monsters Alessa believes are hallucinations, born of her traumatised mind until she meets Casey, also the survivor of an Underground bombing, who tells her she can see the monsters too.

Together, the women plan their fightback against the creatures, a course of action which takes Alessa back into the tunnels beneath the city.
�
Back into the darkness.]]> 219 Laura Mauro 1544177747 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 4.33 2017
author: Laura Mauro
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.33
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/07/25
shelves: to-read
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]]> 35603719
In the Temple of Ra, Ceke works on cutting edge research investigating the connection between music, identity, and the realm of the gods. Though devoted to her service at the temple, of late her heart has been divided between work and and her pregnant co-wife, Ngware.

When the most promising subject of the temple's tonal experiments, Wahibra, mysteriously disappears and rumors of a god awakened follow his path, Ceke finds herself leading a dangerous mission to bring him back to safety.]]> 50 Tonya Liburd 1942302568 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.57 2017
author: Tonya Liburd
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.57
book published: 2017
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/07/18
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]]> 34443109


Cover Art by Mary Chiaramonte]]> M. Brett Gaffney Gwendolyn 5 4.86
author: M. Brett Gaffney
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.86
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/06/25
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]]> 26851664
Three years later, after the searching has died down, she decides to respond to her mother’s annual plea, and return home.]]> 10 Shirley Jackson Gwendolyn 5 4.10 1960
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.10
book published: 1960
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/05/28
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]]> 34348291
That which alights must also burn.

A zealot spits venomous words from his pulpit, his congregation listening and nodding, their disgust with their neighbors boiling into a riotous rage. A girl returns from Bible Camp nine-months pregnant with God's child--images of a golden flame pressing on her chest, paralyzing her, flood her nightmares. Heaven replaces its angels with automata, dispensing salvation and damnation with callous efficiency.

Book of Blasphemous Words is a weird fiction, horror, and speculative fiction anthology about humanity's relationship with its gods. When we answer the call for salvation from the bondage of the material--when we believe in gods--we reach a hand into the unknown and risk losing it to something peckish. When we forget the power of the hearth, we risk a conflagration that can return civilization to the dirt whence it has come.]]> 292 C.J. Miles IV 0998651206 Gwendolyn 5
Please note that I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]]> 4.29
author: C.J. Miles IV
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.29
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/05/14
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Religion and horror have a long and intertwined history, and it's this very connection that publisher, A Murder of Storytellers, leverages in crafting its recent release, THE BOOK OF BLASPHEMOUS WORDS. From flash and poetry to short stories, this anthology includes a wide variety of tales that come together for a creepy and unique reading experience. The settings span across the world and across time, as the characters face the nature of evil, the sanctimony of worship, and the complexities of spirituality. There are definitely some envelope-pushing pieces in this table of contents along with a number of great horror tales in more of the classic style. Of course, this anthology probably isn't for the faint of heart or those with delicate sensibilities, but it's certainly an interesting read for anyone looking for something that tows the line between this world and the next.

Please note that I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
]]> 34851981 In no time, old traumas and relationship problems resurface, turning what they thought would be a good time into a nightmare. That's only the tip of the deep-seeping terror. Something unspeakable and terrifying is happening at this little getaway, more than the drinking and the oddity, a trouble lurks.
The ritualistic event, a strange and inconceivable gathering, taking place at the hot springs upends Steve’s life. Women gather, congregating, engaged in the ancient primitive rite to appease an unholy Goddess.
Once a year these acolytes tend to her needs, to perform the sacraments of the Festival.]]> 142 Aaron J. French 1545363889 Gwendolyn 0 to-read 3.89
author: Aaron J. French
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.89
book published:
rating: 0
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date added: 2017/04/13
shelves: to-read
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]]> 32926298
ABOUT THIS SERIES

For eight years, the New Bizarro Author Series has highlighted up-and-coming voices in the Bizarro Fiction genre with annual
releases by new authors. For many of these writers, it is their first book ever published. We invite you to take a chance on an author you may never have heard of and we hope you enjoy what you find. If you like what you read here and want more from this writer, go to and let us know.]]> 88 Sean M. Thompson 1621052338 Gwendolyn 5 4.16
author: Sean M. Thompson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.16
book published:
rating: 5
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date added: 2017/03/14
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A burgeoning voice in the horror and weird genres, Sean Thompson's work is consistently entertaining and entirely unique, and Hate from the Sky is no exception. As soon as I received the review copy of this title, I couldn't wait to dig in. An utterly fantastic concept---a man who is personally despised by the firmament---combines with striking prose and great characters for an unforgettably strange adventure. Hate from the Sky has found a perfect home in Eraserhead Press's incredible New Bizarro Author Series. Read this title, and then be sure to read all the rest from the series as well. If you like your fiction awesome and weird, then you won't be disappointed.
]]> 89717 182 Shirley Jackson 0143039989 Gwendolyn 5 3.85 1959
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1959
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/12/16
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]]> 29791982 84 Elinor Caiman Sands 1530012449 Gwendolyn 5 4.75
author: Elinor Caiman Sands
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.75
book published:
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2016/12/16
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]]> 31247370
But now a flock of enchanted cranes has come to steal and poison the harvest. The lilies are dying. Kai’s people are in peril. A mysterious young man from the city thinks he might have a solution. Kai must work with him to solve the mystery of the cranes, and it will take all her courage, love, strength, and wisdom to do what she must to save both the lilies and her people.]]> 76 Vanessa Fogg 1944354123 Gwendolyn 5 4.41 2016
author: Vanessa Fogg
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.41
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/12/16
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]]> 6514 294 Sylvia Plath 0571268862 Gwendolyn 5 4.05 1963
author: Sylvia Plath
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1963
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/12/14
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]]> 10956 250 Jeffrey Eugenides 0747560595 Gwendolyn 4 3.81 1993
author: Jeffrey Eugenides
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1993
rating: 4
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date added: 2016/12/14
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]]> 29851645
At Macquarie’s, Jackson finds a home unlike any he could have imagined. The bronze lions outside the doors eat whomever they deem unfit to enter, the hallways and rooms shift and change at will, and Cressida � the woman who adopted him � assures him he no longer has to hide what he is. But new freedoms hide dark secrets. There are territories, allegiances, and a kraken in the basement that eats shadows.

As Jackson learns more about the new world he’s living in and about who he is, he has to decide who he will stand with: Cressida, the woman who gave him a home and a purpose, or Mae, the black-eyed lion tamer with a past as enigmatic as his own. The Kraken Sea is a fast paced adventure full of mystery, Fates, and writhing tentacles just below the surface, and in the middle of it all is a boy searching for himself.]]> 125 E. Catherine Tobler 1937009408 Gwendolyn 5 3.58 2016
author: E. Catherine Tobler
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.58
book published: 2016
rating: 5
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date added: 2016/11/12
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]]> 18608266 256 J. Tonzelli 098844688X Gwendolyn 5
Everything about this collection works, from the cohesive feel of the thirteen tales to that gorgeous cover, and ultimately, you're left wanting even more. Hopefully, J. Tonzelli will write a follow-up in the years to come, but if not, there are certainly enough great Halloween tales in “The End of Summer� to keep you satisfied for many cold Samhain evenings to come.
]]> 3.99 2013
author: J. Tonzelli
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2013
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2015/07/31
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Since Halloween is my favorite holiday, I was looking very forward to reading this baker’s dozen of fall yarns. Thanks to the great prose and clever ideas in this anthology, I was not disappointed. J. Tonzelli does a terrific job at capturing both the magical and the macabre elements of the season. My personal favorite stories were “The Halloween Girl of Coldsprings,� a terrifying pseudo-documentary that follows one town’s devotion to a festive spirit who might not be so benevolent, and “Devil’s Night,� a mournful cautionary tale concerning one youthful mistake that returns every year to haunt the protagonist.

Everything about this collection works, from the cohesive feel of the thirteen tales to that gorgeous cover, and ultimately, you're left wanting even more. Hopefully, J. Tonzelli will write a follow-up in the years to come, but if not, there are certainly enough great Halloween tales in “The End of Summer� to keep you satisfied for many cold Samhain evenings to come.

]]> 4381 158 Ray Bradbury 0307347974 Gwendolyn 5 3.96 1953
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1953
rating: 5
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date added: 2014/09/30
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]]> 355697
In 1914 a room full of German schoolboys, fresh-faced and idealistic, are goaded by their schoolmaster to troop off to the ‘glorious war�. With the fire and patriotism of youth they sign up. What follows is the moving story of a young ‘unknown soldier� experiencing the horror and disillusionment of life in the trenches.]]> 296 Erich Maria Remarque 0449213943 Gwendolyn 2 4.04 1928
author: Erich Maria Remarque
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1928
rating: 2
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date added: 2013/05/04
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]]> 113946 "The Grinch hated Christmas! The whole Christmas season!
Now, please don't ask why. No one quite knows the reason."

Dr. Seuss's small-hearted Grinch ranks right up there with Scrooge when it comes to the crankiest, scowling holiday grumps of all time.

For 53 years, the Grinch has lived in a cave on the side of a mountain, looming above the Whos in Whoville. The noisy holiday preparations and infernal singing of the happy little citizens below annoy him to no end. The Grinch decides this frivolous merriment must stop. His "wonderful, awful" idea is to don a Santa outfit, strap heavy antlers on his poor, quivering dog Max, construct a makeshift sleigh, head down to Whoville, and strip the chafingly cheerful Whos of their Yuletide glee once and for all.

Looking quite out of place and very disturbing in his makeshift Santa get-up, the Grinch slithers down chimneys with empty bags and stealing the Whos' presents, their food, even the logs from their humble Who-fires. He takes the ramshackle sleigh to Mt. Crumpit to dump it and waits to hear the sobs of the Whos when they wake up and discover the trappings of Christmas have disappeared. Imagine the Whos' dismay when they discover the evil-doings of Grinch in his anti-Santa guise. But what is that sound? It's not sobbing, but singing! Children simultaneously adore and fear this triumphant, twisted Seussian testimonial to the undaunted cheerfulness of the Whos, the transcendent nature of joy, and of course, the growth potential of a heart that's two sizes too small.

This holiday classic is perfect for reading aloud to your favorite little Whos.]]> 64 Dr. Seuss 0007173040 Gwendolyn 5 4.38 1957
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.38
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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]]> 19543 38 Maurice Sendak 0099408392 Gwendolyn 5 4.25 1963
author: Maurice Sendak
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1963
rating: 5
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]]> 98573 64 Crockett Johnson 0747532036 Gwendolyn 5 4.27 1955
author: Crockett Johnson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.27
book published: 1955
rating: 5
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]]> 251688 Holly Golightly knows that nothing bad can ever happen to you at Tiffany's.

In this seductive, wistful masterpiece, Capote created a woman whose name has entered the American idiom and whose style is a part of the literary landscape—her poignancy, wit, and naïveté continue to charm.

It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's... And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveler, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shining flowers of American fiction.

Also included are three of Capote's best-known stories:
� House of Flowers - Ottilie is entranced by a beautiful young man, and leaves her life and friends to live with him and his old grandmother, who seems to hate her.
� A Diamond Guitar - Hear the story of the prized possession of a younger prison inmate, a rhinestone-studded guitar.
� A Christmas Memory - A poignant tale of two innocents—a small boy and the old woman who is his best friend—whose sweetness contains a hard, sharp kernel of truth.]]> 142 Truman Capote Gwendolyn 3 3.87 1958
author: Truman Capote
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.87
book published: 1958
rating: 3
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]]> 233093 Have a ball with Dr. Seuss and the Cat in the Hat in this classic picture book...but don't forget to clean up your mess!

Then he said That is that.
And then he was gone
With a tip of his hat.

A dreary day turns into a wild romp when this beloved story introduces readers to the Cat in the Hat and his troublemaking friends, Thing 1 and Thing 2 � And don't forget Fish! A favorite among kids, parents and teachers, this story uses simple words and basic rhyme to encourage and delight beginning readers.

Originally created by Dr. Seuss himself, Beginner Books are fun, funny, and easy to read. These unjacketed hardcover early readers encourage children to read all on their own, using simple words and illustrations. Smaller than the classic large format Seuss picture books like The Lorax and Oh, The Places You'll Go!, these portable packages are perfect for practicing readers ages 3-7, and lucky parents too!]]> 61 Dr. Seuss 039480001X Gwendolyn 5 4.19 1957
author: Dr. Seuss
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1957
rating: 5
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]]> 92517
The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by the editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Robert Bray, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes."
(back cover)]]> 104 Tennessee Williams 0811214044 Gwendolyn 4 3.73 1945
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.73
book published: 1945
rating: 4
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]]> 161915 72 Tennessee Williams 0822210940 Gwendolyn 3 3.95 1958
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.95
book published: 1958
rating: 3
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]]> 9634
They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois -- and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids.

Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the farflung branches of this odd and remarkable family. In the past-midnight stillness can be detected the soft fluttering of Uncle Einars wings. From her realm of sleep, Cecy, the fairest and most special daughter, can feel the approach of many a welcome being -- shapeshifter, telepath, somnambulist, vampire -- as she flies high in the consciousness of bird and bat.

But in the midst of eager anticipation, a sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And death, no stranger, will always shadow this most singular family: Father, arisen from the Earth; Mother, who never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandmére; Grandfather, who keeps the wildness of youth between his ears.

And the boy who, more than anyone, carries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothy, the sad and different foundling son who must share it all, remember, and tell...and who, alone out of all of them, must one day age and wither and die.

By turns lyrical, wistful, poignant, and chilling, From the Dust Returned is the long-awaited new novel by the peerless Ray Bradbury -- a book that will surely be numbered among his most enduring masterworks.]]> 206 Ray Bradbury 0743429982 Gwendolyn 5 3.78 2001
author: Ray Bradbury
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2001
rating: 5
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]]> 92254 Angels in America, Perestroika steers the characters introduced in Millennium Approaches from the opportunistic eighties to a new sense of community in the nineties.]]> 158 Tony Kushner 1559360739 Gwendolyn 5 4.24 1993
author: Tony Kushner
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1993
rating: 5
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]]> 141658 58 Paula Vogel 082221623X Gwendolyn 4 3.93 1997
author: Paula Vogel
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1997
rating: 4
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]]> 12220 Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams� essay “The World I Live In.�

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared�57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams� A Streetcar Named Desire is one of those plays. The story famously recounts how the faded and promiscuous Blanche DuBois is pushed over the edge by her sexy and brutal brother-in-law, Stanley Kowalski. Streetcar launched the careers of Marlon Brando, Jessica Tandy, Kim Hunter, and Karl Malden, and solidified the position of Tennessee Williams as one of the most important young playwrights of his generation, as well as that of Elia Kazan as the greatest American stage director of the �40s and �50s.]]> 107 Tennessee Williams 0822210894 Gwendolyn 5 3.98 1947
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.98
book published: 1947
rating: 5
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]]> 72159 Cat on a Hot Tin Roof first heated up Broadway in 1955 with its gothic American story of brothers vying for their dying father’s inheritance amid a whirlwind of sexuality, untethered in the person of Maggie the Cat. The play also daringly showcased the burden of sexuality repressed in the agony of her husband, Brick Pollitt. In spite of the public controversy Cat stirred up, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize and the Drama Critics Circle Award for that year. Williams, as he so often did with his plays, rewrote Cat on a Hot Tin Roof for many years—the present version was originally produced at the American Shakespeare Festival in 1974 with all the changes that made Williams finally declare the text to be definitive, and was most recently produced on Broadway in the 2003�2004 season. This definitive edition also includes Williams&rsquoi; essay “Person-to-Person,� Williams� notes on the various endings, and a short chronology of the author’s life. One of America’s greatest living playwrights, as well as a friend and colleague of Williams, Edward Albee has written a concise introduction to the play from a playwright’s perspective, examining the candor, sensuality, power, and impact of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof then and now.]]> 208 Tennessee Williams 0811216012 Gwendolyn 5 4.07 1955
author: Tennessee Williams
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1955
rating: 5
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]]> 231804 The Outsiders is about two weeks in the life of a 14-year-old boy. The novel tells the story of Ponyboy Curtis and his struggles with right and wrong in a society in which he believes that he is an outsider. According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for "social") has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he's always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers--until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy's skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

Librarian note: This record is for one of the three editions published with different covers and with ISBN 0-140-38572-X / 978-0-14-038572-4. The records are for the 1988 cover (this record), the 1995 cover, and the 2008 cover which is also the current in-print cover.]]> 208 S.E. Hinton 0670532576 Gwendolyn 5 4.13 1967
author: S.E. Hinton
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.13
book published: 1967
rating: 5
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]]> 32261 here and here.

When Tess Durbeyfield is driven by family poverty to claim kinship with the wealthy D’Urbervilles and seek a portion of their family fortune, meeting her ‘cousin� Alec proves to be her downfall. A very different man, Angel Clare, seems to offer her love and salvation, but Tess must choose whether to reveal her past or remain silent in the hope of a peaceful future.]]> 518 Thomas Hardy Gwendolyn 5 3.83 1891
author: Thomas Hardy
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.83
book published: 1891
rating: 5
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]]> 2657 "Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."

A lawyer's advice to his children as he defends the real mockingbird of Harper Lee's classic novel - a black man charged with the rape of a white girl. Through the young eyes of Scout and Jem Finch, Harper Lee explores with exuberant humour the irrationality of adult attitudes to race and class in the Deep South of the 1930s. The conscience of a town steeped in prejudice, violence and hypocrisy is pricked by the stamina of one man's struggle for justice. But the weight of history will only tolerate so much.

"To Kill A Mockingbird" became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film.]]> 323 Harper Lee 0060935464 Gwendolyn 5 4.25 1960
author: Harper Lee
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.25
book published: 1960
rating: 5
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]]> 890 “I got you to look after me, and you got me to look after you, and that's why.�

They are an unlikely pair: George is "small and quick and dark of face"; Lennie, a man of tremendous size, has the mind of a young child. Yet they have formed a "family," clinging together in the face of loneliness and alienation. Laborers in California's dusty vegetable fields, they hustle work when they can, living a hand-to-mouth existence. But George and Lennie have a plan: to own an acre of land and a shack they can call their own.

While the powerlessness of the laboring class is a recurring theme in Steinbeck's work of the late 1930s, he narrowed his focus when composing Of Mice and Men, creating an intimate portrait of two men facing a world marked by petty tyranny, misunderstanding, jealousy, and callousness. But though the scope is narrow, the theme is universal: a friendship and a shared dream that makes an individual's existence meaningful.

A unique perspective on life's hardships, this story has achieved the status of timeless classic due to its remarkable success as a novel, a Broadway play, and three acclaimed films.]]> 107 John Steinbeck 0142000671 Gwendolyn 5 3.88 1937
author: John Steinbeck
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1937
rating: 5
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]]> 47558 64 Edward Gorey 0747541604 Gwendolyn 5 4.07 1963
author: Edward Gorey
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.07
book published: 1963
rating: 5
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]]> 47559 amphigory, meaning a nonsense verse or composition. As always, Gorey's painstakingly cross-hatched pen and ink drawings are perfectly suited to his oddball verse and prose. The first book of 15, "The Unstrung Harp," describes the writing process of novelist Mr. Clavius Frederick Earbrass: "He must be mad to go on enduring the unexquisite agony of writing when it all turns out drivel." In "The Listing Attic," you'll find a set of quirky limericks such as "A certain young man, it was noted, / Went about in the heat thickly coated; / He said, 'You may scoff, / But I shan't take it off; / Underneath I am horribly bloated.' "

Many of Gorey's tales involve untimely deaths and dreadful mishaps, but much like tragic Irish ballads with their perky rhythms and melodies, they come off as strangely lighthearted. "The Gashlycrumb Tinies," for example, begins like this: "A is for AMY who fell down the stairs, B is for BASIL assaulted by bears," and so on. An eccentric, funny book for either the uninitiated or diehard Gorey fans.

Contains: The Unstrung Harp, The Listing Attic, The Doubtful Guest, The Object Lesson, The Bug Book, The Fatal Lozenge, The Hapless Child, The Curious Sofa, The Willowdale Handcar, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Insect God, The West Wing, The Wuggly Ump, The Sinking Spell, and The Remembered Visit.]]> 220 Edward Gorey 0399504338 Gwendolyn 5 4.05 1972
author: Edward Gorey
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1972
rating: 5
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]]> 5107 It's Christmas time and Holden Caulfield has just been expelled from yet another school...

Fleeing the crooks at Pencey Prep, he pinballs around New York City seeking solace in fleeting encounters—shooting the bull with strangers in dive hotels, wandering alone round Central Park, getting beaten up by pimps and cut down by erstwhile girlfriends. The city is beautiful and terrible, in all its neon loneliness and seedy glamour, its mingled sense of possibility and emptiness. Holden passes through it like a ghost, thinking always of his kid sister Phoebe, the only person who really understands him, and his determination to escape the phonies and find a life of true meaning.

The Catcher in the Rye is an all-time classic in coming-of-age literature- an elegy to teenage alienation, capturing the deeply human need for connection and the bewildering sense of loss as we leave childhood behind.

J.D. Salinger's (1919�2010) classic novel of teenage angst and rebellion was first published in 1951. The novel was included on Time's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923. It was named by Modern Library and its readers as one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. It has been frequently challenged in the court for its liberal use of profanity and portrayal of sexuality and in the 1950's and 60's it was the novel that every teenage boy wants to read.]]> 277 J.D. Salinger 0316769177 Gwendolyn 5 3.81 1951
author: J.D. Salinger
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.81
book published: 1951
rating: 5
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]]> 7613
The book tells the story of a group of farm animals who rebel against their human farmer, hoping to create a society where the animals can be equal, free, and happy. Ultimately, however, the rebellion is betrayed, and the farm ends up in a state as bad as it was before, under the dictatorship of a pig named Napoleon.

One night, all the animals at Mr. Jones' Manor Farm assemble in a barn to hear old Major, a pig, describe a dream he had about a world where all animals live free from the tyranny of their human masters. Old Major dies soon after the meeting, but the animals � inspired by his philosophy of Animalism � plot a rebellion against Jones.

Two pigs, Snowball and Napoleon, prove themselves important figures and planners of this dangerous enterprise. When Jones forgets to feed the animals, the revolution occurs, and Jones and his men are chased off the farm. Manor Farm is renamed Animal Farm, and the Seven Commandments of Animalism are painted on the barn wall...]]> 129 George Orwell Gwendolyn 5 3.90 1945
author: George Orwell
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1945
rating: 5
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]]> 4395 The Grapes of Wrath is a landmark of American literature. A portrait of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless, of one man’s fierce reaction to injustice, and of one woman’s stoical strength, the novel captures the horrors of the Great Depression and probes into the very nature of equality and justice in America. Although it follows the movement of thousands of men and women and the transformation of an entire nation, The Grapes of Wrath is also the story of one Oklahoma family, the Joads, who are driven off their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.

First published in 1939, The Grapes of Wrath summed up its era in the way that Uncle Tom's Cabin summed up the years of slavery before the Civil War. Sensitive to fascist and communist criticism, Steinbeck insisted that "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" be printed in its entirety in the first edition of the book—which takes its title from the first verse: "He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored." At once a naturalistic epic, captivity narrative, road novel, and transcendental gospel, Steinbeck’s fictional chronicle of the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s is perhaps the most American of American Classics.]]> 455 John Steinbeck Gwendolyn 5 3.88 1939
author: John Steinbeck
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.88
book published: 1939
rating: 5
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]]> 10592
Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is...Carrie
--back cover]]> 272 Stephen King 1416524304 Gwendolyn 5 4.00 1974
author: Stephen King
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.00
book published: 1974
rating: 5
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]]> 547094 Robert Neville is the last living man on Earth...but he is not alone. Every other man, woman, and child on Earth has become a vampire, and they are all hungry for Neville's blood.

By day, he is the hunter, stalking the sleeping undead through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn.

How long can one man survive in a world of vampires?

I am legend --
Buried talents --
The near departed --
Prey --
Witch war --
Dance of the dead --
Dress of white silk --
Mad house --
The funeral --
From shadowed places --
Person to person.]]> 317 Richard Matheson 031286504X Gwendolyn 5 4.02 1954
author: Richard Matheson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.02
book published: 1954
rating: 5
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]]> 1885 Pride and Prejudice has remained one of the most popular novels in the English language. Jane Austen called this brilliant work "her own darling child" and its vivacious heroine, Elizabeth Bennet, "as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print." The romantic clash between the opinionated Elizabeth and her proud beau, Mr. Darcy, is a splendid performance of civilized sparring. And Jane Austen's radiant wit sparkles as her characters dance a delicate quadrille of flirtation and intrigue, making this book the most superb comedy of manners of Regency England.

Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780679783268]]> 279 Jane Austen 1441341706 Gwendolyn 5 4.28 1813
author: Jane Austen
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.28
book published: 1813
rating: 5
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]]> 4671 The only edition of the beloved classic that is authorized by Fitzgerald’s family and from his lifelong publisher.

This edition is the enduring original text, updated with the author’s own revisions, a foreword by his granddaughter, and with a new introduction by National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward.

The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s third book, stands as the supreme achievement of his career. First published by Scribner in 1925, this quintessential novel of the Jazz Age has been acclaimed by generations of readers. The story of the mysteriously wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for the beautiful Daisy Buchanan is an exquisitely crafted tale of America in the 1920s.]]> 180 F. Scott Fitzgerald 0743273567 Gwendolyn 5 3.93 1925
author: F. Scott Fitzgerald
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1925
rating: 5
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]]> 6219656
“The Lottery� stands out as one of the most famous short stories in American literary history. Originally published in The New Yorker, the author immediately began receiving letters from readers who demanded an explanation of the story’s meaning. “The Lottery� has been adapted for stage, television, radio and film.
]]> 30 Shirley Jackson 1563127873 Gwendolyn 5 4.08 1948
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 4.08
book published: 1948
rating: 5
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]]> 89724 Shirley Jackson’s beloved gothic tale of a peculiar girl named Merricat and her family’s dark secret

Taking readers deep into a labyrinth of dark neurosis, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is a deliciously unsettling novel about a perverse, isolated, and possibly murderous family and the struggle that ensues when a cousin arrives at their estate. This edition features a new introduction by Jonathan Lethem.]]> 152 Shirley Jackson 0143039970 Gwendolyn 5 3.93 1962
author: Shirley Jackson
name: Gwendolyn
average rating: 3.93
book published: 1962
rating: 5
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]]>