Great cover, old story. She‘s this sci fi series actor‘s “number one fan.”

Felt pretty meh about it tbh. Maybe went in expecting it to be more sexy and psychological (I mean, that cover!).

I imagine I will think of Jayber after an hours long nap in the woods, futilely trying to piece together a spiderweb he destroyed upon waking. 🌲

Though it is over 300 pages and there‘s no plot to speak of, it passes smoothly like a comfortable, meandering story heard while sitting in a barbershop (an experience I don‘t have but can imagine through this telling).

My sister‘s fav book, and what a one to live with resonating inside of you.

What to do with the art of monstrous men?

This hooked me. It‘s a book I knew I was reading too fast but I also didn‘t want to put it down. Love her voice, her slippery writing. It‘s smart and thought provoking but also beautiful and personal.

This question comes up so many times with my friends I kind of want to have this book on hand to give out.

Oh, maybe that‘s what I‘ll do for Christmas. 🎄

This has been on my TBR for about four years, since my sister was pregnant and said she wanted to name her son Jayber.

My husband and I had a lot to say about that and I‘m relieved to report my nephew‘s name is Abe (jAyBEr). Here he is pictured giving thanks for that.

I don‘t get the ecstatic hype? I listened to the audiobook because of a bookstore staff rec that called it a “haunting” story of “heartbreak” with the “best character I‘ve ever read.”

Darcie. 🤨

Nonhuman narration is an opportunity to really look at our world through new eyes. I don‘t know that I got that with this story of a lonely, quickly tamed wild animal. What we did get was an imagined trip to Disneyland.

A family drama with a river monster? Yes, please.
I read it over 6 months as it was originally published, and I think that is the ideal way to take in the Caskey saga. Savor it! I want to recommend it to my horror-loving friend who lent me Buddenbrooks, if that tells you anything. McDowell brings the characters to life with his descriptions and dialogue and I was invested in each of their stories. I wanted to restart it before I was finished.

It is not our part to master all the tides of the world, but to do what is in us for the succor of those years wherein we are set, uprooting the evil in the fields that we know, so that those who live after may have clean earth to till. What weather they shall have is not ours to rule.

Reading in a park between movies at the Telluride Horror Show. 🤡 🌞 🏔️

In flight entertainment. The folks who recommended this know me well. The author will be at the Telluride Horror film festival this weekend so it was bumped up on my reading list! 🤡

On this reread, I was struck 1st by the challenge of the writing. Reading aloud, we stumbled and would try multiple times to understand what was being said but sometimes had to move on, content with our confusion. The second impression I have is how unnerving the story remains. The governess‘s anxiety, suspicions, and retelling of events sufficiently unsettles.

Just an update on my “innocent little precious” Twinkle Toes (to quote the breathless governess in TOTS): Thank you for the well-wishes. He was hospitalized for two nights and is back home, voracious, spirited, and back to dragging his blankie around the house.

Emergency vet waiting / reading. 😕

Reminds me of my brother and his judgement of our parents, which for years made family get togethers fraught. A year or so ago he was interrogating them about the town they chose to raise us in. I think at 45 he‘s finally softening a little after years of recriminations. It‘s gotta be tough being a parent!

Don‘t mind me, just over here crying into my book. Oh my god, I love these characters so much. It‘s the most amazing thing, to have a moving family epic that incorporates a water monster and some truly grisly murders.

It never occurs to her that, if in her sleep, her hand hangs over the edge of the bed, something will crawl out from under it and bite her fingers off. I sleep near the wall, because that thought has occurred to me.

It gives me that same sense of glamour that You Must Remember This podcast delivers, partially because blocks of texts read like descriptions of photographs. TJR gives us fantastic scenes illustrating the double-talk and misdirections that make up Evelyn‘s life and star power. It‘s deeper than you‘d expect while not being very deep. Sometimes there are gross missteps: ⬇️

Whew. I inhaled the last half of this today. I woke up and started reading and didn‘t stop until I finished it just now. I have thoughts. But all that can wait for a moment of appreciation and praise for such a captivating reading experience.

I loved this one. Here we are in the midst of despair and the absolutely metal landscape of Mordor. We get a lot of Sméagol, which I live for, as he is the most slippery of the characters. What is he? Will he be loyal? Where does he go?? Not to mention the incredible Elder Goddess Shelob. ? I‘m picking up on a deep melancholy that I wasn‘t expecting. Ready for the final portion of the story!

A complex, tender, absorbing novel about love & grief & acceptance. In our horror book club, we discussed a variety of interpretations of monstrosity, but one reason I love this book is that it isn‘t a metaphor or parable. Here, the bizarre becomes feasible through his emotional realism. I loved this book.

A tie is a noose and inverted though it is, will hang a man nonetheless, if he is not careful.

For fans of Paperbacks From Hell, I strongly rec this outrageous & messed up treasure. I muttered “oh my god” aloud every few pages. Sometimes I can‘t tell if it was sloppy or smart or if it mattered at all because I was so gosh darn entertained and horrified. There is a strong V. C. Andrews Gothic aesthetic but with much more of a grisly pulp horror vibe. There is a deranged tea party in here that has to be read to be believed.

Dad says to daughter I gotta tell u a legend to keep u out of the woods. Daughter says I know the legend. Dad: 🤯🤔??!? Daughter: 😂😂🤣🙃 jk I don‘t. Then she comes out with this: “I don‘t really know what I know or what I don‘t know, or where I found out.”

!! I kinda want it on a t shirt.

Can we take a moment to appreciate the ridiculous hotness of this hunk in Tynion & Belanger‘s “The Washing Machine”? They even give him a shower scene. 🤭😅🥵

I love both the movie and this book. There is something fascinating about this furious revenge story. I teared up, I laughed (sometimes in horror), but most importantly, I kept reading. Anyone, at any time, realizing their own power and abilities is a beautiful thing. 🥂

The semi-finalists of a reality tv dating show head to a remote island in the Pacific Northwest, where amid the backbiting and machinations, a hairy local lurks, wanting…to cuddle? Maybe?

The book is fun, mean, and beautifully executed. Allen maintains great balance between catty drama and slasher-movie gore. I can‘t wait to discuss at our book club next week! 💅🏻💋🤳🌲👣🌲

This was a nonstop pulpy romp! We had a blast talking about it at our book club. Valancourt re-released this 1979 novel b4 White Gladis started her campaign. Timely! A few folks were critical abt some of the writing, but TBH, I don‘t care if the author switches between first and last name when you have a ripped off arm & arterial blood pulsing “like steam out of a kettle” in the first 5 pages.

Highly recommend the audiobook! Susan Bennett does an incredible job bringing the story to life and imbuing Mary with humor and ferocity. Nat Cassidy gives me Grady Hendrix vibes w/his compassionate characterization and gleeful dive into horror and gore. It is a bit long, but overall it is an exciting, twisty horror novel critical about sexism & ageism.

Needed something fizzy and fun to watch the other night, so rewatched one of my childhood faves. During the amazing title sequence I saw it was based on a book so I got it out of the library. The book is very much not fizzy but I‘ll admit I am fascinated. It‘s class porn. It‘s brash. It‘s got a surprising amount of sex.

@Howardsimmons doing his best to read on our lunch break. 😸

Francis Bacon in the background! What synchronicity in my reading.

Tom of Finland?? 😎💪😅

Counter to my last post, one of my favorite horror genres is botanical horror. I‘m loving this comic! 💚🌱🌿

This book helped me to articulate one of my least favorite horror tropes: amnesia. Reading horror you‘d think everyone blocked out entire years of their life on the regular. (Still really enjoying this book, though!)

A fascinating introduction to the life and art of Francis Bacon, placing his work in a historical as well as personal context. It‘s clear & concise but not simplistic. I loved the “Focus” sections that highlight key elements of his work & how every referenced work was pictured. I wld absolutely get another book from this Phaidon Focus series.

Frodo inherits a responsibility that compels him to leave the comfort & safety of his home. While creeping evil trails him and his friends, they find many allies along the way. Their journey is exciting & frightening with moments of loveliness. The story is absorbing & I‘m looking forward to spending the rest of the year in this intricate world.

Also, I got married in April so it‘s very fitting to be reading about an important ring, lol. 🙃

This is an adventurous fairytale that alludes to the familiar but is wholly its own. It‘s exciting, moving, creative — all around a good time. I read it alongside my Dad and we had a great talk about it afterwards.

Wide margins and small chapters make this an easier read than you‘d expect considering its emotionally tough subject matter. I don‘t want to say too much about it, but I will say it packs a real blow. Powerful story, beautifully written.

This was everything I expected but more. It is graphic, horrifying, funny, & intelligent. Passages that made me sick are followed by social exchanges that made me lol. The interchangeability of Patrick‘s fashion plate milieu leads to farce as well as convenient alibis, and it‘s in this ambiguous balance of satire and plot that AP is so strong and makes the hateful gruesomeness bearable. Glad I read it w/a book club so I cld process it.

A quick, sometimes beautifully written novella that contains a vast mythology. Barker‘s work is fascinating, and it is now difficult to separate it from the movie franchise it spawned. The movie varies only in a few places from the book, so it was impossible for me not to picture the actors as we read. I want to read more Barker!

A thin story held together by tenuous logic with a vacuous MC. During his transition to becoming a vampire, he thinks about getting “a taste of that pizza boy sauce, some of that gushing red death juice” which is the best line in the book. Unfortunately, that anarchy fades & we learn vampires are actually super boring. He spends his nights in bars looking for drunk college boys to suck on in the bathroom, & I‘m making it sound more fun than it is.

Most of the stories here felt like a sock to the stomach. I lingered with the collection for that reason, savoring them and apprehensive, too. After reading, I was often left staring into the middle distance, too moved to do anything but think about what I‘d read.

The literary equivalent of Olive Garden (which is name dropped in this book, unsurprisingly): blandly, reliably enjoyable, but there are so many better options out there for literally anything you like in this book. This isn‘t a murder mystery so much as a story of awkward, perky Molly learning the True Meaning of Friendship. If the book isn‘t offensive, it is simply corny, lazy, and tone deaf.

@Reggie @Marmie7 @psalva

Hey, look what my local bookstore featured recently!

Letts uses research and historical details to tell this well-built story about Annie Wilkins, a woman in her 60s who in the mid 1950s decided to ride horseback from Maine to California. I was fascinated by Wilkins‘s remarkable, foolhardy, adventurous, hopeful journey, undertaken without money or planning. It is a wonderful thing that she was met with kindness and generosity along the way.

A beautiful story with a great cast of characters (and gorgeous illustrations). The characters struggle to hold onto hope against the alluring ease of despair (“Life was so short, so many beautiful things slipped away”) and predictably, I was left crying. DiCamillo makes me feel things.

A huge story, tons of characters, spanning decades, lots of themes explored. Did not realize until today when talking with my sister that this continues the stories of characters in Goon Squad. I feel like I need to reread both.

Obvs felt like I missed a lot, but was engaged throughout.

“His throat bobs.”

Started the audiobook from the library today and then opened a surprise package to find some friends sent us an autographed copy! What a great coincidence. 🖤