A Cineaste’s Bookshelf
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Celebrating Val Lewton [31 Days of Halloween: October 30]
Filmmaker Val Lewton was hired by RKO to make movies to rival the Universal monster movies that had made that studio tons of money. Lewton took a different approach to the scary movie. With a smaller budget than Universal, Lewton managed to create a slate of psychological, atmospheric films that hold up today.Read More »
Short Stories and Poems for Halloween [31 Days of Halloween: October 29]
Sometimes a long book to get lost in is exactly what is needed. And sometimes a short story or a hair-raising poem is all you need to get in to the Halloween mood.Read More »
A Question of Reality [31 Days of Halloween - October 28]
What do you do when reality isn't real? When your perceptions are manipulated? What if it was an evil spirit or a haunted house that was doing it? Some of the most unnerving books are ones where the line is blurred and narrators are unreliable.Read More »
Unsolved and Unusual Mysteries
Sometimes the creepiest thing is a gaping unknown. Whether it's a disappearance or a mysterious death, there are plenty of books about unsolved events to keep you awake at night.Read More »
A Creature of Our Own Making [31 Days of Halloween - October 26]
The novel Frankenstein is many things - the birth of science fiction, a study in Romantic philosophy, a Gothic horror story - but it is also a reminder that the things that terrorize us most are often a reflection of our own obsessions.Read More »
Favorite Haunted House Books [31 Days of Halloween: October 25]
I'm sure it is no surprise that I love haunted house stories. I think I like the mystery. I want to figure out the puzzle of why the house is haunted. These are some of my favorite books with a haunted house at the center.Read More »
ACCENT: THE 7 1/2 DEATHS OF EVELYN HARDCASTLE
Evelyn Hardcastle will die. Every day until Aiden Bishop can identify her killer and break the cycle. But every time the day begins again, Aiden wakes up in the body of a different guest. And some of his hosts are more helpful than others...Read More »
ACCENT: THE THIRD HOTEL [31 Days of Halloween - October 21]
One night, a suspicious wife leaves her home in Florida to trace her husband's footsteps across Havana, Cuba. The only problem is, Richard is dead.Read More »
ACCENT: THE PENGUIN BOOK OF HELL [31 Days of Halloween - October 20]
Divided into historical eras, he introduces each piece with contextual information -- leading ideas of the time, societal understandings, and philosophies. Then the writings are left to stand on their own.Read More »
ACCENT: THE RAVENMASTER
Chris Skaife may have the coolest job there is. It's certainly one of the most unusual. Skaife is currently the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London -- he is charged with making sure England never falls. Read More »
Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite authors, unread
It's a joy to find an author you love, and then discover they have other books out, just waiting to be read. Here are some favored authors with an impressive list of titles that I simply haven't had time to read yet.Read More »
ACCENT: THE UNFINISHED PALAZZO
Situated on the busy Grand Canal, the Palazzo Venier dei Leoni was unfinished in 1750 but it finally became a central society location when it was owned by three independent women.Read More »
REVIEW: BLOOD & IVY
In Blood & Ivy, Collins uncovers a hasty murder in Harvard's medical school, a gaslit story for the resurrectionists in a Robert Louis Stevenson book.Read More »
Top Ten Tuesday: Fall 2018 Reading List
It's still 90 degrees here, with no end in sight, so it's a bit hard to imagine days of sweaters and firesides are in the near future. There's no way I could share my entire TBR list for fall, but one has to start somewhere...Read More »
REVIEW: THUNDERCLUCK
In the Norse gods' kingdom of Asgard, Thor accidentally throws a thunderbolt at his henhouse. He zaps an egg who eventually hatches into a different sort of chicken. Young Brunhilde and the Thundercluck are called to save Asgard from Gorman Bones, an evil chef.Read More »