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1. Started reading "A Haunting on the Hill" - which is Elizabeth Hand modern retelling of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House. Apparently the estate decided Hand was the one best equipped to re-tell it.
(I'll let you know if I agree with them. Not that I'm necessarily any more qualified, but I have seen all the film and television adaptations, and read Jackson's novel twice. Of the adaptations - Wise's is probably the best film version, and Flanagan's is the best television adaptation. The PBS adaptation scared the crap out of myself and my brother as kids. The Spielberg/Donner one is an utter mess - and no one mentions it.)
I like Hand's writing for the most part. But I'm not sure I buy that a failed playwright would investigate a creepy house perched above an even creepier small town.
Also weird hares pop up - and I'm not sure what that is about.
Speaking of creepy things, a social media friend posted on FB about looking for the aura borelais in I think Iowa, and seeing something similar, followed by a loud crack between houses that set the hairs on the back of her neck on end with fear. And a shiver up her spine. She immediately retreated indoors, and bemoaned that this wasn't a problem in Northern Canada. And I thought - see? This is what people actually do when confronted with creepy unexplainable stuff - they run and hide. They do not venture out to investigate it. Also, it haunted me. And I decided, no, I don't want to know. I'm sure there's weird stuff out there - and I love to hear stories about it - but I've no interest in investigating it or confronting it. I have enough issues with insomnia, I do not require help.
At any rate, will continue reading. To date only T Kingfisher's novels have scared and kept me awake at night. They scare me more than Stephen King's do, King's books don't tend to scare me. Gross me out maybe, scare? Not so much. Gore doesn't scare me, it just grosses me out and I'd rather ...well just read it? I like psychological horror best.
I'm also reading Jeanne Winterson's Ghost Stories.. - although haven't gotten past her introductory essay on the literary form. I didn't realize she was still writing. I honestly thought she was in her 80s by now. Apparently, I was wrong. My game plan is to read all of them - and then give the book to Wales for Christmas. She likes Winterson.
2. Speaking of horror - making my way through Flannagan's Fall of the House of Usher episodes. Episode 4 referred to Poe's short story "The Black Cat" - which features an animal hater that kills a cat, then gets another one which he tortures and hates. His wife tries to stop him, and he kills her, bricking her up in the wall. Only to have the wall start shrieking at him. In a frenzy the wall is taken down - and it is discovered that he walled the cat in there with her - and it was shrieking.
( spoilers )
Not exactly an episode for animal lovers.
Each episode has a lot of other things going on in them - so it's easy to get lost or lose interest. The pacing is bad in this. Not helped by the fact that none of the characters nor the actors are remotely appealing.
I don't know if I want to watch the rather gory Pit and the Pendulum. But am curious about the Goldbug.
Yes, I'm on a horror kick at the moment. I'd gotten burned out on romance novels - so jumped to the polar opposite, horror novels.
3. Barbara Streisand Memoir
Apparently a lot of people have written and distributed lies about Streisand over the years? She keeps talking about it - and how this book is her way of setting the record straight. Her ex-roommate, long before she got her big break - wrote a book claiming they had an affair (he was gay),
and this other gay who she'd never heard of - claimed they also had an affair. Barbara states that she thinks she'd remember that or know.
She doesn't read the books or things they've written - mainly because she hates lies (particularly about herself). But it gets back to her via friends and others that she knows who have read them.
I'm currently at the part where she gets her first job on Broadway, the role of Ms. Marmlestein in "I can get it for you, Wholesale". This is the gig that changed her entire life - up to this point she was basically just a lounge singer doing guest spots on Carson and various Late Night talk shows.
( Read more... )
4. An almost Futile Quest for Rock Cornish Game Hens
Every Thanksgiving - I fix Rock Cornish Game Hen. So I went on a quest to find them at Whole Foods, having struck out at Food Town. It's a lot harder to locate these babies than one might think.
( Getting Rock Cornish Game Hens is not as easy as you may think )
**
I'd talk about Crazy Work Place...but honestly.
(I'll let you know if I agree with them. Not that I'm necessarily any more qualified, but I have seen all the film and television adaptations, and read Jackson's novel twice. Of the adaptations - Wise's is probably the best film version, and Flanagan's is the best television adaptation. The PBS adaptation scared the crap out of myself and my brother as kids. The Spielberg/Donner one is an utter mess - and no one mentions it.)
I like Hand's writing for the most part. But I'm not sure I buy that a failed playwright would investigate a creepy house perched above an even creepier small town.
Also weird hares pop up - and I'm not sure what that is about.
Speaking of creepy things, a social media friend posted on FB about looking for the aura borelais in I think Iowa, and seeing something similar, followed by a loud crack between houses that set the hairs on the back of her neck on end with fear. And a shiver up her spine. She immediately retreated indoors, and bemoaned that this wasn't a problem in Northern Canada. And I thought - see? This is what people actually do when confronted with creepy unexplainable stuff - they run and hide. They do not venture out to investigate it. Also, it haunted me. And I decided, no, I don't want to know. I'm sure there's weird stuff out there - and I love to hear stories about it - but I've no interest in investigating it or confronting it. I have enough issues with insomnia, I do not require help.
At any rate, will continue reading. To date only T Kingfisher's novels have scared and kept me awake at night. They scare me more than Stephen King's do, King's books don't tend to scare me. Gross me out maybe, scare? Not so much. Gore doesn't scare me, it just grosses me out and I'd rather ...well just read it? I like psychological horror best.
I'm also reading Jeanne Winterson's Ghost Stories.. - although haven't gotten past her introductory essay on the literary form. I didn't realize she was still writing. I honestly thought she was in her 80s by now. Apparently, I was wrong. My game plan is to read all of them - and then give the book to Wales for Christmas. She likes Winterson.
2. Speaking of horror - making my way through Flannagan's Fall of the House of Usher episodes. Episode 4 referred to Poe's short story "The Black Cat" - which features an animal hater that kills a cat, then gets another one which he tortures and hates. His wife tries to stop him, and he kills her, bricking her up in the wall. Only to have the wall start shrieking at him. In a frenzy the wall is taken down - and it is discovered that he walled the cat in there with her - and it was shrieking.
( spoilers )
Not exactly an episode for animal lovers.
Each episode has a lot of other things going on in them - so it's easy to get lost or lose interest. The pacing is bad in this. Not helped by the fact that none of the characters nor the actors are remotely appealing.
I don't know if I want to watch the rather gory Pit and the Pendulum. But am curious about the Goldbug.
Yes, I'm on a horror kick at the moment. I'd gotten burned out on romance novels - so jumped to the polar opposite, horror novels.
3. Barbara Streisand Memoir
Apparently a lot of people have written and distributed lies about Streisand over the years? She keeps talking about it - and how this book is her way of setting the record straight. Her ex-roommate, long before she got her big break - wrote a book claiming they had an affair (he was gay),
and this other gay who she'd never heard of - claimed they also had an affair. Barbara states that she thinks she'd remember that or know.
She doesn't read the books or things they've written - mainly because she hates lies (particularly about herself). But it gets back to her via friends and others that she knows who have read them.
I'm currently at the part where she gets her first job on Broadway, the role of Ms. Marmlestein in "I can get it for you, Wholesale". This is the gig that changed her entire life - up to this point she was basically just a lounge singer doing guest spots on Carson and various Late Night talk shows.
( Read more... )
4. An almost Futile Quest for Rock Cornish Game Hens
Every Thanksgiving - I fix Rock Cornish Game Hen. So I went on a quest to find them at Whole Foods, having struck out at Food Town. It's a lot harder to locate these babies than one might think.
( Getting Rock Cornish Game Hens is not as easy as you may think )
**
I'd talk about Crazy Work Place...but honestly.