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shadowkatHave to get up early tomorrow morning - because overwhelmed at work. Won't bore with details. Early as in 5 am. It may kill me.
Did I say I'm not a morning person?
My Top Ten Horror Novels/Short Stories
This is a continuation of the meme I started yesterday, except we're doing books tonight, because I'm not sure I can do TV shows - it's all episodes of anthologies that I can't remember. Maybe TV movies? Also a bit of a snob in this area, you won't see Bram Stocker (because I found him more dreary and boring than scary) or Frankenstein (have yet to make it through it), Straub, Koontz, or King (also don't find him scary, gory yes, scary not so much). I'm more into psychological horror.
Also this is off the top of my head and at this moment in time. More than likely to change at a moment's notice.
1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - which is possibly the best haunted house book that I've read, and yes that includes Stephen King. If you like Jackson, also try her short stories, she was mainly a short story writer - with some really disturbing tales.
2. The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll - the best vampire book that I've read, or at the very least the scariest - and most disturbing. Does something completely different with vampires. The lead character discovers by book's end that she's a vampire who takes other's lives to add to her own. Very twisty mind-bender of a book.
3. Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber - the scariest story I've read about Witches, a woman loses her soul...and her husband helps her body find it.
4. Harvest Home by Tom Tyrone - out of print, I think, I had to hunt it done. Tyrone was an actor turned horror novelist and this cult gem is possibly the best I've read regarding pagan rituals turned deadly. After reading Harvest Home, was hard for me to take any of the others seriously.
5. The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells - yes, a sci-fi (most of these are), but this story takes the whole mad-scientist tale to new heights. An island where the doctor turns people into animals. Made into two movies.
6. The Three Stigmata of Palmer K. Eldritch by Philip K. Dick (a story about a world that has gone insane with plastic surgery and marketing), Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the death of books, tv in its place (although The Veldt - a short story is far scarier - Bradbury was a true master), Brave New World by Adolus Huxely , and 1984 by George Orwell - four semi-allegorical horror tales of fascist realms, all the more frightening for their ability to predict elements of our own future.
7. Grass by Sherri Tepper - this is science fiction but it scared me. A family journey's as ambassadors to a new planet - fleeing the plague on their own, to determine it's root cause, and discover something interesting about the alien inhabitants.
Very disturbing novel. Like most of Tepper's work it plays with gender roles and sexuality in interesting ways. Not a book you forget. I read it over 15 years ago and it's still vivid.
8. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - a haunting and at times chillingly beautiful time-lasp ghost story about the after-effects of a bomb going off during WWII. Lyrical in places. Frightening in others. Hard to describe.
9. Masque of the Red Death, and the Pit and the Pendalum by Edgar Allen Poe, amongst other tales. The best of the Victorian or post-Victorian horror writers. Poe created the modern detective novel. I've always found Poe more frightening than Hawthorne, Stocker, or Shelly. As well as more poetic.
10. The Secret History by Donna Tartt - a horrifying account of student ritual gone wrong, and the murder that happens after. It is also a wicked satire of spoiled kids at a small liberal arts college - which resonated for me.
11. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - about a woman slowly losing herself and her mind and well so much more.
12. The Sculptress by Minette Walters - a tale about a manipulative serial killer - who happens to be a woman.
13. Creature features: Dauphne Du Maure's The Birds & Lennigan versus the Ants by Carl Stevenson.
Did I say I'm not a morning person?
My Top Ten Horror Novels/Short Stories
This is a continuation of the meme I started yesterday, except we're doing books tonight, because I'm not sure I can do TV shows - it's all episodes of anthologies that I can't remember. Maybe TV movies? Also a bit of a snob in this area, you won't see Bram Stocker (because I found him more dreary and boring than scary) or Frankenstein (have yet to make it through it), Straub, Koontz, or King (also don't find him scary, gory yes, scary not so much). I'm more into psychological horror.
Also this is off the top of my head and at this moment in time. More than likely to change at a moment's notice.
1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson - which is possibly the best haunted house book that I've read, and yes that includes Stephen King. If you like Jackson, also try her short stories, she was mainly a short story writer - with some really disturbing tales.
2. The Marriage of Sticks by Jonathan Carroll - the best vampire book that I've read, or at the very least the scariest - and most disturbing. Does something completely different with vampires. The lead character discovers by book's end that she's a vampire who takes other's lives to add to her own. Very twisty mind-bender of a book.
3. Conjure Wife by Fritz Leiber - the scariest story I've read about Witches, a woman loses her soul...and her husband helps her body find it.
4. Harvest Home by Tom Tyrone - out of print, I think, I had to hunt it done. Tyrone was an actor turned horror novelist and this cult gem is possibly the best I've read regarding pagan rituals turned deadly. After reading Harvest Home, was hard for me to take any of the others seriously.
5. The Island of Doctor Moreau by HG Wells - yes, a sci-fi (most of these are), but this story takes the whole mad-scientist tale to new heights. An island where the doctor turns people into animals. Made into two movies.
6. The Three Stigmata of Palmer K. Eldritch by Philip K. Dick (a story about a world that has gone insane with plastic surgery and marketing), Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the death of books, tv in its place (although The Veldt - a short story is far scarier - Bradbury was a true master), Brave New World by Adolus Huxely , and 1984 by George Orwell - four semi-allegorical horror tales of fascist realms, all the more frightening for their ability to predict elements of our own future.
7. Grass by Sherri Tepper - this is science fiction but it scared me. A family journey's as ambassadors to a new planet - fleeing the plague on their own, to determine it's root cause, and discover something interesting about the alien inhabitants.
Very disturbing novel. Like most of Tepper's work it plays with gender roles and sexuality in interesting ways. Not a book you forget. I read it over 15 years ago and it's still vivid.
8. Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami - a haunting and at times chillingly beautiful time-lasp ghost story about the after-effects of a bomb going off during WWII. Lyrical in places. Frightening in others. Hard to describe.
9. Masque of the Red Death, and the Pit and the Pendalum by Edgar Allen Poe, amongst other tales. The best of the Victorian or post-Victorian horror writers. Poe created the modern detective novel. I've always found Poe more frightening than Hawthorne, Stocker, or Shelly. As well as more poetic.
10. The Secret History by Donna Tartt - a horrifying account of student ritual gone wrong, and the murder that happens after. It is also a wicked satire of spoiled kids at a small liberal arts college - which resonated for me.
11. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman - about a woman slowly losing herself and her mind and well so much more.
12. The Sculptress by Minette Walters - a tale about a manipulative serial killer - who happens to be a woman.
13. Creature features: Dauphne Du Maure's The Birds & Lennigan versus the Ants by Carl Stevenson.
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no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 04:09 am (UTC)Even the vampire books I've read are just bad romances (not real horror at all).
Although Dicken's Christmas Carol scared me a lot when I was little (my brother would read it aloud doing voices for everyone).
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 07:02 pm (UTC)As Hugh Laurie noted in his Blues Special - there's good books and bad books and good music and bad music, everything else is just for the convenience of record store people and
book store shelvers or indexing.
Tend to agree - since I read, watch and listen with more or less that same attitude. I ignore the categories for the most part. ;-)
The Secret History - contemp. literary.
Harvest Home - horror, but out of print (so library?)
Grass - sci-fi
Marriage of Sticks - contemp literary/fantasy - similar writer to Neil Gaiman but better with characters and less into atmosphere.
Bradbury, Dick, Huxley, Orwell - sci-fi/political allegory/literary.
HG Wells...classics.
Hee.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 07:05 pm (UTC)and Edgar Allen Poe. (How'd you miss reading Poe? Though he was required reading? I had to read him from Junior High on through College...course was also an English Lit major. Best Bud at the time did her senior thesis on Poe.)
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 08:06 pm (UTC)I actually minored in English Literature in college, but I avoided taking American Literature courses ... (even though they are in the same language they were segregated by nationality at the University of Minnesota, I'm not even sure why).
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 09:58 pm (UTC)Part of this may be the difference between large University's and small Liberal Arts Colleges?
I went to a small Liberal Arts School - which seldom had lectures or multiple choice tests, focused heavily on writing and papers. Also class discussion - heavy emphasis. We had maybe 15 people in our classes. One class I had - had only three people and the teacher. We took field trips and would often see a film version of the novel we just read and analyze the differences. I remember reading the play, book, and seeing the film version of Les Liasons Dangereux and comparing in detail - then comparing and discussing the themes and style of Les Liasons Dangereux and Richardson's Clarissa.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 11:24 pm (UTC)I had intended to minor in philosophy but over time I just found English Literature to be more charming and fun (someone actually gave a course on early British Romance writers: mostly 'Gothic'... they were hilarious, but meant to be scary).
no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 12:47 am (UTC)Yes, the British Romance Gothic Writer trope...was it Mary Stewart and Helen...can't remember her name. I think I read them all. ;-)
You might like Minette Walters - she's a British Mystery Writer.
Again sorry for getting into the education thing.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 01:08 am (UTC)And I totally get the education thing, that is one of the huge advantages of choices of colleges, because so many of us are looking for different things. And Colorado College IS an amazing school (one of my very best friends went there and I went to visit a couple of times, but it was important to call it The Colorado College at the time).
no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 02:53 am (UTC)Oh the reason you had to call it The Colorado College - is there were two of them. One was a Women's College and one was well a Liberal Arts school. People were always getting them confused. It was a long time ago, vaguely remember it.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-19 03:20 am (UTC)Sigh, no, you really don't appear to. Because of course I agree everyone should have the advantage of choices...BUT, the problem is if you can't afford to go to a Colorado College and have to go to a state school such as University of Kansas...and you happen to have an undiagnosed learning disability that you've been compensating for years with - you'll do miserably, be lost in the system, maybe even told to go to Community College - and why? Because they rely on multiple choice computerized testing and lectures, and tests - which I'm sorry is NOT teaching. People can do that online and are.
Or you can just read a book and teach yourself. They rely on it because they have huge classes and can't grade 100 essays or papers.
So no, if it were as simple as "choices" it would not annoy me.
It is about how the educational system is structured. Similar issues with a reliance on standardized testing - determining a student's success with a multiple choice test is stupid. So much is based on memorization and very little on "critical" thinking.
Anyhow - that's an example of my rant. It's hard to understand - but it has a lot to do with what I went through in high school and law school, also what my brother went through and the reason he pays a small fortune each year to send his child to Montessori and wouldn't teach a public school with a ten-foot pole. We both had to teach ourselves math - because of this horrendous practice. And it is one of the many reasons so many students aren't learning.
Here endeth...the rant. ;-)
Just didn't want you to think it's about variety or something like that. No - it's about the multiple choice testing and lecture method - the bane of my school existence.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-18 05:50 pm (UTC)Nods. Of which The Lottery is the most famous - and certainly very disturbing.