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Moving from pseudoscience to the woo woo. Gonna find out how cats are precognitive.

“Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time” by C. Robert Cargill was a delightful cathartic slasher good vs evil conflict with a delicious meta-commentary caramel center. “Let’s go make a mess on Aisle 9” indeed.

Book One is complete - now bouncing over to the anthology to fill in with those Book One stories

For spooky month, I received this D&D set. I prefer my spooky setting to be a flavor other than Ravenloft Strahdville, so I'm looking forward to reading and prepping for this to be the first campaign I run after everything settled down.

Sonova– he lampshaded that he was writing his homage to The Lord of the Rings. Chapter 12 he opens an Alice in Wonderland door to a tunnel to Hobbiton. Not a nasty, wet hole full of worm-ends, but a nice cozy hole smelling of cinnamon.

revisiting this in tandem with the homage anthology

Leans more toward academia than pop science. Took a bit to get rolling, but once we got there the anecdotes were pleasant.

I love the contrast between “The Tripps” by Wrath James White has kids being summoned by Mother Abigail, and “Bright Light City” by Meg Gardiner where kids are escaping Flagg’s Las Vegas. These got me to settle into the world of The Stand.

“Hunger” by Max Brooks is one of the scariest stories I’ve read, compounded by the challenges of the current administration and their saber rattling.

“The Animal Fair” by Robert Bloch is a perfectly executed short story from a master craftsman. I knew where it was going before the reveal, but only because he put all the pieces in front of us to see the nastiness buried beneath. And we are helpless and unable to to avert our eyes as the layers are slowly peeled back.

“Will They Disappear” almost feels unbelievable until you learn about the Harts that inspired the story. I prefer the version here, because at least we get some hope for humanity.

“By Invisible Hands” by Simon Strantzas is delightfully unreliable and unsettling commentary on puppetmasters. This was illustrated by Junji Ito in my head.

“Unwirer” co-written with Cory Doctorow is exactly what I would expect from this pair with an alternate history caused by the US cracking down on internet freedom at its inception. Snappy pacing and satisfying technological intrigue.

“Why Johnny Can't Speed” is a fantastic snapshot the movement in the 70s of ultra-violence in the automobile (think Deathrace 2000 and Mad Max.) This story directly connects the hyper-masculinity with America’s connection of the car to Freedom and Independence. Fun story and absolutely delightful anthropologic window.

A fun anthology of essays by writers talking about their favorite horror stories, accompanied by that story.

“Origins of Southern Spirit Music” is delightful prose poetry

“Women of the Mere” by Jessi Ann York is a reminder of the dangers of erasure. “Marchosias” warns us of allowing others to control us and dictate our happiness.

“Why Johnny Can't Speed” is a fantastic snapshot the movement in the 70s of ultra-violence in the automobile (think Deathrace 2000 and Mad Max.) This story directly connects the hyper-masculinity with America’s connection of the car to Freedom and Independence. Fun story and absolutely delightful anthropologic window.

I’ve had my mother’s copy of this book on my shelf for ages, and it jumped off at me as something I should fully consume. It’s an old library discard that is falling to rags, but I would love to see this preserved as a historical artifact.

I picked this up as I definitely agree with the philosophy in the title, and thought this would be good as my non-fiction book for the year. And I've been struggling through for a while. Thankfully it works well to put it down for a while after reading one section. There are definitely some useful nuggets in here that can be mined, but there's a lot of smarmy dross to sift out.

The first couple paragraphs are a thesis statement on the genesis of American Horror.

“The Martyrdom of Solomon” is about a scientist whose experiments make thoughts manifest, but struggles to control his thoughts that would rain destruction down on those he holds dear.

STRANGER: I wear no mask.