Nice Southern Ladies - The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

by Grady Hendrix

Synopsis: Patricia Campbell’s life has never felt smaller. Her husband is a workaholic, her teenage kids have their own lives, her senile mother-in-law needs constant care, and she’s always a step behind on her endless to-do list. The only thing keeping her sane is her book club, a close-knit group of Charleston women united by their love of true crime. At these meetings they’re as likely to talk about the Manson family as they are about their own families.

One evening after book club, Patricia is viciously attacked by an elderly neighbor, bringing the neighbor's handsome nephew, James Harris, into her life. James is well traveled and well read, and he makes Patricia feel things she hasn’t felt in years. But when children on the other side of town go missing, their deaths written off by local police, Patricia has reason to believe James Harris is more of a Bundy than a Brad Pitt. The real problem? James is a monster of a different kind—and Patricia has already invited him in. 
 
Little by little, James will insinuate himself into Patricia’s life and try to take everything she took for granted—including the book club—but she won’t surrender without a fight in this blood-soaked tale of neighborly kindness gone wrong.

Who doesn't love a good vampire story? Throw in some sexism, racism, greed, mixed with Southern sass and you got this. The 90's setting is great. I loved the friendships. I loved the grit and determination these women have. 

This book is clearly about vampires but there are definitely other monsters in this book. 
Warning: there are some pretty gruesome parts! 
(There are also parts with quite a bit of dark humor and satire you may even laugh out loud like I did. )

from the Author's note

“He thinks we‘re what we look like on the outside: nice Southern ladies. 
Let me tell you something…
there‘s nothing nice about Southern ladies.”

What is scarier? Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Hex 

by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Synopsis: Whoever is born here, is doomed to stay 'til death. Whoever settles, never leaves.

Welcome to Black Spring, the seemingly picturesque Hudson Valley town haunted by the Black Rock Witch, a 17th century woman whose eyes and mouth are sewn shut. Muzzled, she walks the streets and enters your homes at will. She stands next to your bed for nights on end. Everybody knows that her eyes may never be opened.

The elders of Black Spring have virtually quarantined the town by using high-tech surveillance to prevent their curse from spreading. Frustrated with being kept in lockdown, the town's teenagers decide to break their strict regulations and go viral with the haunting, but in so doing send the town spiraling into the dark, medieval practices of the past.

  

Where in town is the creepy witch? 

There's an app for that. The people of this small town use the HEX mobile app to track and avoid her as much as possible. 

While reading this I really spent a good amount of time deciding if the terrifying 300-year old witch or human nature was scarier.

“Humanity has proven time and time again that it has a tendency to cross boundaries it shouldn’t.” Chapter Six

I think it's interesting that when this was translated from Dutch to English the author decided he would re-write some of the story, changing the setting to New York and changing the ending from the original Dutch version.  

Sharing Stories... A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay

A Head Full of Ghosts 

by Paul Tremblay

Synopsis: The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie begins to display signs of acute schizophrenia.To her parents' despair, the doctors are unable to stop Marjorie's descent into madness. As their stable home devolves into a house of horrors, they reluctantly turn to a local Catholic priest for help, and soon find themselves the unwitting stars of The Possession, a hit reality television show. 

Fifteen years later, a bestselling writer interviews Marjorie's younger sister, Merry. As she recalls those long ago events that took place when she was just eight years old, long-buried secrets and painful memories begin to surface--and a mind-bending tale of psychological horror is unleashed.

I bought this for my daughter for All Hallows Read not knowing at the time that this is set in the dinky town where she was going to college. 

It is hard to say much about this with out spoiling the story. So I won't say anything. I made my sister read this so I had someone to discuss this with! 

"Whaaaaaaatttttt?" Definitely a trippy story. 

Have you ever read something that you needed to immediately talk about? 

 

 “I open my eyes. Everything is old and neglected and in some ways exactly the same. But the dust and cobwebs and cracked plaster and peeling wallpaper seem faked somehow. Passage of time as a prop to the story, the story that has been told and retold so often it has lost its meaning, even to those of us who lived through it.” - Chapter 1

Bizarre reading... Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers 

by Mary Roach

Synopsis: Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousand years, cadavers—some willingly, some unwittingly—have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them. 

The looks I got reading this in public! 
This book is fascinating. I highly recommended this if you are looking for some non-fiction reading. I was afraid it would be gory because of the subject matter but she wrote this well. She was able to convey what she needed to without being gross.

Have you read something in public that has attracted attention or comments?  

Click the link below to listen to Robert Siegel and Mary Roach discuss her book on NPR's All Things Considered 

 'Stiff' Examines 'Lives' of Cadavers - from All Things Considered on NPR

Do you remember the first time? 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King

'Salem's Lot 

by Stephen King

Synopsis: The town knew darkness...and the awful, heavy silence of terrifying images grotesquely dancing in and out of the shadows...and stark white faces, huge empty eyes and long gnarled hands that reached out with lustful insistence...and the paralyzing fear of a diabolical corruption and a hideous peril more dreadful than death.

I was in middle school when my friends older brother gave me this book to read. This was my first Stephen King novel and after reading this I started reading any Stephen King I could get my hands on. This is a great gateway read into creepy, terrifying, horror and all things macabre. I lost my copy many years ago and replaced it with a newer printing. This is one of my favorite books and reading it makes me feel nostalgic. I spent years (pre online shopping) scouring used bookstore shelves for the cover of the one I first read. MY copy. It may be a ratty book but it is definitely one I value the most.

You you have a favorite book? 

“But when fall comes, kicking summer out on its treacherous ass as it always does one day sometime after the midpoint of September, it stays awhile like an old friend that you have missed. It settles in the way an old friend will settle into your favorite chair and take out his pipe and light it and then fill the afternoon with stories of places he has been and things he has done since last he saw you.” - from Chapter six

 

It's October! Time for spooky reads.

It's October so I thought I would post some of my favorite spooky books.

I'm starting with one of my all time favorites. 

To me this is the ultimate essential fall read.

Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Synopsis: When the carnival comes to town, two boys unearth the terrifying and horrible secrets that lurk within Cooger & Dark's Pandemonium Shadow Show and learn the consequences of wishes, as a sinister and evil force is at work in Green Town, Illinois.

The first time I read this, I thought it was magical. Even now when I re-read this book I have that same feeling course through me. I love Ray Bradbury's writing. With each page I'm transported to cool evenings where I can smell the fall leaves as I listen to them rustle in the autumn breeze. 

 

Head to your local library and check out the book (or ebook) then grab some apple cider and warm pumpkin bread and enjoy.

I'll leave you with the opening paragraphs...

“First of all, it was October, a rare month for boys. Not that all months aren’t rare. But there be bad and good, as the pirates say. Take September, a bad month: school begins. Consider August, a good month: school hasn’t begun yet. July, well, July’s really fine: there’s no chance in the world for school. June, no doubting it, June’s best of all, for the school doors spring wide and September’s a billion years away.

But you take October, now. School’s been on a month and you’re riding easier in the reins, jogging along. You got time to think of the garbage you’ll dump on old man Prickett’s porch, or the hairy-ape costume you’ll wear to the YMCA the last night of the month. And if it’s around October twentieth and everything smoky-smelling and the sky orange and ash gray at twilight, it seems Halloween will never come in a fall of broomsticks and a soft flap of bedsheets around corners.” 

Books I need to read

Holy Cow I have been gone for quite some time.

Today I have decided to post my to be read list. This is a picture of ten of the books I have been meaning to get but have not so far. 

I am committing them to this blog so hopefully you will see some of these mentioned here after I have read them, along with reviews of notable books I have read in the past year.

Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger

As a fan of Gail Carriger’s (adult) Parasol Protectorate series I have been highly looking forward to this young adult Victorian Paranormal Steampunk series.

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Historical Fiction set during World War II.  Everyone says I have to read it.

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

I am a fan of Maggie Stifvater. I have read everything she has written. This is the second book in the Raven Boys Series. There is supposed to be four books. I may hold of on this one until book three’s release is announced.

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith

Oh my gosh. I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED Jennifer E. Smith’s book “Statistical Probabilities of Love at First Sight” ( I will need to post a review of this one because everyone should read it) Because “Statistical Probabilities of Love at First Sight” was such a sweet swoony book. I need to read this!  

Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill

Shakespeare, London and the blogosphere says if you like Jennifer E. Smith and Stephanie Perkins this is a must read.

The Tragedy Paper by Elizabeth LaBan

Seriously! I bought this book because of its cover.

The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde

Another book I have judged by its cover.  Drgaon scales and a VW Bug.  I am intrigued.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I have heard so much about this book and the series that I am embarrassed that I have not read this yet.

  

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

This book is about a girl with anorexia. I think it is important to read books that explore the social challenges today no matter how difficult.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

Oh. My. Gosh.

Zombies, Steampunk and Civil War!

‘nuf said!