TBR Challenges, Halloween Treats and Moving Coffee Shops
Helloooo!
In the spirit of the season here are three tricks or treats for you!
1 - The TBR Challenge and update!
A little late for which I apologise but we have been a busy home with illness, a great Fantasycon and following work catch-ups. A week off in a week will do wonders and I suspect there may be a book or two read. I’m feeling a long year catching up with me and working out to avoid doing that again last year but taking things easy the next few months.
The TBR Update!
When we caught up last month I’ve gone from 148 to 164 books read
TBR - 77
ARC - 87
Not surprising I was doing some August ARC catch ups. Should still be balanced this year
This month’s challenges are easy to predict!
October - Yep Its Halloween Time
Find a spooky themed read!
Already on this and using an opportunity to clean up I’m reaching The Southern Reach trilogy ahead of it becoming a quartet next week!
Stretch Goal
Reward yourself with a small press book i.e. a press not related to the big 5 publishers
Digging into the TBR I’ve found Three Stories About Ghosts by martin Hall, Matthew Marchitto and Ali Nouraei
2 - Halloween reading!
Now tis the season of Halloween so this year I’ve had a look back through the year at great horror tales you should pick up. Just a few….you know me….
Out There Screaming - An Anthology of New Black Horror edited by Jordan Peele - recently winner of BFS best anthology this is a superb collection of horror tales by a host of exciting Black authors.
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due - ok this is one of the best novels I’ve read this year. The exploration of a young teenager trapped in a Jim Crow era reformatory for boys makes you feel the fear of a child. Powerful, shocking and beautiful. Do not be surprised this is on my best of list later this year.
Where The Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes - An excellent maritime horror with added cannibalism pulls together really well . I really loved this and it confirms Wilkes is an author to watch in the british horror scene.
Women of Horror and Speculative Fiction In Their Own Words - Conversations with Authors, Editors and Publishers edited by Sebastien Doubinsky and Christina Kkona - Ok this is more non-fiction but a galaxy of women in horror at various stages in their career provide some fascinating answers to the questions.
Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolatory Horror Edited by Jacob Steven Mohr - Horror stories in web blogs, audio recordings, letters and diaries await int his feast of an inventive anthology!
The Quarter Century Project - Indigo by Graham Joyce - A truly strange weird and excellent horror that plays with the idea of invisibility. An author much missed and this is a classic.
The Briar Book of the Dead by AG Slatter - Slatter is one of my favourite authors and this dark little tale of sisters with secrets and a place where witches are known is as always clever and inventive storytelling.
What Feasts At Night by T Kingfisher - a delicious novella by another skilled writer who delivers here a wonderfully creepy tale that I fell for hard.
Those Who Dwell in Mordenhyrst Hall by Catherine Cavendish - a neat little piece of period horror with a nasty rich family with a dark secret and an engaged woman not sure what she is falling into.
What Hides in The Cupboards by Cassondra Windwalker — - off to the desert and tale of a ghost, strange art and a nasty sense of someone losing their mind. A brilliant dark novella to seek out.
The Last To Drown by Lorraine Wilson — - an author who has been growing from strength to strength takes us to Iceland for a tale of grief, pain and the past coming back to haunt all the main character. Excellent
Charlie Says by Neil Williamson — - if you know your British safety films that scared the life out of kids this tale will ring bells but it also has something to say about the dark side of Britain in many ways. An excellent novella.
For Tomorrow edited by Dan Coxon — - This amazing anthology creates its own 1990s mysterious event where something happened at a school and we follow the survivors. All the tales in this are knock out great.
Sorrowmouth by Simon Avery — - Horror can also be weirdly hopeful and while this story goes to many dark places there is some light and recovery in this story to savour. Also a tribute to an amazing picture as you can tell from the cover.
Among The Living by Tim Lebbon — - for those who like an adventure here is some environmental horror where everything is about to go very very wrong for the explorers we meet with Lebbon’s trademark pace and inventiveness.
Hunting By The River by Daniel Carpenter — - A gorgeous collection here with tales using cities as places of danger, mystery and horror. A writer to watch out for.
The Horror by Seb Doubinsky — - a really interesting story as main character seems to be slightly more involved in a small town’s dark secrets than we expect. Lovely bit of storytelling to enjoy here.
A Curious Cartography by Alison Littlewood — - One of my favourite horror authors has a great short fiction collection with a theme of places to be lost in. Varied, scary and a beautiful read.
Lost In The Garden by Adam S Leslie — - One of my favourite reads of the year folk horror yet in the future and also summer. Weird and unpredictable but utterly compelling.
We Used To Live Here by Marcus Kliewer — - now this is brilliant weird horror that pays with your mind as well as those of the main character’s. A simple mistake answeroing the foor changes eveyrthing. Netflix is mkaing a show of this and its going to be fascinating how they do it.
That Which Stands Outside by Mark Morris — - Going to the girlfriend’s hometown is here a sinister island full of legends, suspicion and secrets - works really well and everything goes to hell…
Dirt Upon My Skin by Steve Toase - - another delicious horror collection with a theme of archaeological horror and each tale is really special. An author to watch out for!
The Rider, The Ride, The Rich Man's Wife by Premee Mohamed — - a wonderfully smart desert tale that plays with folk lore and the heart of stories in a very inventive way.
Grey by Ian Rogers — - a mysterious non-angel/demon is asked to stop the end of the world. This may feel fantasy but horror awaits at the heart of the tale. Smart and devastating too.
Grackle by AC Wise — - a stunning horror story. Surprising, eerie and heartbreaking. I rarely compare stories to other authors but imagine if T Kingfisher and Shirley Jackson co-wrote a story.
Remnant by Conrad Williams — - a haunting Icelandic mystery perfect for a frosty night and I liked how the secrets stay hidden until the very end.
Bound In Blood edited by Johnny Mains — - A very entertaining collection of stories all using cursed books as their inspiration and a host of great authors rise to the challenge.
Preaching to the Perverted by James Bennett — - A very eloquent collection of dark fantasy and horror stories that makes its points and delivers great tales
The Ravening by Daniel Church — - A gripping action packed tale with a focus on a woman’s right to choose that works very well..
Sinophagia - A Celebration of Chinese Horror edited by Xueting C Ni — - - One of the most interesting anthologies this year as it opens up our eyes to the wealth of Chinese horror arriving on the scene this century. A brilliant book to pick up!
Come Sing For The Harrowing: Stories by Dan Coxon — - A great fusion of weird and folk horror with chillers to await!
Stay In the Light by AM Shine — - If you loved Shine’s The Watchers a few years ago then you’ll really enjoy seeing what happened next and a very different tale too which I love in a sequel.
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay — - Film meets art meets commercial meets possession awaits in this inventive story. One of my favourite of Tremblay’s tales.
The Crane Husband by Kelly Barnhill — - This story weaving folklore and domestic abuse is rather brilliant
Do not worry I have a few more lined up…
3 - Moving Coffee Shops
11 years ago some friends persuaded me to try a new cafe. It’s had infinite space and you could visit it at work or at home. The old owners did not know what they were doing. But lots of people visited and I found a whole new community of people who loved books as much as I did. I started asking people on Sundays what they were reading and it very organically became a thing a small group enjoyed doing.
Talking about books gave me confidence to try blogging and this cafe was a big part of the audience. It was also where I met new people meet fascinating experts and started friendships that have even carried on in new life. We would get the owner trying a few ideas that never really worked, very weird ads and the security could have been better but it was homely.
Then a few years ago the old owners sold to a new guy. We all heard he liked to be edgy but the cafe was the cafe - we were too strong a community to be bothered. But things I’ve found the last few years are souring my experience. He plays constant ads that butt into all our conversations, he has invited back all the folks the previous cafe have barred, he’s created a special order of people that pay him money that allows them to jump the queue and I’ve seen more of this guys horrible personal beliefs that suggests he doesn’t think my friends have human rights. Let’s face it a cafe with poor health and safety is a dangerous place.
So that’s left me deciding to try other cafes. It may mean “the people who visited the blog won’t do so. But that’s actually not been the case. Over the last few years more people meet me via other places than the cafe, I also find the other Butterfly Cafe in particular friendlier with better security and while it’s still not got all the features of the old one I actually enjoy it and don’t feel like I’m dipping a toe into a sewer. Some rich communities obviously don’t want to move yet and that’s fine for them but for me it’s a bit like changing jobs, moving house or changing a habit - painful at first but generally has a reward at the end.
I’ll pop into the old place occasionally and put a blog on the notice board and for the small group who like a Sunday chat that will happen until the end of the year but it feels time to let it go and try other places.
This by the way is why I don’t write fiction.
