What are you currently reading?

[dannyboy121070]

If a fire struck my library and I only had time to grab one book from five authors among the thousands of books in it, a book by Charles Beaumont would be in the mix. His work is just outstandingly and timelessly good, one of my all-time favorites. There's a full-length biography upcoming from Centipede Press at some point, and I can't wait to get my hands on it...the rememberances from his friends in the Dark Harvest collection and William F. Nolan's short bio-bibliography are both nice, but Beaumont deserves a full-length exploration of his life and work.

Wow, high praise, indeed! The introduction to this book includes an overview of Beaumont's life, which served to really up my interest in the Centipede biography. Haven't heard any updates on that one in a long while, it seems...

[RonClinton]

I have one story left in the Charles Beaumont collection, A TOUCH OF THE CREATURE. I was a bit disappointed to find out that there IS no creature to be found in these pages (Meaning there are no Horror stories...), but the stories are so well-written that I stopped caring almost immediately. There's a lot of touching slice-of-life stuff on display here, and Beaumont writes in such an insidious way that you could easily miss a nasty plot turn if you aren't paying careful attention to everything he says. Highly recommended if you're looking for something a little different.

If a fire struck my library and I only had time to grab one book from five authors among the thousands of books in it, a book by Charles Beaumont would be in the mix. His work is just outstandingly and timelessly good, one of my all-time favorites. There's a full-length biography upcoming from Centipede Press at some point, and I can't wait to get my hands on it...the rememberances from his friends in the Dark Harvest collection and William F. Nolan's short bio-bibliography are both nice, but Beaumont deserves a full-length exploration of his life and work.

[dannyboy121070]

I have one story left in the Charles Beaumont collection, A TOUCH OF THE CREATURE. I was a bit disappointed to find out that there IS no creature to be found in these pages (Meaning there are no Horror stories...), but the stories are so well-written that I stopped caring almost immediately. There's a lot of touching slice-of-life stuff on display here, and Beaumont writes in such an insidious way that you could easily miss a nasty plot turn if you aren't paying careful attention to everything he says. Highly recommended if you're looking for something a little different.

[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Thunderstorm LE of Chad Lutzke's "Bruises on A Butterfly". Really enjoyed this one but do wish it had been a bit longer as I think it could have benefited from a bit more room to breathe. Either way, this book had a ton of heart. Lutzke is fast becoming a favorite of mine!

Am now reading the SST LE of Stephen Graham Jones' "The Angel of Indian Lake". I have been looking forward to this one big time as I loved the first two books in the series. Can't wait to see how this series ends!!

[Sock Monkey]

I started reading the new edition of Centipede's 'SALEM'S LOT: STUDIES IN THE HORROR FILM. I think I'll start a new thread called "What book are you currently reading that you're afraid to touch?", lol.

LOL. This cracked me up. That should absolutely be a new thread!

[dannyboy121070]

I started reading the new edition of Centipede's 'SALEM'S LOT: STUDIES IN THE HORROR FILM. I think I'll start a new thread called "What book are you currently reading that you're afraid to touch?", lol.

[brlesh]

Finished up Patreon Stories by Philip Fracassi, which I liked a lot.

Next up, finished a short novella by Sara Tantlinger, To Be Devoured, which was a very dark & twisted read. Still trying to process this one.

Up next, will probably start a reread of The House by Bentley Little.

It’s probably been 20 to 25 years since I first read The House, though I do remember liking it at the time. As I recall, it’s one of his less formulaic novels.

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[sholloman81]

Just finished reading the Thunderstorm LE of John Baltisberger's "No Guilt of Bloodshed", a part of the splatter western series. This was my second Baltisberger read and I liked it a lot. It was fun to see him mix Jewish mysticism with the West/Splatter side of things. Didn't really enjoy the main character as he's pretty unlikeable, but he did grow on me by the end of the book, and boy what a neat ending! It hints at a very cool crossover book with another author that I would definitely be down to read if it happens! Overall, glad to have read this book and added it to my collection.

Am now reading the Thunderstorm LE of Chad Lutzke's "Bruises on A Butterfly". Have never read this story but have high hopes as Lutzke's stuff has really grown on me over the last year.

[brlesh]

Williams is on my ever-expanding list of authors that just don't work for me, unfortunately. I haven't read anything by him that hasn't bored me and left me scratching my head.

The first thing I remember reading by Williams was The Unblemished, which I think was an early Halloween book from Earthling, so this would have been around 20 years ago. I really like The Unblemished (though at this point I don’t remember anything about that book).

But everything I’ve read after The Unblemished has either just bored me to tears or been WTF did I just read.

Honestly, I gave Remnant a chance just because the synopsis sounded interesting (I’m a sucker for arctic horror stories) but I think this will be the last I read by Williams.

Somewhere on the shelf I have an anthology of western stories that he edited. I may give that a try one day, though lord knows I certainly have more anthologies laying around than I‘ll ever read, so who knows at this point.

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[dannyboy121070]

Finished up Remnant by Conrad Williams, which was an interesting story that ultimately left me feeling, as most of Williams’ work does, WTF did I just read.



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Williams is on my ever-expanding list of authors that just don't work for me, unfortunately. I haven't read anything by him that hasn't bored me and left me scratching my head.

[brlesh]

Good to know. I wasn't too taken with his novel DEVIL'S CREEK, but considered giving THE SUNDOWNER'S DANCE a try as the plot sounded intriguing. But it sounds like whatever didn't click with me in DEVIL'S CREEK likely carries over to this new one.

Yeah, actually thought The Sundowner’s Dance was a step down from Devil’s Creek.

I liked Devil’s Creek, but at 500+ pages, I thought he could have cut 100 pages and told the same story with a lot better flow to it.

My problems with TSD was more of a plot line issue. The first half was more of a mystery. About mid way through the mystery is explained and the second half consists of the good guys trying to thwart the evil machinations of the bad guys, and it just didn’t work for me. Plus having a mainly senior citizen cast of characters come of as acting like teenagers just came off as too cringy.

I’m about at the point with Keisling that I think he’s just better adapted as a writer of shorter length works. I really liked his collection Cold, Black and Infinite, and his novella Scanlines was really good. Neither of the novels I’ve read from him have really worked for me.

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[brlesh]

Finished up Remnant by Conrad Williams, which was an interesting story that ultimately left me feeling, as most of Williams’ work does, WTF did I just read.

After Remnant, I read the chapbook Death Bus by our own Jeff Terry.

Honestly, I went into this not expecting much, and have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Had kind of a Quantum Leap (the 90’s TV show) in hell vibe to it.

Up next, Patreon Stories by Philip Fracassi.

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[dannyboy121070]

Just finished THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF MONSTERS, which was, overall, a good read. Worth it just to rediscover Clive Barker's RAWHEAD REX, which has to be one of the best monster stories, maybe one of the best short Horror stories, that I've ever read. This would make one hell of a movie, if done right. (Yes, I know it was already adapted to film, and it is certainly a guilty pleasure, but, still...). A lot here that I had read before, some recently, so I skipped those stories, and a few that I just didn't enjoy (Not a Ramsey Campbell fan, and there was an endless Basil Copper Sci-Fi story that I just could not bring myself to finish. Highlights were the Barker story and the one by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, whose work I adore. There was also a Sci-Fi tale by Robert Silverberg that Michael Crichton totally plagiarized for JURASSIC PARK.

[RonClinton]

Finished up The Sundowner’s Dance by Todd Keisling, which ended up being a major disappointment.

I thought the first half was interesting, but the second half just didn’t work for me at all.


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Good to know. I wasn't too taken with his novel DEVIL'S CREEK, but considered giving THE SUNDOWNER'S DANCE a try as the plot sounded intriguing. But it sounds like whatever didn't click with me in DEVIL'S CREEK likely carries over to this new one.

[brlesh]

Finished up The Sundowner’s Dance by Todd Keisling, which ended up being a major disappointment.

I thought the first half was interesting, but the second half just didn’t work for me at all.

Next up, Remnant by Conrad Williams.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read anything by Williams, as I’ve found him to be more miss than hit for me over the years, but the premise for this short novel (novella?) sounded too good to pass up.

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