1stringcat3
1. Orlando - Virginia Woolf
Reread after some 35 years or so. Gorgeous language.
2. If: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years
Untold? Hardly.
Reread after some 35 years or so. Gorgeous language.
2. If: The Untold Story of Kipling's American Years
Untold? Hardly.
3stringcat3
4. The Glass Menagerie - Tennessee Williams
5. Labels: A Mediterranean Journal - Evelyn Waugh
Rather sniffy travelogue. He saves the gushing for Gaudi's Barcelona.
6. The Frozen Thames - Helen Humphreys
Forty short short stories, one for each year that the Thames froze solid.
5. Labels: A Mediterranean Journal - Evelyn Waugh
Rather sniffy travelogue. He saves the gushing for Gaudi's Barcelona.
6. The Frozen Thames - Helen Humphreys
Forty short short stories, one for each year that the Thames froze solid.
4stringcat3
7. The Go-Between - L.P. Hartley
8. The Traveling Grave and Other Stories - L.P. Hartley
Not top-shelf ghost or macabre stories, but some are well-worth reading.
8. The Traveling Grave and Other Stories - L.P. Hartley
Not top-shelf ghost or macabre stories, but some are well-worth reading.
5stringcat3
9. Mrs. Hauksbee and Co.: Tales of Simla Life - Rudyard Kipling
6stringcat3
10. Foundation - Isaac Asimov
8stringcat3
12. All the Time in the World: A Book of Hours - Jessica Kerwin Jenkins
Interesting riff on "on this date" format, with the 24-hour day fragmented into bits of anecdotes and factoids.
13. Kim - Rudyard Kipling
A ripping yarn with great depths.
Interesting riff on "on this date" format, with the 24-hour day fragmented into bits of anecdotes and factoids.
13. Kim - Rudyard Kipling
A ripping yarn with great depths.
10stringcat3
15. 100 Ghastly Little Ghost Stories - Stefan Dziemianowicz, editor.
A mostly underwhelming collection, with many selections more "weird" than ghostly.
A mostly underwhelming collection, with many selections more "weird" than ghostly.
11stringcat3
16. Motley Tales and a Play - Anton Chekov
The stories are ... interesting. Mainly melancholy (hey, he was Russian) stories of pathetic lives.
The stories are ... interesting. Mainly melancholy (hey, he was Russian) stories of pathetic lives.
12stringcat3
17. Travels with George - Nathaniel Philbrick
Very readable account of Philbrick and his wife following Washington's itineraries just before and after he assumed the presidency.
Very readable account of Philbrick and his wife following Washington's itineraries just before and after he assumed the presidency.
13stringcat3
18. Starve Acre - Andrew Michael Hurley
Uneven horror novel. Unusual in that the second part is better than the rather slow and repetitious first. Couldn't decide whether it was written for YA ‐ often felt like it. The story is better than the writer's abilities.
Uneven horror novel. Unusual in that the second part is better than the rather slow and repetitious first. Couldn't decide whether it was written for YA ‐ often felt like it. The story is better than the writer's abilities.
14stringcat3
19. Castle Shade - Laurie R. King
The 17th Mary Russell mystery reads more like a travelog. Rather slow.
The 17th Mary Russell mystery reads more like a travelog. Rather slow.
15stringcat3
20. The Haunting Season - no editor cited
Very good collection although not all ghost stories
Very good collection although not all ghost stories
16stringcat3
21. Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places - Colin Dickey
17rocketjk
>16 stringcat3: I have this book on my TBR stack. Did you like it?
18stringcat3
>17 rocketjk: I did, for the most part. It's not really "ghostie" in the usual sense of breathlessly recounting tales of hauntings. It's more about why certain places are "ripe" for hauntings, and what that says about the people who frequented them back in the day and those who seek them out now. It's akin to Edward Parnell's book of the same title, Ghostland: In Search of a Haunted Country, although the latter is more personal and has a lot of birdwatching in it (which I skipped over).
19stringcat3
22. Don't Look Now - Daphne du Maurier. Good suspense story that at first seems as though it will be a ghost story, but the supernatural is only a very small part of the tale. Read by the wonderful Tony Walker on his Classic Ghost Stories channel on YouTube.
20stringcat3
23. Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys. Wanted to love it but it's just a solid B. A lot of repetition in the middle section. The last bit is harrowing, though, when we're firmly in "Jane Eyre" territory.
24. An Audience with Queen Victoria: The Royal Opinion on 30 Famous Victorians - Ian Lloyd. Some encounters are more interesting than others, of course. Victoria herself was kind of a bore, it seems. Fun fact: Pablo Casals performed for both Victoria and JFK.
25. Inferno - Dante. Way too much Florentine and papal politics, and God is a dick.
24. An Audience with Queen Victoria: The Royal Opinion on 30 Famous Victorians - Ian Lloyd. Some encounters are more interesting than others, of course. Victoria herself was kind of a bore, it seems. Fun fact: Pablo Casals performed for both Victoria and JFK.
25. Inferno - Dante. Way too much Florentine and papal politics, and God is a dick.
21stringcat3
26. The Prophet - Khalil Gibran
22stringcat3
27. Poems of Rome - Karl Kirchwey, editor
23stringcat3
28. Small Angels - Lauren Owens
Okay story of a family tormented by a vengeful ghost. The modern wedding subplot is kind of clunky.
Okay story of a family tormented by a vengeful ghost. The modern wedding subplot is kind of clunky.
24stringcat3
29. The Fall of the House of Cabal - Jonathan L. Howard
26stringcat3
32. Jane and the Final Mystery - Stephanie Barron
27stringcat3
33. Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T.S. Eliot
28stringcat3
34. Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days - Jeannette Winterson
29stringcat3
35. The Tragedy of the Street of Flowers - Eca de Queiroz
Reminded me somewhat of Balzac. Too bad he wasn't able to polish the MS before he died, to tighten the center section which is rather repetitive. But the frankness and subject matter (inadvertent incest) would have been shocking in his day.
Reminded me somewhat of Balzac. Too bad he wasn't able to polish the MS before he died, to tighten the center section which is rather repetitive. But the frankness and subject matter (inadvertent incest) would have been shocking in his day.
