gilda_elise | Entries tagged with mount tbr 2024

Four hikers enter the mountains. Only two return. But is it tragedy? Or treachery?

When sisters Cat and Ginny travel with their husbands to the idyllic Swiss Alps for a hiking holiday, it’s not just a chance to take in the stunning scenery. It’s an opportunity to reconnect with each other after years of drifting apart—and patch up marriages that are straining at the seams.

As they head into the mountains, morale is high, but as the terrain turns treacherous, cracks in the relationships start to show. With worrying signs that someone might be following them, the sun begins to set and exhaustion kicks in. Suddenly, lost high on a terrifying ridge, tensions spill over—with disastrous consequences.

When only two of the four hikers make it down from the mountain, the police press them for their story—but soon become suspicious when their accounts just don’t add up.

What really happened up on that ridge? Who are the survivors? And what secrets are they trying to hide?

Sometimes we love a recommended book; sometimes, not so much. And I think this is a book that you either love or hate.

I don’t know why I kept reading this book. All four of the main characters: Cat, her husband, Paul, her sister, Ginny, and Ginny’s husband Tristan, are pretty disagreeable characters. They each have their own account as to their relationships, but their stories don’t jive with each other’s. Who’s lying, and who’s telling the truth? Is anyone telling the truth?

We know right away that Cat has a plan, but what that plan is is not quite clear. The reader gets hints, but even Cat doesn’t always seem sure as to her course. Not that I can blame her. What she’s planning is pretty over the top. And who’s the dangerous stranger they meet who’s so taken by Cat?

Finally, at the end, well, I didn’t see this particular ending coming. It was a surprising twist that made the book well worth reading.

So thanks to

nakeisha for the recommendation.

( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-25 )

26. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
27. The Lighthouse Keeper Kindle Edition by Alan K. Baker
28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson
29. The Road Not Travelled : Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner
30. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes
31. The Light Pirate by Lily Brooks-Dalton
32. Taming the Street: The Old Guard, the New Deal, and FDR's Fight to Regulate American Capitalism by Diana B. Henriques
33. Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde
34. Legends by Robert Silverberg (Editor/Contributor)
35. The Eyre Affair (Thursday Next 1) by Jasper Fforde
36. Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan
37. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
38. The Lost Bookshop by Evie Woods
39. The Hike by Susi Holliday

Goodreads 39

The Keeper of Stories meets The Lost Apothecary in this evocative and charming novel full of mystery and secrets.

‘The thing about books,’ she said ‘is that they help you to imagine a life bigger and better than you could ever dream of.’

On a quiet street in Dublin, a lost bookshop is waiting to be found…

For too long, Opaline, Martha and Henry have been the side characters in their own lives.

But when a vanishing bookshop casts its spell, these three unsuspecting strangers will discover that their own stories are every bit as extraordinary as the ones found in the pages of their beloved books. And by unlocking the secrets of the shelves, they find themselves transported to a world of wonder… where nothing is as it seems.

Though the main characters are described in such a way that one could imagine that they are similar, I didn’t find them to be. While Opaline has lived a sheltered life, she takes on whatever comes her way. And there’s a lot that does, yet she never seems to give up, though, I have to admit, there were times when I felt she was pretty cavalier about her own safety. Henry has his problems, but he’s basically a good, decent guy who tries to do the right thing.

Martha, on the other hand, is a hot mess. Every time she’s met with adversity, her first response is to back away and hide. To give up, even when the situation isn’t really that bad. So while I could feel empathy for Opaline and Henry, what I mostly felt for Martha was irritation.

And I wasn’t really clear about the magic. Does no one else notice that a building comes and goes? And who was Madame Bowden? I wonder if the book could have been written without the magic, just as a historical romance.

There’s quite a bit that is never explained. But once we find out about Martha’s grandmother, it’s pretty obvious where the story is going. I really wanted to like this book because I had a couple of people recommend it. But the most I can say is that it’s an okay book, but not a really good one.

In Derry, Maine, four young boys once stood together and did a brave thing. Something that changed them in ways they hardly understand.

A quarter of a century later, the boys are men who have gone their separate ways. Though they still get together once a year, to go hunting in the north woods of Maine. But this time is different. This time a man comes stumbling into their camp, lost, disoriented and muttering about lights in the sky.

Before long, these old friends will be plunged into the most remarkable events of their lives as they struggle with a terrible creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past - and in the Dreamcatcher.

Though there is an Author’s Note at the back of the book where King thanks his time writing this book (in longhand!) for getting him through his near fatal accident, I’ve read that, since, he no longer cares for it, because of the difficult circumstances and his being under the influence of painkillers. He may feel it interfered with his ability to turn out quality work, but I think it’s one of his best attempts.

As with It the lives of the protagonists are woven together, as young boys and as men. The magic of their younger days is what allows them to come together as adults to fight off the evil that threatens them.

The years have not been kind to them; none have found true happiness. While Henry and Gary Jones (Jonesy) have found career success as a psychiatrist and a college professor, respectfully, Pete and Joe Clarendon (Beav,) have seen their dreams shattered. Pete never made it to NASA, while Joe’s marriage failed, and his drinking began.

Yet there still is that connection, through “Duddits,” the boy with Down’s Syndrome they saved from bullies; they’re “brave thing.” But, as with each other, time has weakened that connection.

It’s a huge book (coming in at over 600 pages,) and there’s a lot going on, but at its core it’s a story of friendship and how far believing can get you. I found it exceptional, and well worth the time it took to read. And, maybe at some point, read again.

Winter theme, or winter on cover
1. Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

AUG - "Seasons, Elements, Weather" - Read a book where the season, weather, climate, or elements play a roll in the plot.⁠

Dreamcatcher by Stephen King

Eighteen years after the first manned mission from Venus lands on an Earth that had become extinct eons before, Kyal Reen, a member of the Venusian scientific and archaeological team, struggles to reconstruct the ancient history of the mysterious long-lost Terrans, working with a biologist named Lorili, who hopes to prove a relationship between the inhabitants of the two planets.

Quite an interesting story, though the ending was pretty obvious almost from the get-go. Like most of Hogan’s books, there’s a heavy reliance on scientific theory. Unfortunately, some of those theories are totally wrong (has that much changed since 2007?) I was surprised how all those smart Venusians hadn’t figured it out yet. And why were they calling their planet Venus, anyway? Quite the coincidence that they called it the same thing as the extinct humans. Same with Mars.

And, boy, don’t the Venusians consider themselves smarter! Hogan doesn’t miss a chance to have one of the characters expound on how humans destroyed themselves, something Venusians would never do! And all the things they got wrong (which, it turns out, they didn’t.)

I did like a couple of the characters, though I bit more background would have been appreciated. Their storylines were maybe a bit too sketchy. They seem to be holding up the plot being espoused, rather than the plot moving the characters’ stories forward.

So, an okay story that held my interest, even if I could have done without the moralizing. Still, an intriguing premise that could have been better done.

AUG – School, Cut, Sky, Fate, Wing, Belong, Justice, Way⁠

Echoes of an Alien Sky by James P. Hogan

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between the Surrealists and Impressionists, and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that's just a prelude . . .

Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .

Suspenseful and outlandish, absorbing and fun, The Eyre Affair is a caper unlike any other and an introduction to the imagination of a most distinctive writer and his singular fictional universe.

It took awhile to get everything straight, but once I did it was a fun read as I was taken through a place familiar, yet not. I loved the idea of being able to enter books through the Prose Portal, which added yet another difference in our worlds. First editions would be worth their weight in gold!

And I loved Thursday Next (what a name!) She’s strong, resourceful, brave, yet she still has a soft spot for those she’s tasked with helping. Even while her own life is in turmoil, her work, and those in her care, are always the most important thing to her. Which helped, because she has a worthy adversary in Acheron Hades.

I’m not yet sure if I’ll pick up the second book in the series. While I enjoyed this first one, there were times when I felt myself wandering away from the story. Just a couple too many plot lines. Still Lost In a Good Book sounds too good to pass up.

So thanks to my good friend, Anne J., for recommending it.

Acclaimed writer and editor Robert Silverberg gathered eleven of the finest writers in Fantasy to contribute to this collection of short novels. Each of the writers was asked to write a new story based on one of his or her most famous series.
Stephen King tells a tale of Roland, the Gunslinger, in the world of The Dark Tower, in "The Little Sisters of Eluria."
Terry Pratchett relates an amusing incident in Discworld, of a magical contest and the witch Granny Weatherwax, in "The Sea and Little Fishes"
Terry Goodkind tells of the origin of the Border between realms in the world of The Sword of Truth, in "Debt of Bones."
Orson Scott Card spins a yarn of Alvin and his apprentice from the Tales of Alvin Maker, in "Grinning Man."
Robert Silverberg returns to Majipoor and to Lord Valentine's adventure in an ancient tomb, in "the Seventh Shrine."
Ursual K. Le Guin adds a sequel to her famous books of Earthsea, portraying a woman who wants to learn magic, in "Dragonfly."
Tad Williams tells a dark and enthralling story of a great and haunted castle in the age before Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, in "The Burning Man."
George R.R. Martin sets his piece a generation before his epic, A Song of Ice and Fire, in the adventure of "The Hedge Knight."
Ann McCaffrey, the poet of Pern, returns once again to her world of romance and adventure in "Runner of Pern."
Raymond E. Feist's Riftwar Saga is the setting of the tale of "The Wood Boy."
Robert Jordan, in "New Spring," tells of crucial events in the years leading up to The Wheel of Time, of the meeting of Lan and Moiraine and the beginning of the search for the child who must grow to lead in the Last Battle.

I’m not sure this was the best idea for an anthology. For one, how many people would have read all these series? There is a short synopsis at the beginning of each story, giving the reader at least a little knowledge of its background, but even that isn’t always enough. Also, none of the stories pick up on the major plots of the series. Rather, each story mainly takes place in the same universe, but not with any of the known characters. If there’s some sort of connection, I didn’t pick up on it since it’s been so long since I’ve read any of them.

I had only read the King, Martin, and McCaffrey series. I never cared for KIng’s Dark Tower series, Martin’s still isn’t completed, and McCaffrey’s got too big and cumbersome, so not the best choices.

Still, I gave all the stories a go. The only one I felt compelling enough to create any interest in the original stories was Tad Williams’ The Burning Man, from his Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn series. But the story is set hundreds of years before the other books, and completes Breda’s, the narrator, story. I may read one of his other books, because I did enjoy his writing. So in that regard it was a success. But given the size of the book, a very small one.

JUL – Mine, Again, Honey, Paradise, Still, Club, Train, Legend⁠

Legends by Robert Silverberg (Ed.)

Thirteen-year-old Abby Hubble lives in an unhappy home in the Sierra Nevada foothills where her father makes life miserable for her and her mother, Mary. One day Abby witnesses a man dump a litter of puppies into the nearby river. Diving in to rescue all seven, she knows she won’t be able to bring them home. Afraid for their fate at the pound, she takes them to an abandoned cabin, where all she can offer is a promise that she’ll be back the next day.

To grieving widower Elliot Colvin, life has lost meaning. Looking for solace, he retreats to the hunting cabin he last visited years ago, before his wife’s illness. What he discovers is not at all what he expected: seven puppies and one determined girl with an indomitable heart.

As Abby and Elliot’s friendship deepens, Abby imagines how much better her life—and the puppies’ lives—would be if her mother were married to Elliot instead of her father. But when Abby’s father moves the family hundreds of miles away, Abby and her mother must decide how long they’re willing to defer happiness.

Seven Perfect Things is a story about joy, where to find it, how to know it when you see it, and the courage it takes to hang on to it once you have it.

I really liked Abby, which took me by surprise, considering how I normally stay away from books where a teenager is the main protagonist. I knew I would probably enjoy the book, and I did, because, hey, seven puppies. But I was expecting cardboard cut-out characters, as the book followed the same path as so many books with this same plot do. The kid gets what she wants, everyone lives happily ever after.

And the book does sort of follow that path, but in a way that makes sense. The characters act in a way that I could see real people acting, given the same circumstances. Even the secondary characters are good, even those that aren’t actually good people. There are setbacks. Bad things happen. And no one is perfect.

So, yes, I had the ending figured out pretty quickly, but there were some unexpected twists getting there, which added to my reading enjoyment. I’ll very likely be picking up more books by this author.

JUL - "Creature Feature" - Read a book with an animal in the story- real or mythical.

Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde

The epic story of FDR’s fight for the soul of American capitalism—from award-winning journalist Diana B. Henriques, author of The Wizard of Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust

Taming the Street describes how President Franklin D. Roosevelt battled to regulate Wall Street in the wake of the 1929 stock market crash and the ensuing Great Depression. With deep reporting and vivid storytelling, Diana B. Henriques takes readers back to a time when America’s financial landscape was a jungle ruled by the titans of vast wealth, largely unrestrained by government. Roosevelt ran for office in 1932 vowing to curb that ruthless capitalism and make the world of finance safer for ordinary savers and investors. His deeply personal campaign to tame the Street is one of the great untold dramas in American history.

Success in this political struggle was far from certain for FDR and his New Deal allies, who included the political dynasty builder Joseph P. Kennedy and the future Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas. Wall Street’s old guard, led by New York Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney, fought every new rule to the “last legal ditch.” That clash—between two sharply different visions of financial power and federal responsibility—has shaped how “other people’s money” is managed in the United States to this day.

As inequality once again reaches Jazz Age levels, Henriques brings to life a time when the system worked—an idealistic moment when ordinary Americans knew what had to be done and supported leaders who could do it. A vital history and a riveting true-life thriller, Taming the Street raises an urgent and troubling question: What does capitalism owe to the common good?

We’re all aware, or, at least, we should be, of all the good created by the Roosevelt Administration. The CCC, WPA, TVA. Social Security. But less well known are the group of Acts created to rein in the corrupt system that controlled the banks and Wall Street. Under the SEC, acts such as the Glass-Steagall Act, which effectively separated commercial banking from investment banking and created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, would make it safer for the less well off to buy stock. Parts of the Act were, ironically, repealed during the Clinton Administration.

The book follows FDR’s efforts, and those who worked to stop him, during mostly his first two terms. It follows the career of Bill Douglas, head of the SEC before becoming a Supreme Court judge; the work of Joe Kennedy, before he became enthralled with the fascist rulers of Germany and Italy. But then the War would come, and interfere with much of what FDR still wanted to do.

There is so much more to this book. It truly does show what can be accomplished by men of honor and dignity. What we could have if we only paid attention. Over the years, the Extreme Right has continued their fight to undo his work, but many of the New Deal programs are still with us. With any luck, they’ll continue to be so.

Is there a bit of hero worship regarding FDR? You betcha.

Set in the near future, this hopeful story of survival and resilience follows Wanda—a luminous child born out of a devastating hurricane—as she navigates a rapidly changing world.

Florida is slipping away. As devastating weather patterns and rising sea levels wreak gradual havoc on the state’s infrastructure, a powerful hurricane approaches a small town on the southeastern coast. Kirby Lowe, an electrical line worker, his pregnant wife, Frida, and their two sons, Flip and Lucas, prepare for the worst. When the boys go missing just before the hurricane hits, Kirby heads out into the high winds in search of his children. Left alone, Frida goes into premature labor and gives birth to an unusual child, Wanda, whom she names after the catastrophic storm that ushers her into a society closer to collapse than ever before.

As Florida continues to unravel, Wanda grows. Moving from childhood to adulthood, adapting not only to the changing landscape, but also to the people who stayed behind in a place abandoned by civilization, Wanda loses family, gains community, and ultimately, seeks adventure, love, and purpose in a place remade by nature.

Told in four parts—power, water, light, and time— The Light Pirate mirrors the rhythms of the elements and the sometimes quick, sometimes slow dissolution of the world as we know it. It is a meditation on the changes we would rather not see, the future we would rather not greet, and a call back to the beauty and violence of an untamable wilderness.

The book is a beautifully written story of how things end. Not the end of the world, or even the end of us. What it tells is the end of a way of life; a way of life that has existed for what is, to the earth, a short span of time. Civilization slowly recedes in the climate change that man has wrought. But as things fall apart, a new way appears.

The change is seen through the eyes of Wanda, born during a hurricane of the same name, and her family: her father, his wife and two sons. And their neighbor, Phyllis, who will teach Wanda all she needs to know in order to survive. These two characters, especially, are the heart of the story.

Almost lyrical in its prose, The Light Pirate takes the reader on a journey of discovery, in what may be our own future, and does away with the flawed idea of our time that all this will only happen “after we’re gone.”

My especial gratitude to

pinstripe_bindi for recommending this book.

First published in 1959 by world-renowned historical novelist Margaret Campbell Barnes, King's Fool is a remarkable insider tale of the intrigue, ruthlessness, and majesty of the Tudor court. When country lad Will Somers lands himself the plum position of jester to the mercurial King Henry VIII, he has no idea that he';s just been handed a front-row seat to history. With a seat near the throne and an ear to the floor, Somers witnesses firsthand the dizzying power struggles and sly scheming that marked the reign of the fiery Tudor king. Somers watches the rise and fall of some of the most enigmatic women in history, including the tragic Katherine of Aragon, the doomed Anne Boleyn, and Mary Tudor, who confided in the jester as she made the best of the fragile life of a princess whom everyone wished was a prince. Based on the life of the real Will Somers, King's Fool is infused with Margaret Campbell Barnes' trademark rich detail and historical accuracy. This intimate peek into the royal chambers gives readers a unique view on one of the most tumultuous periods in English history.

The book is written as if by Will Somers, himself. And though very little is known about the man, Barnes is able to take what little information there is and turn it into a plausible, interesting, and, well, loving story about his history, his life at court, and his relationship with Henry VIII.

Will is a very young man when he first enters Henry’s employ, while Henry is middle-aged, and already dealing with the weight that will plague him the rest of his life. Yet somehow they manage to build a close almost friendship, with Will becoming Henry’s sounding board during the turbulent years of Henry’s reign.

Amazingly, the author manages to make Henry almost sympathetic at times, as we see him through Will’s eyes. How does a good and honest man deal with someone like Henry? Especially as the king’s tyrannical impulses take over? Mostly because Henry has always been good to him, and because Will is a good man, he continues to look for what good is left in his friend. That outlook will see him in good stead.

( Mount TBR 2024 Book Links 1-15 )

16. Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt
17. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
18. The Plots Against the President: FDR, A Nation in Crisis, and the Rise of the American Right by Sally Denton
19. The North Woods by Douglass Hoover
20. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
21. Upon Dark Waters by Robert Radcliffe
22. Dread: 22 Tales of Terror by Kevin Bachar
23. Escape from Hell (Inferno #2) by Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Jennifer Hanover (Illustrator)
24. Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy by Donald L. Miller
25. The Portent by Marilyn Harris
26. Just After Sunset by Stephen King
27. The Lighthouse Keeper Kindle Edition by Alan K. Baker
28. I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson
29. The Road Not Travelled : Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner
30. King's Fool by Margaret Campbell Barnes

Life is made up of choices and which road we choose to take may be a pivotal decision that affects our whole life and others' lives too. We often wonder 'What if...?' when we think about our past and about history. This collection of short stories from over twenty talented authors explores some of the 'What ifs' associated with the Wars of the Roses. How would history have changed if one of the roads not travelled had been chosen instead?

This anthology explores some of these roads and includes most of the famous figures of the Wars of the Roses - Edward IV, Elizabeth Woodville, Warwick the Kingmaker, Anne Neville, George of Clarence, Francis Lovell and, of course, Richard III to name just a few.

Twenty talented authors have donated their time and skill to contribute to this book which is sold in support of the Scoliosis Association UK (SAUK) and edited by Joanne R Larner.

I wish I could recommend this book, especially considering the worthy cause that it supports, but I can’t.

Many of the stories read like fan fiction. Not like the fan fiction that brings the characters to life, that explores those roads not traveled in a compelling way. No, the other kind, where the author doesn’t take the time to round out the characters or build on the plot. Yes, like fan fiction it’s understood that the reader is knowledgeable about those characters and their lives, but the story still needs a structure that holds it together. Too often, that structure isn’t there.

There was one bright spot in the book, the writing of Clare Anderson. Lady in Waiting, and especially The Apothecary’s Secret are well worth reading.

I know there are more books out there, written by Richard III fans who are not professional writers. I’m hoping that I’ll find them more to my liking.

JUN– Ink, Fragile, Road, Summer, Breath, Every, Push, Sorry⁠

The Road Not Travelled : Alternative Tales of the Wars of the Roses by Joanne R. Larner

The master humorist and bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods now guides us on an affectionate, hysterically funny tour of America's most outrageous absurdities.

After living in Britain for two decades, Bill Bryson recently moved back to the United States with his English wife and four children (he had read somewhere that nearly three million Americans believed they had been abducted by aliens--as he later put it, "it was clear my people needed me"). They were greeted by a new-and-improved America that boasts microwave pancakes, twenty-four-hour dental-floss hotlines, and the staunch conviction that ice is not a luxury item.

Delivering the brilliant comic musings that are a Bryson hallmark, I'm a Stranger Here Myself recounts his sometimes disconcerting reunion with the land of his birth. From motels ("one of those things--airline food is another--that I get excited about and should know better") to careless barbers ("in the mirror I am confronted with an image that brings to mind a lemon meringue pie with ears"), I'm a Stranger Here Myself chronicles the quirkiest aspects of life in America, right down to our hardware-store lingo, tax-return instructions, and vulnerability to home injury ("statistically in New Hampshire I am far more likely to be hurt by my ceiling or underpants than by a stranger").

Along the way Bill Bryson also reveals his rules for life (#1: It is not permitted to be both slow and stupid. You must choose one or the other); delivers the commencement address to a local high school ("I've learned that if you touch a surface to see if it's hot, it will be"); and manages to make friends with a skunk. The result is a book filled with hysterical scenes of one man's attempt to reacquaint himself with his own country, but it is also an extended, if at times bemused, love letter to the homeland he has returned to after twenty years away.

The book is a collection of articles written by the author for a weekly column in an English newspaper after his return to the US. He’s been away for twenty years and a lot has changed. Yet, some things, not at all.

Some of the articles are truly funny, while some just brought a smile or a quiet chuckle. I especially loved those whose experience I shared, such as going to the drive-in, or boarding a plane.

And then there are those that are thought provoking, as the author struggles with attitudes that have hardened while he was gone. Though written in 1999, many of those articles still resonate.

The book holds its own against other Bryson books. Though perhaps not as funny as A Walk in the Woods, it’s certainly on parr with In a Sunburned Country. It’s gentle touch made it well worth reading.

JUN - "Comedy Club" - Read a book that's guaranteed to make you laugh.⁠

I’m a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America After Twenty Years Away by Bill Bryson

In December 1900, three lighthouse keepers vanished without trace from the remote Scottish island of Eilean Mor.

An emergency relief crew was sent to man the lighthouse, and at the end of their month-long duty, they resigned from their posts, never to speak of what they had experienced.

The mystery of Eilean Mor has never been solved. Until now.

In the present, a group of environmental researchers arrives to observe the wildlife. While exploring the lighthouse, now deserted, one of the team discovers a manuscript written by one of the relief keepers, a man named Alec Dalemore. As a sudden storm cuts off their escape, the researchers come to realise that Dalemore wrote the manuscript as a warning to all who would come after him -- a warning of something ancient and powerful and strange beyond imagining…

The Lighthouse Keeper is a supernatural tale based on the Flannan Isles mystery, one of the greatest unsolved enigmas in maritime history.

The book has a lot going for it. I like stories based on a true event of the past, an event which has never been satisfactorily explained. And though I seem to keep running into stories which have taken the Lovecraftian world to heart, I think it was well done here. The island seems to exist out of time, drawing those who venture there, both past and present, into a horrifying place that should not exist but does.

It’s interesting how differently the two groups of people handle the situation; the three lighthouse keepers of the past, and the five researchers of the present. Oddly enough, it is the lighthouse keepers who are better at handling the situation. It seems easier for them to accept what is happening without being able to explain why it is happening. They see the danger, and react accordingly. The group in the present, however, appear less successful in their attempts to ward off that danger.

At the same time, the book has two major flaws: the beginning and the end. While the middle portion of the book is intense and kept me totally involved, the beginning portion was slow, and not as well done as the rest of the book. I nearly quit reading.

Conversely, the ending seemed rushed, in that the fate of one group happens suddenly, and is never explained. It was if the author was unable to come up with an explanation for what he had created, so simply pulled the plug.

Just after sunset, as darkness grips the imagination, is the time when you feel the unexpected creep into the everyday. As familiar journeys take a different turn, ordinary objects assume extraordinary powers.

A blind intruder visits a dying man - and saves his life, with a kiss.

A woman receives a phone call from her husband. Her LATE husband.

In the emotional aftermath of her baby's sudden death, Emily starts running. And running. Her curiosity leads her right into the hands of a murderer... and soon her legs are her only hope for survival.

Enter a world of masterful suspense, dark comedy and thrilling twists which will keep you riveted from the fist page.

Probably not his best anthology, but enjoyable enough. While many of the stories are not memorable, a few definitely are. They are tales of introspection, with a bit of horror, or at least the supernatural, thrown in.

My two favorites are Willa, and The Things They Left Behind. Both are rather melancholy stories of what comes after. Almost as good are N, which I saw as a paean to Lovecraft, but which King gives credit to Arthur Machen’s The Great God Pan, and Mute. The two stories are probably the longest in the collection, which added to my enjoyment since I’m not normally a fan of short stories.

Very much a middle of the road review of a middle of the road book.

Short story anthology or collection
1. Dread: 22 Tales of Terror by Kevin Bachar
2. Just After Sunset by Stephen King

The three couples had moved to the remote community of Tomis to "get away from it all." They were the first to find out the terror that was in store for all humankind. At first they couldn't believe it. And then no one would listen.

Who could believe in summer blizzards, children disappearing, men swallowed alive by the ground?

Who could believe that the Earth itself was angry after centuries of pollution and waste? That a holocaust of horror was rising from the depths? That Mother Nature was devouring her children and there was no place left to hide?

I don’t remember coming across any other book that dealt with this particular issue, not in the early 80’s, anyway. And having read and enjoyed some of her other books, I looked forward to this one. It didn’t disappoint. Not then, and not now.

Harris gives us a hint of what is to come, and then slowly builds the tension. The three main protagonists have their weaknesses; if they had been stronger, the outcome may have been different. But somehow it fits. Because the three couples are running away from the lives that weren’t working out all that well. Could a different place really change who they were?

There are some unanswered questions, mostly dealing with the fate of some of the townspeople, but it’s a minor quibble on my part. I guess its highest praise is that I’m keeping the book.

Nature gone wild (when plants or animals attack)
1. The Portent by Marilyn Harris

The astonishing story of the longest and most decisive military campaign of the Civil War in Vicksburg, Mississippi, which opened the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, freed tens of thousands of slaves, and made Ulysses S. Grant the most important general of the war.

Vicksburg, Mississippi, was the last stronghold of the Confederacy on the Mississippi River. It prevented the Union from using the river for shipping between the Union-controlled Midwest and New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico. The Union navy tried to take Vicksburg, which sat on a high bluff overlooking the river, but couldn’t do it. General Grant moved his army south and joined forces with Admiral Porter, but even together they could not come up with a successful plan. At one point Grant even tried to build a canal so that the river could be diverted away from Vicksburg.

In Vicksburg, Donald L. Miller tells the full story of this year-long campaign to win the city. He brings to life all the drama, characters, and significance of Vicksburg, a historic moment that rivals any war story in history. Grant’s efforts repeatedly failed until he found a way to lay siege and force the city to capitulate. In the course of the campaign, tens of thousands of slaves fled to the Union lines, where more than twenty thousand became soldiers, while others seized the plantations they had been forced to work on, destroying the economy of a large part of Mississippi and creating a social revolution.

Ultimately, Vicksburg was the battle that solidified Grant’s reputation as the Union’s most capable general. Today no general would ever be permitted to fail as often as Grant did, but in the end he succeeded in what he himself called the most important battle of the war, the one that all but sealed the fate of the Confederacy.

I’m not sure what kind of message the author was trying to convey. That Grant was a great general who saved the Union? Or that his victory was a drunkard’s plain good luck? Because while he lauds Grant with praises after the victory at Vicksburg, before then he misses no chance to bring up every accusation against Grant regarding his drinking.

Was Grant an alcoholic? If so, Miller doesn’t seem to understand what makes an alcoholic and how stopping overnight is something rarely, if ever, done. Yet Miller takes none of that into consideration, more often than not making it sound as if Grant could have stopped anytime he wanted to. But many historians think that many of the accusations were from those who would have gained from Grant’s removal.

As far as the history of the actual battle (which, going by the title was what I thought was the focus of the book,) there’s plenty of information given. Perhaps a bit too much, as the book focuses on the entire Mississippi campaign. Several other battles are also covered.

Several times Miller writes as if he knows what someone was thinking at the time, or what they actually planned, often going against what that person later wrote. It made it hard to not take anything he wrote without a huge grain of salt.

Yet the book is interesting enough. I only wish the author would have kept his own feelings about Grant and others out of it.

MAY - "Face Off" - Read a book with a face on the cover. Bonus points if you take a #bookface photo!⁠

Vicksburg: Grant's Campaign That Broke the Confederacy by Donald L. Miller

Allan Carpenter escaped from hell once but remained haunted by what he saw and endured. He has now returned, on a mission to liberate those souls unfairly tortured and confined. Partnering with the legendary poet and suicide, Sylvia Plath, Carpenter is a modern-day Christ who intends to harrow hell and free the damned. But now that he's returned to this Dantesque Inferno, can he ever again leave?

I was quite disappointed to this sequel to Inferno. First, because it’s basically a longer version of the first book. Carpenter makes his way through the many layers of hell, the only difference being that now instead of being the one led, he’s leading someone else. Second, because the ending is something of a cheat. After going from danger to danger, the reader is left wondering what comes next. Thirdly, their biases against certain beliefs and some of their contemporaries are glaringly obvious.

The worst of that is their description of Carl Sagan and his work. His warning against nuclear winter are presented here as flip-flopping on global warming. The fact that the two are totally different fields of study doesn’t seem to matter. Or that he was proved right on both account (sort of like their blasting of the hole in the ozone layer theory in Lucifer’s Hammer,) is also ignored.

At times the book was pleasantly readable. At other times, their proselytizing got to be too much.

A child died in an avalanche, and she won’t leave me alone.

A woman plagued by blood-draining mosquitoes on the Alaskan tundra figures out a horrific way to scratch her unending itching.

There’s something outside my tent…and I think it’s hungry.

A collector of rare tropical fish, receives a new species that is both fascinating and terrifying.

DREAD - Thousands of people have gone missing out in the wild and here is a collection of tales that offer up some horrifying reasons why. Emmy-award-winning National Geographic cinematographer Kevin Bachar has swum with sharks, climbed the peaks of mountains, and explored the darkest of forests. In DREAD, he weaves together terrifying true stories from his real-life adventures with twisted fiction from the depths of his frightening imagination. Flip open the pages to indulge in the dark side of nature— haunted forests, tree demons, monstrous snakes, and a search-and-rescue team terrorized by the ghosts of those they couldn’t save.

Did I enjoy the book? Did I find it scary? Not hardly. Maybe because it’s obvious that all the stories will end the same way, with the protagonist not doing at all well, that it was hard to feel any, well, dread. Honestly, my first thought was that it was a second-rate EC Tales from the Crypt.

Perhaps if the stories hadn’t all ended somewhat the same way, I’d be more inclined to give the book a favorable review. But as it is, I couldn’t find much to recommend it. It’s not awful, but I’d be inclined to give it a pass.

Short story anthology or collection
1. Dread: 22 Tales of Terror by Kevin Bachar

31st December 1942. In the middle of the North Atlantic, the deadly 'gap' where aircraft cannot protect them, a destroyer and 4 corvettes are shepherding a convoy of ships from America to Britain. But as midnight passes, the New Year is marked by a white flash on the horizon - a German torpedo. What follows is a night scarred forever in the memory of its survivors.
But for Michael Villiers, officer on the HMS Daisy, it is just another chapter in an extraordinary life. The son of a beautiful socialite and a British diplomat, Michael is brought up in Sombreado, Uruguay alongside his guardian's daughter Maria, and the pair are inseparable. Even when he is sent to school in England, the family ranch remains Michael's home and when his schooling is complete, there is never any doubt that he will return to Sombreado, to Maria.
But when Michael returns to Montevideo in 1939, his steamer crosses paths with a German warship - an ominous sign of the conflict to come. And though Uruguay is neutral in the coming conflict, Michael is to be allowed no such. The British Legation want him to make the most of his family connections. In a war, the English ambassador explains, everyone has to take sides . . .

The book is the story of two men, Stephen Tomlin, a midshipman aboard the corvette, the HMS Daisy, and, the Number Two officer, Michael Villiers, from Uruguay.

Given its title, one would think that the larger part of the story would be set at sea, but it’s the shorter part which takes place there. Set in their present, the two men are brought together by the war. Assigned to the corvette, they must fight for their lives against the “wolf pack,” the fleet of German U-boats that hound the convoy they protect.

The larger part of the book deals with Michael Villiers, and of his boyhood spent at the family ranch in Uruguay. But his life is upended by the sudden departure of his family to his father’s home in England. It is there that he grows to manhood. But though he feels that he’s Uruguayan, he’ll find that both countries have a hold on him.

It’s an excellent and lyrically written tale of love and loyalty; of finding oneself, and knowing who you are.

MAY - Library, Dark, Drown, Ex, Iron, Done, Love, Stranger⁠

Upon Dark Waters by Robert Radcliffe

NOS4A2 is a spine-tingling novel of supernatural suspense from master of horror Joe Hill, the New York Times bestselling author of Heart-Shaped Box and Horns.

Victoria McQueen has a secret gift for finding things: a misplaced bracelet, a missing photograph, answers to unanswerable questions. On her Raleigh Tuff Burner bike, she makes her way to a rickety covered bridge that, within moments, takes her wherever she needs to go, whether it’s across Massachusetts or across the country.

Charles Talent Manx has a way with children. He likes to take them for rides in his 1938 Rolls-Royce Wraith with the NOS4A2 vanity plate. With his old car, he can slip right out of the everyday world, and onto the hidden roads that transport them to an astonishing – and terrifying – playground of amusements he calls “Christmasland.”

Then, one day, Vic goes looking for trouble—and finds Manx. That was a lifetime ago. Now Vic, the only kid to ever escape Manx’s unmitigated evil, is all grown up and desperate to forget. But Charlie Manx never stopped thinking about Victoria McQueen. He’s on the road again and he’s picked up a new passenger: Vic’s own son.

Exclusive to the print editions of NOS4A2 are more than 15 illustrations by award-winning Locke & Key artist Gabriel Rodríguez.

There’s a lot going on with this story; a girl’s life as it’s influenced by a gift that gives and takes, too. The madman whose path crosses hers in a terrifying way. There’s also Vic’s family and friends, whose lives are also changed as they’re drawn into hers.

The book is dark, though I wouldn’t say exactly scary. I think there’s too much fantasy (it deals with Christmas, after all,) involved for it to be truly frightening. But there are lots of interesting characters, though I don’t think Hill handles them as well as his father does (and I loved the small homages to his father’s work.) Though most of the time I was caught up in the story, there were times when I felt it could have used a little more editing.

All in all, I enjoyed the book. The flaws were miniscule, the plot involved and kept my interest. And I loved the title’s play on that other vampire’s name.

And thanks so much to

severina2001 for recommending the book.