The Turn of the Screw, by Henry James

As I mentioned yesterday, in England ghost stories are  common fare for the Christmas season. In that tradition, James begins his chilling tale as a story offered at a holiday gathering long after the events of the tale have occurred. The guests at a holiday celebration gather around to hear one of their members relate [...]

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The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories

When autumn rolls around, it is always good to pull out a scary story or two. I am generally not a fan of visceral horror writing, where the horizon is strewn with blood and body parts at the end of the tale. I prefer a more mannered, genteel approach to my horror; I look for [...]

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Pride and Prejudice (1998 BBC)

I am currently listening to the audio version of this book, but I want to recommend the film produced by BBC Television in association with A&E Network. I have probably watched this film a half dozen times; admittedly, I can recite lines along with the cast. Until recently, I had never read the book, but [...]

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Lankhmar: Swords and Deviltry, by Fritz Leiber

This is a re-issue (minus one story) of a collection of novellas and stories that were written in 1962 and 1970 as prequels to SFWA Grandmaster Fritz Leiber’s popular Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser series. Confused? Trying to track the history of these stories, I am too.
But never mind all that. Forget that this is [...]

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A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute

Australia has come up several times in recent reviews here on Blogging for a Good Book and it’s got me thinking about the land Down Under in fiction and on film.
I loved Tim Winton’s Breath, a coming-of-age story about Australian surf culture in the 1970s. Peter Carey is another great Aussie novelist: try The True [...]

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An Introduction to My Antonia by Willa Cather, written and produced by Dan Stone

Here’s  a recent find by my colleague, Connie:
My book group decided to revisit some of the classics. I picked My Antonia to read. This story by Willa Cather is about a young immigrant girl and her family who settle in the American plains during the Western Expansion a century ago.
While I was [...]

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The Dispossessed, by Ursula K. Le Guin

What is the best form of government? Just how much freedom do you want? These are just two of the many questions raised by Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1974 masterwork, The Dispossessed. It’s the story of Shevek, the most gifted physicist of his generation, born on a small world called Anarres.
As the novel opens, Shevek [...]

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Tigerheart, by Peter David

Peter David is one of the great journeyman writers. Although he’s never had a major breakout hit, he’s written fun and popular books for years. Everything from Star Trek novels to graphic novels such as The Hulk, adaptations of Stephen King’s Dark Tower, Iron Man, and Spider-Man, from young adult novels to his punny epic [...]

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Go Down Moses, by William Faulkner

I blogged earlier about The Reivers, citing it as one of William Faulkner’s most accessible stories.  Reading Go Down Moses – more accurately, wrestling with it – confirms my feeling about The Reivers, but also left me in awe.  Finishing the book left me feeling like I had just eaten a full meal by a [...]

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The Country of the Pointed Firs, and Other Stories, by Sarah Orne Jewett

One thing that I look for while out in the stacks is minor works written in the early twentieth century. For some reason, these books are circulating enough so that they have not been withdrawn from the collection. It is fascinating to read them, and try to see what it is that keeps drawing at [...]

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