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starwarmth · 1 year

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Books Read In 2023

Beowulf: A New Translation by Maria Dahvana Headley (1/3/23)

East by Edith Pattou (1/4/23)

Midnight on the Moon by Mary Pope Osbourn (1/16/23)

The Lady or The Tiger?, and The Discourager of Hesitancy by Frank R. Stockton (1/17/23)

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1/21/23)

Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (1/22/23)

Tiger Queen by Annie Sullivan (1/22/23)

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis (1/26/23)

Batgirl, vol. 1: The Silent Knight (1/27/23)

Batgirl, vol. 2: To The Death (1/27/23)

Batgirl, vol. 3: Point Blank (1/28/23)

The Female of the Species by Rudyard Kipling (2/17/23)

Batgirl: Stephanie Brown, vol. 1 by Bryan Q. Miller (2/19/23)

Batgirl, Stephanie Brown, vol. 2 by Bryan Q. Miller (3/4/23)

Christmas in Noisy Village by Astrid Lindgren (3/4/23)

The Queen’s Blade by T C Southwell (3/5/23)

Sacrifice, The Queen’s Blade #2 by T C Southwell (3/9/23)

The Invisible Assassin, The Queen’s Blade #3 by T C Southwell (3/13/23)

Mermaids by Patty Dann (3/14/23) X

The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám translated by Edward FitzGerald (3/19/23)

The Mirror Visitor by Christelle Dabos (3/21/23) X

The Missing of Clairedelune by Christelle Dabos (3/22/23) X

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jeannette McCurdy (3/24/23) X

Ronia, The Robber’s Daughter by Astrid Lindgren (3/27/23)

Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono (3/30/23)

Brine and Bone by Kate Stradling (4/10/23)

Green Arrow: Quiver by Kevin Smith (4/17/23) X

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin, translated by Stanley Mitchell (4/22/23)

When Patty Went to College by Jean Webster (4/23/23)

The Princess and The Pea by Hans Christian Anderson (4/23/23)

Deathmark by Kate Stradling (4/25/23)

Without Blood by Alessandro Baricco (5/5/23)

River Secrets by Shannon Hale (5/6/23)

The Fairy’s Return and Other Princess Tales by Gail Carson Levine (5/8/22)

Batman Adventures: Cat Got Your Tongue? by Steve Vance (5/14/23)

Batman Adventures: Batgirl — A League of Her Own by Paul Dini (5/17/23)

The Girl From The Other Side: Siúil a Rún, Vol. 1 by Nagabe (5/19/23)

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda. Translated by W. S. Merwin (5/26/23)

Other-Wordly: Words Both Strange and Lovely from Around the World by Yee-Lum Mak (6/21/23)

A Bride’s Story, vol. 1 by Kaoru Mori (6/25/23) X

La Dame aux Camélias by Alexandre Dumas fils (7/17/2023)

Storefront Church by William Waring Cuney (7/24/23)

Golden Slippers: An Anthology of Negro Poetry for Young Readers (1941), compiled by Arnas Bontemps (7/28/23)

Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo (7/29/23)

Strawberry’s New Friend (Flower Fairy Friends series) by Pippa Le Quesne (7/29/23)

Clementine by Sara Pennypacker (8/11/23)

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman (8/18/23)

Convent Boarding School by Virginia Arville Kenny (9/05/23)

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis (09/18/23)

The Betsy Tacy Treasury by Maud Hart Lovelace (09/27/23)

Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan (09/27/23)

Skylark (Sarah, Plain and Tall #2) by Patricia MacLachlan (09/27/23)

Caleb’s Story (Sarah, Plain and Tall #3) by Patricia MacLachlan (09/27/23)

Maelyn by Anita Halle (10/06/23)

Imani All Mine by Connie Porter (10/15/23)

The Perilous Gard (10/22/23)

Enemy Brothers by Constance Savery (10/29/23)

Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr (11/19/23)

Gone By Nightfall by Dee Garretson (12/02/23)

The Dragon’s Promise by Elizabeth Lim (12/08/23)

A Lion to Guard Us by Clyde Robert Bulla (12/10/23)

The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler (12/23/23)

The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle (12/26/23

The Wasteland by T. S. Eliot (12/31/23)

#i saw others doing this on tumblr last year and now i want to as well!

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lizardsfromspace · 10 months

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Greetings, boils, ghouls, skele-thems and non-bone-ary individuals! Tonight's terror tale is called "I just finished watching Tales from the Crypt and here are my thoughts on the series". Horror pun

Season One

Season one was just six episodes, and aired in June 1989. The whole season, because the first three episodes aired on one night, which would be the case for every season but the last. This season isn't quite there yet, notably the Cryptkeeper animatronic is less expressive and the character himself is less silly.

Best Episode: "And All Through The Night". The most important episode, because it set the tone for the series (the premiere is good, but not very representative, being a crime story with a fourth-wall breaking protagonist). It's the story about a woman who kills her husband, and then finds herself stalked by a evil, killer Santa. All from the director of Back to the Future.

Honorable Mentions: "The Man Who Was Death", "Dig That Cat...He's Real Gone", "Collection Complete"

Worst Episode: idk "Lover Come Hack to Me" is p. forgettable

Season Two

Season two is a step up in length (18 episodes!), the Cryptkeeper (more expressive and more cackly), and stars (Arnold Schwarzenegger directs the second episode). It set the pattern for what the show was: a ghoulish, bloody horror anthology, done with high production values and featuring Hollywood's biggest stars and directors.

The one problem, and it's one that will haunt the rest of the show's run, is that Tales from the Crypt also features a fair chunk of non-horror crime stories, and they're pretty bland on the whole. Luckily, the show's producers know not to do them all the time...yet.

Best Episode: "Television Terror". Tales from the Crypt was rarely scary, or really trying to be. It leaned more towards "fun", and as for scare factor, well, these were adaptions of comic books designed to scare children (and even though it was a very R-rated HBO show, kids loved Tales from the Crypt, enough for it to get both a Saturday morning cartoon & a kid's game show spinoff). But "Television Terror" is one of the few episodes that actually tries for grim, serious horror, and it's the show's scariest episode. It also stars sleazy 80s talk show host Morten Downey, Jr. as a sleazy talk show host, real stretch of a role there.

Honorable Mentions: "Cutting Cards" is another of the show's best episodes; "Three's A Crowd" has one of its best dark twist endings; "For Cryin' Out Loud" features Lee Arenberg as a murderous band promoter taunted by his conscience, Sam Kinison; "Four-Sided Triangle" features Patricia Arquette as a woman in love with a scarecrow; "The Ventriloquist's Dummy" is a twist on the cliche featuring Don Rickles; "Lower Berth" is a romance between a circus freak and a cursed mummy, with a surprise twist; "Mute Witness to Murder" is one of the show's few great noir episodes; "My Brother's Keeper" is a story of Siamese twins.

Worst Episode: "Dead Right", the season premiere. Demi Moore is a gold digger who marries a man when a psychic tells her he'll inherit a large sum of money, then shortly die. There's a decent prophecy twist, but man, so much of this is devoted to showing off how gross the man she married was.

Season Three

Around season three, a spinoff called Two-Fisted Tales was proposed, which would've adapted EC Comics' pulp action & adventure stories. It was never picked up, but the pilot's segements were folded into Tales, with one in season three and two in season four.

Best Episode: "Abra Cadaver". Beau Bridges gets revenge for his brother's prank by trapping him in his own body. Great, ghoulish POV work here.

Honorable Mentions: "Carrion Death" features Kyle MacLachlan as a fugitive handcuffed to a dead cop who swallowed the key to the cuffs; "The Trap" is a crime story with a good twist; "Top Billing" features Jon Lovitz as a struggling actor who will do anything to get a part in Hamlet; "Easel Kill Ya" has Tim Roth as a starving artist turned killer; "Undertaking Palor" is a kids-on-bikes story featuring Aron Eisenberg and Ke Huy Quan; "Mournin' Mess" has the guy from Wings investigating a group helping the homeless whose name is literally GHOULS; "Yellow" is one of the Two-Fisted Tales stories, featuring Kirk Douglas as a WWI general and his son Eric as the general's cowardly son.

Worst Episode: "Spoiled". It's a soap opera parody. Enough said.

Season Four

Season four and five are the show's peak.

Best Episode: "Split Personality". Goofy horror-comedy. Joe Pesci is a con artist who pretends to be twins so he can marry a pair of twins who. Don't want to share.

Honorable Mentions: "None But The Lonely Heart" is a story of a serial murderer of old women, directed by...Tom Hanks?; "On a Dead Man's Chest" is a tale of heavy metal and moving tattoos; "Seance" is another good noir episode; "Beauty Rest" is "Top Billing" but about a beauty pageant; "What's Cookin'" stars Christopher Reeve as a chef who discovers a new source of meat; "The New Arrival" is another of the show's legitimately scary episodes, featuring child psychologist David Warner going to the home of patient Zelda Rubinstein; "Strung Along" features Donald O'Connor as a puppeteer trying to make a comeback, but is his new assistant what he appears to be?

Worst Episode: "This'll Kill Ya". This one is just...bad? It opens with a protracted rip-off HOMAGE of the 1950 noir D.O.A., before diving into a boring weird science story, and ending with a contrived twist.

Season Five

Best Episode: "Death of Some Salesmen". TIM CURRY IN THREE ROLES!

Honorable Mentions: "Forever Ambergris" features Steve Buscemi and gnarly melting efffects; "Food for Thought" is a gothic circus story with Ernie Hudson and Joan Chen; "People Who Live in Brass Hearses" features Bill Paxton and Brad Dourif as crooks trying to rob a ice cream man; "House of Horror" features Wil Wheaton as a college student being put through ghostly hazing; "Creep Course" is a tale of mummies.

Worst Episode: "Came the Dawn". It's a worse Psycho, which means an evil-alternate-personality twist. Pass.

Season Six

OOF.

Season six starts fine, with two great episodes. Then...

OOF.

The show suddenly becomes comedy episodes and crime stories all the way down. Where are the ghouls? Where are the vampires? WHERE ARE THE WEREWOLVES??? (though the show never produced a great werewolf episode and I am Disappointed by that)

We do get some towards the end of the season, but this is the show's worst, by a lot.

It ends with "You, Murderer", a first-person story notable for resurrecting Humphrey Bogart (and, in the frame story, Alfred Hitchcock) via CGI. Which probably seemed more fun at the time, when it was a passing tech fad and not...a thing studios were actually trying to do

Best Episode: "Only Skin Deep". It's weird that such a silly season gave us one of the show's scariest episodes: the tale of a creep who picks up a masked woman at a costume party, and discovers it's the biggest mistake he'll ever make.

Honorable Mentions: "Let the Punishment Fit the Crime" is a Nothing But Trouble-y story of Catherine O'Hara as an ambulance-chasing lawyer facing strict justice in a small town; "Staired in Horror" is a gothic curse story with a goopy ending; "Comes the Dawn" features CREATURES in a proto-30 Days of Night; "99 & 44/100% Pure Horror" is a story of the wife of a soap manufacturer, and also has a goopy ending.

Worst Episode: Many contenders, but one obvious winner. "The Pit" is a story of MMA fighters being pushed into a cage match by their wives. Nobody dies, and nothing even slightly horrific happens. It's just. Boxing. I have no idea why the Cryptkeeper is telling me about this

Season Seven

The seventh and final season suddenly moves the show to London. Yes, the entire season is produced in Britain; if you're expecting big British 90s stars, though, think again - apparently, British actors refused to do the show in Britain because of high taxes. It does feature not-yet-famous actors like Ewan McGregor and Daniel Craig, though.

I was told this was the worst one, but while it's nowhere near the peak, it's...better? This season does something unique by merging the crime stories and the horror stories into one, leading to many episodes that start with criminals, who then encounter something paranormal. It's also tilted more towards Actual Horror

The Cryptkeeper segments in this one feel perfunctory, though; after they started to sprawl out in the last couple seasons, he's barely in these, and there's only two that are Britain-themed despite the show pushing the British setting hard (the show's never had so many establishing shots). But the Cryptkeeper gets his largest role of the series in the series finale, "The Third Pig", the show's only animated episode and the only one narrated by the Cryptkeeper.

Best Episode: "Horror in the Night". A man shot in a heist finds his way to a hotel, which quickly turns surreal. Another of the show's scary episodes, and one featuring a kind of hallucinatory horror it rarely did.

Honorable Mentions: "Cold War" seems to be a crime story, but with a paranormal twist (this is the one with Ewan McGregor, who's American); "Report from the Grave" features a parapsychologist whose experiments in afterlife contact turn fatal; "About Face" is a bit of gothic Victoriana about a corrupt priest's illegitimate daughters; "Confession" stars Eddie Izzard as a suspect in serial killings.

Worst Episode: "Last Respects". The director of the 1972 Tales from the Crypt film returns to direct...a much worse version of one of that film's segments? Not sure what happened here.

Anyway should you watch Tales from the Crypt in 2023? YES!!! Tales from the Crypt filters through just about every genre of horror at some point (there are even a couple episodes that are proto-found footage) and even if it's rarely 'scary' it's almost always fun. It's also cool to see such a high-profile horror show, such a unabashedly pulpy and gross horror show, made in a time where horror was increasingly a dirty word. Now if only they could work out the rights issues so we can get our boy the Cryptkeeper back on his throne (pronounced like bone)

#tales from the crypt #television

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byneddiedingo · 1 year

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Laura Dern, Isabella Rossellini, and Kyle MacLachlan in Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)

Cast: Isabella Rossellini, Kyle MacLachlan, Dennis Hopper, Laura Dern, Hope Lange, Dean Stockwell. Screenplay: David Lynch. Cinematography: Frederick Elmes. Production design: Patricia Norris. Film editing: Duwayne Dunham. Music: Angelo Badalamenti.

Would there have been a Quentin Tarantino if there hadn't been a David Lynch? Blue Velvet represents an opening up of mainstream moviemaking to the perverse underside of American experience. It had been approached before, in 1940s film noir, for example, but only by suggestion. In the era of the nascent Cold War, unusual sexual behavior was typically presented as the product of decadent cities like New York and Los Angeles. But in Lynch's film, made at the height of the Reagan era, it underlies the wholesome atmosphere of a small town where the fireman smiles and waves as he passes by. The film noir detective was usually repulsed by what he saw, not fascinated and drawn in the way Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) is. Jeffrey, barely out of adolescence, teams up to explore the mystery of Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) with a teenage girl, Sandy (Laura Dern), who is both disgusted and fascinated by what she learns. The use of songs like Bobby Vinton's "Blue Velvet" and Roy Orbison's "In Dreams" suggests the way American pop culture, aimed at the young, floats atop a sea of darkness that it only thinly hides. In the end, of course, everything is cleaned up: the vicious Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper) gets what's coming to him and Dorothy is reunited with her child. Even Jeffrey's father (Jack Harvey), incapacitated by a stroke while watering his lawn at the beginning of the film, is restored to health. Sandy has earlier told us about her nightmare in which the horrors will only disappear when the robins fly down and bring a "blinding light of love." So in the end a robin appears on the windowsill, with one of the disgusting insects we saw at the film's beginning under the grass of the Beaumonts' lawn in its mouth. But Lynch mocks the happy ending by clearly showing us that it's a fake, an animated stuffed robin.

#Blue Velvet #David Lynch #Laura Dern #Isabella Rossellini #Kyle MacLachlan

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kontextmaschine · 1 year

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#newbery medal

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mongrelmutt · 5 months

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My books read list for 2023! For the first time I met my goal of at least one book a week!! 😁

1. "A Conspiracy of Kings" -- Megan Whalen Turner

2. "Thick as Thieves" -- Megan Whalen Turner

3. "Return of the Thief" -- Megan Whalen Turner

4. "Vatican II" -- John O'Malley

5. "The Catholic Church: A Short History" -- Hans Küng, translated by John Bowden

6. "Confessions" and "Letter to Coroticus" -- St. Patrick

7. "Through the Brazilian Wilderness" -- Theodore Roosevelt

8. "The Wind in the Willows" -- Kenneth Grahame

9. "Period: The Real Story of Menstruation" -- Kate Clancy

10. "Star Wars: Padawan" -- Kiersten White

11. "Star Wars: Master and Apprentice" -- Claudia Gray

12. "Deep Down Dark" -- Héctor Tobar

13. "The Lost World" -- Michael Crichton

14. "Provida Mater Ecclesia: Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII Concerning Secular Institutes" (English translation) -- Pope Pius XII

15. "Frankenstein" -- Mary Shelley

16. "Kenobi" -- John Jackson Miller

17. "Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law" -- Mary Roach

18. "Trigun" and "Trigun Maximum" -- Yasuhiro Nightow

19. "Contagion of Liberty: The Politics of Smallpox in the American Revolution" -- Andrew M. Wehrman

20. "Gay and Catholic: Accepting My Sexuality, Finding Community, Living My Faith" -- Eve Tushnet

21. "The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth" -- Beth Allison Bar

22. "Turtles All The Way Down" -- John Green

23. "All Systems Red (Murderbot Diaries #1)" -- Martha Wells

24. "Artificial Condition (Murderbot Diaries #2)" -- Martha Wells

25. "Rogue Protocol (Murderbot Diaries #3)" -- Martha Wells

26. "Exit Strategy (Murderbot Diaries #4) -- Martha Wells

27. "Network Effect (Murderbot Diaries #5) -- Martha Wells

28. "Fugitive Telemetry (Murderbot Diaries #6) -- Martha Wells

29. "Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History" -- Erik Larson

30. "The Johnstown Flood" -- David McCullough

31. "The Last Days of the Dinosaurs: An Asteroid, Extinction, and the Beginning of Our World" -- Riley Black

32. "Beastly Brains: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel" -- Nancy F. Castaldo

33. "The Rise and Reign of Mammals: A New History from the Shadows of the Dinosaurs to Us" -- Steve Brusatte

34. "Dog Sense: How the New Science of Dog Behavior Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Dog" -- John Bradshaw

35. "Evolution Gone Wrong: The Curious Reasons Why Our Bodies Work (or Don't)" -- Alex Bezzerides

36. "Immune: A Journey Into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive" -- Philipp Dettmer

37. "Catholicism and ADHD: Finding Holiness Despite Distractions" -- Alex R. Hey, PCAC

38. "The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery" -- Sam Kean

39. "An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us" -- Ed Yong

40. "Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig" -- Mark Essig

41. "The Mind's Eye" -- Oliver Sacks

42. "Loveless" -- Alice Oseman

43. "The Monkey Trial: John Scopes and the Battle Over Teaching Evolution" -- Anita Sanchez

44. "The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet" -- Henry Fountain

45. "Kiki's Delivery Service" -- Eiko Kadono (translated by Emily Balistrieri)

46. "Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas" -- Jennifer Raff

47. "Ancillary Justice" -- Ann Leckie

48. "An Elegant Defense: The Extraordinary New Science of the Immune System: A Tale in Four Lives" -- Matt Richtel

49. "System Collapse (Murderbot Diaries #7)" -- Martha Wells

50. "Spying on Whales: The Past, Present, and Future of Earth's Most Awesome Creatures" -- Nick Pyeson

51. "Howl's Moving Castle" -- Diana Wynne Jones

52. "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" -- Shirley Jackson

53. "Sarah, Plain and Tall" and "Skylark" -- Patricia MacLachlan

54. "The Haunting of Hill House" -- Shirley Jackson

55. "All Creation Waits: The Advent Mystery of New Beginnings" -- Gayle Boss (illustrated by David G. Klein)

#books read 2023 #reading #books #long post #personal

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fictionadventurer · 1 year

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Beloved 📚

Here is a stack of books that were so beloved that I made a special point to buy my own copy. I've left out some of the obvious series--Narnia, the Fairy Tale Novels, and Anne of Green Gables--on the grounds that the first two have shown up in a bunch of stacks already, and I don't particularly love the copies I have of the Anne books. There are complicated shades of nuance behind choosing books for the stack--there are several very beloved books that were easy to find, so buying them didn't have quite the same treasure hunt feeling, while some slightly-less-beloved books made the stack because their acquisition was more purposeful or felt more exciting. Because of that, I'm going to give a little info for why I chose each book.

Books In the Stack:

The Electrical Menagerie by Mollie E. Reeder: I read the ebook and loved it so much that I made a point of ordering print copies for myself and a friend.

Baby by Patricia MacLachlan: I read it so many times in middle school (because it's short and it's about a baby) that I had to buy a copy when I found it at the thrift store, even though it's nothing particularly amazing.

The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers: My favorite of the Wimsey books I read from the library, so I made sure to order a print copy of my own.

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff: When I finished this book, I wanted nothing more than to buy my own copy at a used book store. The next time I went to one, I happened to find it.

Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke: Such a fun little graphic novel that, when the opportunity arose to get a signed copy, I jumped at it.

Tales from the Blackberry Bushes by @isfjmel-phleg : I love these stories so much that I hand-bound my own copy so I can have it on my shelves forever

Entwined by Heather Dixon: One of my favorite retellings, so I ordered myself a copy as a Christmas present one year

Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne: I had so much fun listening to the audiobook that I bought the very first copy I found at a library book sale.

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton: I read it on Gutenberg, and it's so important to my worldview that I bought my own copy from the religious book store.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery: This is just such a cute little book that I couldn't resist buying a falling-apart copy from a garage sale, and later buying a replacement copy in better condition from a thrift store. It's not quite beloved, but for some reason I'm very fond of it.

Matched by Allie Condie: The library book left my head spinning with concepts of free will. When I got a Barnes and Noble gift card, I bought my own copy. The story is rough, but the concepts of the world only get more relevant as time goes on.

A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis: Such a heartwrenching look at grief. When I happened to find a nice used copy, I couldn't leave it behind.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins: After I read the series, I bought ragged copies of my own from garage sales. They're far from difficult to find, but at the time, getting my own copies was exciting.

The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery: It became one of my favorite romances, so I ordered my own copy online. Then I bought a replacement copy when I happened to find a much better edition last summer.

Persuasion by Jane Austen: Of course I have print copies of all Austen's novels, but the others are mostly just the copies I happened to find. With this book, I saw the Word Cloud Classics edition in a Youtube video and knew I needed that specific edition, so I ordered it online. I haven't regretted it--it's a pleasantly-designed book.

World Series by John R. Tunis: The Dodgers books are some of the only books that stuck with me from my teenage years. I happened to find copies of The Kid from Tomkinsville and The Kid Comes Back, both of which are more beloved. But after my last reread of Tomkinsville, I wanted to continue the series, found my library had gotten rid of their copies, so I ordered my own copy of the second book. (And then never reread it, but that doesn't mean I don't love it).

The Reed of God by Caryll Houselander: I saw it at the religious bookstore, decided to read it from the library instead of buying, and then loved it so much I eventually went back to the same store and bought it.

#answered asks #books #writerly-ramblings

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