Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (1962) Simon & Schuster

The Carnival comes to town in October and two boys are caught up in the magic of the sinister Mr. Dark.  The language is unusually flowery by Bradbury and the three states, mad, madder, maddest, etc. seems to overpopulate the prose.  If an editor got hold of it today, it would be shorter.  But the basic good vs. evil comes through.  The book was published in 1962 and the movie came out twenty years later, the screenplay also written by the author.  I like the book’s opening better than the movie and the special effects seemed to be the movie’s overdone part. 

We have a local book and a movie club - this was our pick for October.

Nemesis by Jo Nesbö (2009) Harper

Harry Hole is in Norway and his love is in Moscow fighting a custody suit against her former husband.  A bank is robbed.  The robber never speaks more than four words out loud.  He whispers his instructions to a woman to have the manager empty the ATM into a carryall.  Then he kills the woman.  Harry is added to the robbery task force looking to solve the bank robbery, but his interest is in the murder.  A new character is added to the cast who never forgets a face.  Others in this story include gypsies, jealous lovers, and other lonely people.  Harry figures out who the real killer is.  But that's his curse, isn't it?

Come Again by Nate Powell (2018) Top Shelf Productions

A group of people live off the grid in a small community.  Yet all the problems of people still exist in their version of utopia. One mother, raising her child by herself, has a secret from everyone, along with the husband of her best friend.  Their boys discover the cave where secret meetings have been happening.  The cave likes secrets, and one of the boys becomes bait.  This is a graphic novel. It's a dark story and Mr. Powell chose to do many of the scenes in darkness.  It's worth the read.

A Contract with God by Will Eisner (2006) W.W. Norton & Company

A collection of five graphic stories in the fictional Dropsie Avenue tenement #55 by the inimitable artist, Will Eisner, for whom the top comic artists vie for his award.  Dropsie Avenue is a finctional place in the Bronx where the immigrant influx after World War I created the need for cheap housing.  55 being a Jewish group of residents, we follow the lives of two generations trying to improve their lot in life while clinging to the traditions of their religion.  Whether it is a misinterpretation of God’s responsibilities vs man’s or the attempt to be someone else, irony, karma, or fate intervenes to balance the scales.

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King (2000) Scribner

The author reflects on his childhood and how that influenced his writing style of choice of stories.  He describes his writing habits and the problems he has experienced, including when he was hit by a car.  There are two bonuses: his sons Joe (Hill), an award-winning horror writer himself, and Owen King.  The best bit being about how as children, they would ask their father to tell them a story each night (no wonder they grew up to write and edit horror themselves).

We listened to the audio version read by King himself - it's well worth a listen.

The Beatryce Prophecy by Kate DiCamillo (2021) Candlewick

A young girl is found lying next to a usually terrifying goat. But he makes an exception for the girl, who can only remember her first name.  The current king is searching for a girl who is supposed to unseat him and change the way things are done in the kingdom.  There is also a boy whose parents were killed, and a king who walked away from his throne.  The usual wonderful writing by DiCamillo.

Fairy Tale by Stephen King (2022) Scribner

Stephen King wrote a masterful tale, reminiscent of his collaboration with Peter Straub,  that involves a boy, a dog, other worlds, and something out of H.P. Lovecraft.  The hero is a seventeen-year-old boy who saves an old man’s life and finds his own life changed.  There are secrets and more dangerous secrets.  There are worlds of discovery, and more people who need the hero’s help.  A coming-of-age story that shapes a boy into a man.  This gripping tale kept me awake late into the night wanting to know what happens next through more than 600 pages.

Cinder by Marissa Meyer (2013) Square Fish

A futuristic take on Cinderella set after a World War IV and interaction with a human/lunar hybrid that uses the ability to detect and manipulate the electrical energy from emotions.  The lunar queen, who killed her sister to gain the throne, is demanding the hand of the earthly prince of the Eastern commonwealth or threatens war.  In the meantime, a broken child was rescued and is now a cyborg.  When her new father brought her home, his wife and the oldest sister was not happy.  Especially when he suddenly dies from a highly contagious plague.  Cinder is an excellent mechanic, and the prince brought her an android to fix.  It holds secrets that could shatter the fragile peace keeping war from starting.  But the biggest revelation could change everything.

Shadow Born by D.K. Holmberg (2016) CreateSpace

The third book in the Shadow trilogy – in which our heroine learns answers to long standing questions, makes an astounding discovery about her past and comes into understanding about her capabilities and develops confidence about her future.

Glitches by Marissa Meyer (2013) Tor Books

Little Cinder has lost her parents and a leg and an arm.  And she seems to have access to information in her brain whenever she asks a question.  Her new stepfather, an inventor, has taken her in to be a new member of his family.  Though her stepmother and one of her stepsisters is not very happy to have her.  She feels she needs to prove her worth and fixes the housekeeper android.  But before she can show it off to her stepfather, he has come down with a deadly plague.

Master of Djinn by P Djeli Clark (2021) Little Brown Book Group

A steampunk/fantasy/mystery with djinns who have become Egyptian citizens before World War I (the Ottoman Empire still exists).  George Alec Effinger would have been proud to read this.  We have touches of each genre, advanced magical technology, fantastic creatures, a mass murder, a megalomanic who wants to remake the world in their own insane image, a heroine who prefers to dress in dapper British men’s’ clothing who is in love with another woman, and a partner who is both a strict Muslim and an avid feminist.

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn (2022) William Morrow

Ms. Quinn becomes better with each book.  Her blend of accurate historical fact with fiction teaches us about lesser known, but important people in history and makes their stories memorable.
In this book we learn about a heroic woman who wanted to be a historian but would not let the invasion of her country go unanswered.  She responded by becoming one of World War II’s best snipers.  Read her story as she became Lady Death to the Nazi’s and did everything she could, even when not carrying a gun, to help defeat the worst megalomaniac in the twentieth century.