The next Books & Beyond meeting will be on Tuesday,
November 25 at 6:30pm in the Library’s Conference Room. The topic up for discussion is forensic sciences. There are many topics within
forensics, but I have invited the Jefferson County Medical Examiner to the
meeting to speak about that aspect in particular.
In October, Books & Beyond met to chat about all things
horror. If you aren't ready to give up those spooky books quite yet, read on!
Horror: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film by Darryl Jones
As Darryl Jones shows, the horror genre is huge. Ranging
from vampires, ghosts, and werewolves to mad scientists, Satanists, and
deranged serial killers, the cathartic release of scaring ourselves has made
its appearance in everything from Shakespearean tragedies to internet memes.
Exploring the key tropes of the genre, including its monsters, its
psychological chills, and its love affair with the macabre, this thematic history discusses why horror stories disturb us, and how
society responds to literary and film representations of the gruesome and
taboo.
The Elementals by Michael McDowell
After a bizarre and disturbing incident at the funeral of
matriarch Marian Savage, the McCray and Savage families look forward to a
restful and relaxing summer at Beldame, on Alabama's Gulf Coast, where three
Victorian houses loom over the shimmering beach. A haunted house story unlike
any other, Michael McDowell's The Elementals (1981) is one of
the finest novels to come out of the horror publishing explosion of the 1970s
and '80s.
Frankie’s Funhouse: Animatronic Horror Romance by Beatrix Hollow (This title not available via the JCLC, but some of the author's other work is available on Hoopla)
Desperation for cash has led me down a rainbow painted
hallway to Frankie’s Funhouse—a children’s gambling casino. Or as my boss likes
to call it, a pizza arcade. The coworkers are strange, the patrons are
disturbing, and the animatronics are possessed. Which I was willing to put up
with until my boss died. Well, he was murdered, actually. Now I have to serve
pizza and birthday cake while thinking about burning down the mall to hide a
body for an animatronic that keeps hitting on me.
The Guy Sure Looks Like Plant Food to Me by Santana Knox (This title is not available via the JCLC, but it is on Amazon.)
This is a killer rom-com, feel-good, magical short
story homage to Little Shop of Horrors about fated love blooming in the most
unexpected of places.
Eat the Ones You Love by Sarah Griffin
After losing her job and her fiancé and moving back from the
city to live with her parents, Shell Pine needs some help. And according to the
sign in the window, the florist shop in the mall does too. Shell gets the gig,
and the flowers she works with there are just the thing she needs to cheer up.
Or maybe it’s Neve, the beautiful shop manager, who is making her days so rosy?
But you have to get your hands dirty if you want your garden to grow—and Neve’s
secrets are as dark and dangerous as they come. In the back room of the flower
shop, a young sentient orchid actually runs the show, and he is hungry . . .
and he has a plan for them all.
The House with a Clock in its Walls by John Bellairs
When Lewis Barnavelt, an orphan. comes to stay with his
uncle Jonathan, he expects to meet an ordinary person. But he is wrong. Uncle
Jonathan and his next-door neighbor, Mrs. Zimmermann, are both magicians! Lewis
is thrilled. At first, watchng magic is enough. Then Lewis experiments with
magic himself and unknowingly resurrects the former owner of the house: a woman
named Selenna Izard. It seems that Selenna and her husband built a timepiece
into the walls--a clock that could obliterate humankind. And only the
Barnavelts can stop it! Adapted to a movie, starring Jack Black as Uncle Jonathan.
Whales on Stilts by M. T. Anderson
Sure, Lily Gefelty is just an average twelve-year-old girl.
But her dad—a normal-enough-seeming guy—just so happens to work for an evil
genius who plans to unleash an army of extremely cranky, stilt-walking,
laser-beam-eyed whales upon the world.
The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s
home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange
colony of beings in the woods.
The Witch (2015, rated R)
In 1630 New England, panic and despair envelops a farmer,
his wife and their children when youngest son Samuel suddenly vanishes. The
family blames Thomasin, the oldest daughter who was watching the boy at the
time of his disappearance. With suspicion and paranoia mounting, twin siblings
Mercy and Jonas suspect Thomasin of witchcraft, testing the clan's faith,
loyalty and love to one another.
Guillermo del Toro, At Home with Monsters: Inside His Films,Notebooks, and Collections
In 2016, a new exhibit on the work of visionary director
Guillermo del Toro debuted at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. This book focuses
on del Toro’s creative process, including the well-defined themes that he
obsessively returns to in all his films, the journals in which he logs his
ideas, and the vast and inspiring collection of art and pop culture ephemera
that he has amassed at his private “man cave,” Bleak House. This book delivers
an engrossing look into the mind of one of the great creative visionaries of
our time.
Crimson Peak (2015, rated R)
After marrying the charming and seductive Sir Thomas Sharpe,
young Edith (Mia Wasikowska) finds herself swept away to his remote gothic
mansion in the English hills. Also living there is Lady Lucille, Thomas'
alluring sister and protector of her family's dark secrets. Able to communicate
with the dead, Edith tries to decipher the mystery behind the ghostly visions
that haunt her new home. As she comes closer to the truth, Edith may learn that
true monsters are made of flesh and blood.
The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a
broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates––a gated community full of McMansions,
shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if
Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her
well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name.
But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester.
Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident. His
wife, Bea, drowned in a boating accident with her best friend, their bodies
lost to the deep. Jane can’t help but see an opportunity in Eddie––not only is
he rich, brooding, and handsome, he could also offer her the kind of protection
she’s always yearned for.
With delicious suspense, incisive wit, and a fresh, feminist
sensibility, The Wife Upstairs flips the script on a timeless
tale of forbidden romance, ill-advised attraction, and a wife who just won’t
stay buried. In this vivid reimagining of one of literature’s most twisted love
triangles, which Mrs. Rochester will get her happy ending?
City of Masks by Daniel Hecht
When Lila Beauforte takes up residence in her ancestral
home, the 150-year-old Beauforte House in the Garden District of New Orleans,
she is terrified by ghostly apparitions. The family reluctantly calls Cree
Black for help. Based out of Seattle, Cree, a parapsychologist with a degree
from Harvard, is a "ghost buster." But as Cree gets closer to the
truth, the proverbial skeletons in the closet of the prestigious Beauforte
family come crashing down on her, and she must struggle to keep her own ghosts
at bay.
Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
The gorgeous, remote villa in tiny Monteperso seems like a
perfect place to endure so much family togetherness, until things start going
off the rails―the strange noises at night, the unsettling warnings from the
local villagers, and the dark, violent past of the villa itself. Beautifully
unhinged and deeply satisfying, Diavola is a sharp twist on the
classic haunted house story, exploring loneliness, belonging, and the seemingly
inescapable bonds of family mythology.
Camino Ghosts by John Grisham
Mercer Mann, a popular writer from Camino Island, is back on
the beach, marrying her boyfriend, Thomas, in a seaside ceremony. Bruce Cable,
infamous owner of Bay Books, performs the wedding. Afterward, Bruce tells
Mercer that he has stumbled upon an incredible story. Mercer desperately needs
an idea for her next novel, and Bruce now has one. The true story is about Dark
Isle, a sliver of a barrier island not far off the North Florida coast. It was
settled by freed slaves three hundred years ago, and their descendants lived
there until 1955, when the last one was forced to leave. Something about
the island seriously clouds the dollar signs in the developer’s eyes: the
island is cursed. It has remained uninhabited for nearly a century for some
very real and very troubling reasons. The deep secrets of the past are about to
collide with the enormous ambitions of the present, and the fate of Dark
Isle—and Camino Island, too—hangs in the balance.
GENERAL DISCUSSION
One of our members saw a fun (and funny!) production of
Dracula put on by the Bell Tower Players at East Lake United Methodist Church.
Find more information about their performances here: https://www.eastlakeunitedmethodist.org/btp/
We discussed a novel we couldn’t remember, told from Bertha’s (Jane Eyre) perspective. Perhaps it is Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys?
With Wide Sargasso Sea, her last
and best-selling novel, she ingeniously brings into light one of fiction’s most
fascinating characters: the madwoman in the attic from Charlotte Brontë’s Jane
Eyre. This mesmerizing work introduces us to Antoinette Cosway, a sensual
and protected young woman who is sold into marriage to the prideful Mr.
Rochester. Rhys portrays Cosway amidst a society so driven by hatred, so skewed
in its sexual relations, that it can literally drive a woman out of her mind.
If you want a long-term, self-paced fun deep dive into
literature, explore the Youtube channel of the Rosenbach Museum in
Philadelphia. There are multi-week,
multi-episode explorations of Dracula, Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Pride &
Prejudice, and Sherlock Holmes. Explore
here: https://www.youtube.com/@RosenbachMuseum/playlists
We also discussed how sound effects and music are an
integral part of horror movies. Lots of
fun discussion on this topic!
Every Frame a Painting on Youtube is no longer active but
was a series of video essays about film form.
The episode we discussed in the meeting was The Marvel Symphonic
Universe. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vfqkvwW2fs
Films with music, sound effects, or lack thereof:
The Birds (1963, rated PG-13)
Melanie Daniels (Tippi Hedren) meets Mitch Brenner (Rod
Taylor) in a San Francisco pet store and decides to follow him home. She brings
with her the gift of two love birds and they strike up a romance. One day birds
start attacking children at Mitch's sisters party. A huge assault starts on the
town by attacking birds. This was adapted from a short story of the same name by Daphne du Maurier.
Zone of Interest (2023, rated PG-13)
The commandant of Auschwitz, Rudolf Höss, and his wife
Hedwig, strive to build a dream life for their family in a house and garden
next to the camp. This was adapted from a book of the same name by Martin Amis.
Paranormal Activity (2009, rated R)
Soon after moving into a suburban tract home, Katie (Katie
Featherston) and Micah (Micah Sloat) become increasingly disturbed by what
appears to be a supernatural presence. Hoping to capture evidence of it on
film, they set up video cameras in the house but are not prepared for the
terrifying events that follow.
Item descriptions pulled from Amazon and Rotten Tomatoes.
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