pickThis is a very strange but entertaining book. It is a horror romantic fantasy. Yup that best describes it. It definitely has horror - pretty gross moments actually, and a surprisingly sweet romance. Overall, I liked it. 4⭐️
With this I had another #bookspinbingo
pickProbably one of the better books I have read in a while! Monster hates humans, wishes to be left alone. Humans can‘t mind their business and end up finding out when they poke around. Enter human who is different from the rest and monster falls in love. Classic storyline 🤣.
pickWrapped up my visit to the monster museum this morning with a look at the Ray Bradbury wing (“Homecoming”). This was a fun collection with several solid stories and many zany twists on classic ideas. Favorites: “Shadow, Shadow on the Wall,” by Theodore Sturgeon, and “Slime,” by Joseph Payne Brennan. I also enjoyed looking up more about the authors, because they had some unique bios. If you can find a copy I would recommend a visit to this museum.
pickI loved this! Gonna be in my top reads for the year FOR SURE! Had a plot twist so good I said OOOOH out loud.
Shesheshen might be a monster but it‘s often the humans that showcase monstrous traits. Beautiful themes of love and connection together with grief, betrayal and generational trauma.
The audiobook was brilliant, Carmen Rose knocked it out of the park.
#FirstLineFridays @ShyBookOwl
“Each year when Shesheshen hibernated, she dreamed of her childhood nest.”
The next read for my queer book club.
So much depends upon a red wheelbarrow in this story, “The Wheelbarrow Boy,” by Richard Parker, in which a teacher turns his student into a wheelbarrow as punishment for not doing his work properly. It‘s a short one, amusing, but with an ending that didn‘t age well. I can‘t find much about the author other than he was a UK children‘s author known for the Escape the Zoo series. Some of his sci-fi sounds interesting, especially The Hendon Fungus.
Libby really putting on the time pressure!!!
“The Desrick on Yandro,” by Manly Wade Wellman is the strangest but also most culturally interesting story in this collection so far. Narrated by John the Balladeer, apparently a recurring character in Wellman‘s stories, this is the tale of a long-vanished mountain in North Carolina and the witch who lives there. The grandson of the lover who jilted her hears John sing about Yandro, which is his last name. ⬇️
I don‘t think I‘ve ever read such an odd character description:
“His buckskin hair was combed across his head to baffle folks he wasn‘t getting bald. His round pink face wasn‘t soft, and his big smiling teeth reminded you he had a skull under the meat. His pale eyes, like two gravel bits, made me recollect I needed a haircut and a shoe shine.”
