Hey friends, here we are again with the turning of one season into another. Hope you had time to do some neat stuff with some fun people. Here’s a list of what I enjoyed reading over the past three months. Maybe there’s something here that you’d enjoy, too? Only time will tell.
Ghost Story by Peter Straub — I realize that this is a book likely best started in the fall and finished in the darkest part of winter. But I didn’t get started on it until February. Great read, spooky as all heck. Gonna need to check out more of Straub’s work.
The Marigold by Andrew F. Sullivan — Reviewed this puppy in the Free Press. Highly recommend, as I do Sullivan’s earlier novel Waste, and any of his short-fiction.
Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones — Started reading this one back in December (or earlier, even) and finished it up early April. Detailed, vividly written. If you grew up a fan of Henson’s work, and have any interest in creative work yourself, I highly recommend taking the time to read this bio … even if it takes you months to finish.
Tell Me You’ve Earned It by Kat Giordano — The first book of poetry I’ve read front to back in some time. Visceral, raw, horny, unapologetic. The poet leaves it all on the page, dripping.
The Gospel Singer by Harry Crews — Good Lord, this was a wild read. I’ve heard about how great Crews is for a while, but hadn’t read anything before this. Pals, it did not disappoint. Hallelujah!
Norwood by Charles Portis — Read this slim puppy a few years back, but read it again having purchased the brand new, Library of America collected Portis. Dug it even more the second time around, and very much looking forward to digging into his other works, which I haven’t read yet. The hijinks and dialogue had me chuckling to myself throughout.
No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed — Very enjoyable collection of dark spec-fic, out via Undertow Publications, a great press out of Pickering, Ontario. Had a chance to chat with Premee a few weeks ahead of the collection’s official launch, which you can read over at Malarkey Books website. Fun fact: Premee and I both have stories in the Alternate Plains spec-fiction anthology from 2021.
Notes from a Wood-Paneled Basement by Alan ten-Hoeve — Great collection of poetry. Earnest. Unassuming. Raw. This is a collection I’ll come back to again, for sure.
Watchmen by Alan Moore / Dave Gibbons — Wow. Fantastic stuff.
Child of God by Cormac McCarthy — Lester Ballard is a bad motherfucker, and this is one dark ride into said motherfucker’s soul. Grim stuff, in the best way.
RIP to Cormac, who died on June 13 at the age of 89. What a force this guy was. Truly one of the greats. Digging into a reread of Suttree right now…
Echo Chamber by Claire Hopple — Nice, surreal little novella + stories collection. Have read a few of these pieces online, you can too here and here (among many elsewheres) if you like. Highly recommend for a trippy beach read.
Meanwhile, our loudspeaker lamentations enter the dreams of the citizenry. They unite in thoughts, moods, imaginings. We are tampering with the collective unconscious. We are grafting in our own notions and rooting down false peace.
Farewell, My Darling by Raymond Chandler — Continuing to revisit Chandler. This wild ride out to Bay City packs a punch. Enjoyed it much more on the re-read than my first pass through (which I still dug). This time I took notes on each plot point (as I saw them unfold) after each chapter, in a (vain?) attempt to study how Chandler laid the whole story out. It’s all there, from the opening chapter, if you’ve got the keen eye of Marlowe (or Riordan), that is.
If I somehow still have your attention after all that, please consider pre-ordering my forthcoming collection of short-stories, Where the Pavement Turns to Sand. But hey, don’t take it from me…
Where the Pavement Turns to Sand is a collection of working class, everyday heartbreaks and bad decisions. In a refreshing rural Canadian setting, the characters in these slice of life tales stumble through divorce, debt, bad sex, and boring jobs, but also curling robots, aliens, jackalopes, wendigo, lots of legs wet with urine, and (maybe) sasquatches with an unexpected whimsy. What makes it work is Birnie’s signature dark humor and conversational style that makes every story feel like it was your neighbor telling it to you over a beer around a campfire, or at the rink. Surprising, entertaining, grimy and weird.
– Meagan Lucas, author of Songbirds and Stray Dogs and Here in the Dark, Editor in Chief of Reckon Review.