Creepshow 2 (1987)
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An anthology of three more eerie tales, entitled "Old Chief Wood'n Head", "The Raft", and "The...
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The Lottery and Other Stories
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This is the definitive collection of Shirley Jackson's short stories, including 'The Lottery' - one...
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In 10-Minute Plays for Kids,young thespians will find terrific plays by some of our most prominent...
The Little Book Of Feminist Saints
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This inspiring, beautifully illustrated collection honours one hundred exceptional women throughout...
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When God Was a Rabbit
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1968. The year Paris takes to the streets. The year Martin Luther King loses his life for a dream....
BookwormMama14 (18 KP) rated As Love Blooms (The Gregory Sisters, #3) in Books
Jan 2, 2019
Tessa Gregory's dream of becoming a gardener seems impossible in 1913 at Como Park. She will go to any length to impress the superintendent of her abilities. When the handsome gardener Reese King offers to help her, will she risk it all, including her heart to win the favor she so desires?
I deeply enjoy reading Lorna Seilstad's books. They are so full of life and humor, but also deep with truths. As Love Blooms has all of these wonderful elements. The bond and strength of family being in the forefront of this book. We are also reminded that faith is not something that we have to try and muster up ourselves, but to have the faith to rely on God to take care of us. I enjoyed Tessa's adventurous spirit! She reminded me a great deal of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables. You will be on the edge of your seat as you read this remarkable story of love and life.
I received a free copy of As Love Blooms from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, in exchange for my honest review.
Scare Tactics: Supernatural Fiction by American Women, with a New Preface
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Scare Tactics identifies an important but overlooked tradition of supernatural writing by American...
Acanthea Grimscythe (300 KP) rated The Haunting of Hill House in Books
May 16, 2018
One of the largest determining factors for me when I'm listening to an audio book is the quality of the narration, and in this case I highly suggest the version narrated by David Warner over Bernadette Dunne. Warner's voice is far gentler on the ears and his heavy English lends an utterly unique feeling to the story. I only listened to a sample of Dunne's version and found it very painful on my ears. Warner's reading is published by Phoenix, whereas Dunne's is from Blackstone Audio. Considering that I use audiobooks in order to help me relax along the hour long commute to and from work, the quality of the recording is vital to whether or not I am capable of stomaching the book (and for this reason, I nearly dropped House).
The Haunting of Hill House was published in 1959 by Viking, six years before Shirley Jackson's death. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shirley_Jackson" target="new">The book itself is lauded as a classic example of haunted house fiction, earning praise from my all time favorite author, Stephen King.</a> It is a story in which four individuals take up summer residence in the famed Hill House, where they embark upon an unexpectedly brief journey to learn more about the supernatural - and perhaps even about their own selves. Each character is riddled with their own flaws and, to my great surprise, are not filled with the incessantly needy yearning for romance that is so common in other books.
I can also admit that none of the characters are particularly likable. The character that I find most tolerable is Eleanor Vance, our star for this read who clearly suffers from mental illness. Given the time in which the book takes place, it is almost heartbreaking how little others are able to pick up regarding her mental state and, when they finally do, the disdain they treat her with is extremely painful to watch. My least favorite of the cast is Mrs. Montague and her planchette. Mrs. Montague seems rather incapable of caring about anyone other than herself and goes to great lengths to undermine her husband. Her short fuse makes her utterly unbearable and, were I to cross paths with her, I can't promise that I wouldn't want to throttle her.
As far as the haunting of the manse itself goes, there's very little to it. While Jackson's prose is meticulous and gorgeous to behold, at no point did I feel any sense of unease. Much of what is meant to be unsettling is not supernatural in origin, but derived from the interactions of the characters. In a way, the reader is simply a passenger along for the ride in Eleanor's descent into madness, and it is from this that unease can be felt than by anything ethereal.
I enjoyed The Haunting of Hill House and I find it to be a pleasant read (or in this case, listen), but it is not among my favorites when it comes to horror. I felt no real need to keep going and none of the edge-of-your-seat anxiety that horror fans like myself thrive on. It is certainly a beautiful book and Hill House has a hauntingly sad past, but other than that I did not find the story to be overly impressive. While some of this could be attributed to the fact that I had seen the movie in the past, I don't really feel that is the case - especially since I seem to be in agreement with several other readers.