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DJ Muggs recommended Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin in Music (curated)

 
Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin IV by Led Zeppelin
1971 | Rock
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"When I first heard Led Zeppelin, I was a kid in kindergarten but my uncle and my mum used to pump Led Zeppelin loudly. I grew up with those mad eight-tracks and all the imagery in their songs hit my imagination hard. It was so hard to pick one record of theirs – I obviously couldn't pick them all but this is the one that came to my mind first and the one I think I heard and played the most. I also loved the album cover for this; I used to look at this record cover for hours and I'd never get bored. I got deeper into this record I think because I was hearing stories that if you played the record backwards, it said something. There were so many folklore stories around this album when I was a kid growing up and it was ripe for the imagination. Next thing when you're listening you'd see the fucking hermit from the tarot cards and you'd hear these stories that Jimmy Page bought Aleister Crowley's house and then next they'd suddenly be going to India and working with all these different musicians. All these wild stories, all the mysticism behind the band is what really sucked me in with Led Zeppelin. When this record came out, there was no internet and you didn't know if the stories were all true or not so they had this great mystery to them. There were a couple of television shows but I'd never seen Led Zeppelin on TV; there were no music videos back then either. Even magazine articles about them were short. There was a great mystery to them and it just left it all open to your imagination to make up its own shit and my imagination is wild. Their stage shows were also ridiculous and they completely revolutionised touring today. So many things they did inspired me, inspired Cypress Hill."

Source
  
Ghost stories (1 more)
Well-written
Only a few stories (0 more)
This collection of tales will transport you to a time when staircases creaked in old manor houses, and a candle could be blown out by a gust of wind, or by a passing ghost. Penned by some of the greatest Victorian novelists and masters of the ghost story genre, these stories come alive alongside exquisitely eerie art in this special illustrated edition.

Since this is a short story collection, I will list the stories with a short synopsis and what I liked and disliked about them.

"Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" by M.R. James
A professor decides to go on vacation to work on his golf game while doing a little side work in the town's archaeology, but when he digs up an old whistle and blows into it, he instantly regrets what the whistle brings.
Liked: the buildup to the climax was done masterfully, and the superstition that was used as the premise of the story
Disliked: that the ending is never explained

"The Old Nurse's Story" by Elizabeth Gaskell
When a governess and her ward are taken to a haunted house, they found out that everyone has to pay for their misdeeds.
Liked: the perfect example of what Victorian ghost stories were
Disliked: Nothing; I really enjoyed this one

"The Signalman" by Charles Dickens
A railroad signalman tells a co-worker that he is seeing a ghost that warns him of future accidents, but his co-worker can't tell if he's telling the truth or losing his mind.
Liked: an excellent ghost story; I wish it were an entire novel
Disliked: nothing

"The Body-Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson
When a medical student realizes that the 'donated' bodies are murder victims, he's not so sure he can live with the consequences.
Liked: the ending wasn't predictable
Disliked: at the start, there's a little confusion among who is who

" The Captain of the Pole-Star" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
A group of whalers are stuck in the middle of the ocean because of ice burgs, but the ice is the least of their problems when they begin to hear and see supernatural things out on the ice.
Liked: the plot of the story was really good
Disliked: the run-on sentences, some of the accents were hard to decipher, and the ending wasn't explained

"The Phantom Coach" by Amelia B. Edwards
A young man loses his way while on a hunt, but soon finds help with an old man that is convinced the supernatural is real, and when he senses the young man does not, he puts him up against forces from the other side.
Liked: the story never lulled, and the descriptions of the undead were amazing
Disliked: nothing, I thought the story was really good

"The Screaming Skull" by F. Marion Crawford
When the friend of a family finds a skull in the latter's home, he begins to question whether or not the husband murdered his wife.
Liked: I love that this story is actually based off an urban legend
Disliked: the way the author kept breaking away from the story to talk to the audience; it caused the flow of the story to stop

Overall, the Victorian-era authors knew how to write a ghost story. I absolutely loved this collection of short stories. I highly recommend this book to people who love a good 'ol fashioned ghost story (not the gory ones we have today).
  
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Leila (5 KP) rated Elevation in Books

Feb 3, 2019 (Updated Feb 3, 2019)  
Elevation
Elevation
Stephen King | 2018 | Fiction & Poetry, Horror, Science Fiction/Fantasy
9
7.2 (13 Ratings)
Book Rating
Storyline (1 more)
Characters
Short! (0 more)
Short but Worth the Read!
Being an avid King fan, I could not wait to read his latest novel, Elevation, and was a bit dismayed by the brevity. Upon starting the first chapter, however, I quickly realized that King had once again duped me into thinking he was only capable of writing long, winding novels (I've been duped before by his short story books and by Joyland) and I was pleasantly entertained from the first word to the last.
  Elevation is set in a small town, like most of King's stories, one which gives off the air of being both a town to love and one to avoid on a family trip; it has the small town charm we all look for but comes with the small town bigotry as well. Our main character is a long-time resident with an already established problem of which there seems to be no cure and a rocky relationship with his neighbors, one that has a profound effect on his future. King manages to pull his reader in from first page and attach you to his characters, and not just the protagonist but the supporting cast as well, in a way that will leave you desperately wishing there were just a few more pages.
  All in all, Elevation is another Stephen King that should not be passed up, filled with a strong central message about how we view the world and the people in it.
  
IB
I'll Be Home for Christmas
Tom Becker | 2016
8
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
I specifically left this book till December to get me into the Christmas spirit.

I love reading short story collections, it’s a great way to find new YA authors and sample their writing.

‘I’ll be home for Christmas’ is a collaboration of UKYA authors and their stories of young adults and what ‘HOME’ means to them. I loved that this book has several genres including science fiction, Horror and Contemporary with such diverse characters. We have refugees, race and sexuality being explored and there was something for everyone to enjoy. I obviously had my favourites in this book and it was surprising that it was the horror, it was so intense and atmospheric and definitely got my pulse racing and that was Claws by Thomas Becker. There was not one story that I disliked in this book and after each story was finished I was left wanting more. I will definitely be purchasing my own copy of this book. There are 15 short stories/poems in this book including a competition winner.

This book is heartwarming and heart wrenching at the same time and definitely recommend reading.

Stripes teamed up with the charity Crises for this book to raise awareness of the hardships young people are facing today. This book is definitely impactful and made me think of the people who are less fortunate and homeless, £1 from every sale is donated to the charity.

*I received a E-copy of this book from Netgalley and Stripes in exchange for an honest opinion.*