January ScaredyKIT: NPR 100 Favorite Horror Stories or 100 Killer Thrillers

Let's get the year started off by choosing a book (or several) to read from NPR's great lists:

• 100 Favorite Horror Stories or on LibraryThing


• 100 Killer Thrillers or on LibraryThing

You'll find lots of variety to choose from so pick something you've always been intrigued by or that peaks your interest, whether that's a classic or something new, or even a short story or graphic novel. Be sure to share with us what you're reading and add your selections to the wiki.

Here's to another year of scary reading!

I will be reading a 1970s classic from the 100 Favorite Horror Stories: Elizabeth: A Novel of the Unnatural by Ken Greenhall writing under a pseudonym. I got a reissue of this book from Valancourt, which is a publisher I just discovered last year that reissues out-of-print horror in really nice-looking editions.

I'm going to read a short story, Young Goodman Brown from the 100 Favorite Horror Stories list. Since I liked Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter I thought I would give him another try. (Didn't like House of Seven Gables so much, though)

I'm incredibly excited to read I Am Legend. I've had the book for ages upon ages, but avoided it after seeing the latest movie. Until recently, I hadn't realized that the Will Smith movie is nothing like the book, and without giving anything away, I'll just say that a scene with an animal in that movie has given me nightmares for something like a decade now. Not much bothers me, but some things with animals, I just can't handle. Recently, though, a conversation with a writer I work with clued me into the fact that that horrible scene I remember too clearly isn't remotely close to anything that happens in the book. So, now I can finally read this classic with no worries in mind, and I can't wait :)

I don't have time at the moment to peruse the lists, so will have to come back later!

I think I'll finally, finally, get to John Dies At The End.

I'm planning to read The Ballad of Black Tom.

Not in a horror mood at the moment, so I looked through the Thriller list. Think I've decided on The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker. Was actually one of the few I hadn't already read.

I'm thinking I'll go with Intensity by Dean Koontz.

>4 whitewavedarling: I really like that book and I can confirm that it's nothing like the Will Smith movie.

>9 virginiahomeschooler: That one is on both lists!

>10 sturlington:, Awesome :)

I am joining >4 whitewavedarling: in reading I Am Legend, and I am also really looking forward to this. :)

I'm going to read The Thirty-Nine Steps, which will tick off another 1001 book as well.

Funny coincidence, I intended to start at the beginning of the year The weird: a compendium of strange and dark stories but since it's more than 1000 pages long and has more than one hundred short stories in it, I hardly expect to finish it in January!

I think I will go with The Yellow Wallpaper. This was the only CAT I wasn't going to do as I don't like horror/thriller as a rule. But I figured that's what it is all about - reading outside your comfort zone!

I still haven’t decided which I will read. I have several to pick from and several that I can get at the library. I am kind of organized but I need to sit down this week and work on it some more.

I finally took some time to peruse the lists. Good thing I waited till after Christmas, as one of my SantaThing books works for this, so that's likely what I'll be reading:
The Alienist / Caleb Carr

>15 JayneCM: Good for you for giving it a try! I hope you end up liking it!

Contact by Carl Sagan was chosen for one of my book clubs in January and it's on the thriller list. I'm also hoping to reread Rebecca, which is on both lists, if I have time.

>18 LibraryCin: Did you find the wiki link? It's in >1 sturlington:

I'll probably read The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan or The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. There are lots of great choices on both those lists >1 sturlington:!

>7 majkia: The Ballad of Black Tom is fantastic. Victor LaValle is becoming one of my favorites. >15 JayneCM: I liked The Yellow Wallpaper. It's short, haunting and really leaves you thinking long after.

>20 sturlington: Thanks! It's now also posted to the group page! I just didn't take time to investigate further last night. :-)

I'm thinking I'll read The Hunt for Red October and then watch the movie.

>23 hailelib: That's a fun idea.

>23 hailelib: Fun background for The Hunt for Red October.

I was stationed at the Pentagon when the book came out, and carpooled with a Navy officer who said the whole Navy contingent in the Pentagon was going nuts when the book came out trying to figure out how Clancy had heard about the latest submarine technology that was still supposed to be secret.

Of course the Pentagon leaked like a sieve so I doubt they ever figured out how Clancy had heard about the new tech. Gosh knows there were a lot of Air Force secrets that showed up in the Washington Post periodically.

>23 hailelib: - I absolutely LOVE the film adaptation of The Hunt for Red October! We wore out our DVD copy. ;-)

>25 majkia: - Love that backstory.

>25 majkia:

Fun info.

My husband was in the Navy for a while and did some sub training though he ended up on surface vessels. Every movie with ships I have all the errors pointed out to me.

I'd just watch that movie to listen to Sean Connery over and over!

Does Sean Connery do audiobooks, I wonder?!

>27 hailelib: My husband worked for Boeing for almost 30 years, and trust me, there is not a movie with an airplane that he can't find fault with. (I work in medical research, and don't get me started on how television portrays us...)

LOL I think we are all in the same boat about our jobs. I taught in high school for almost 20 years before going to the university level. I used to tell parents: Don't believe everything your child tells you about me and I won't believe everything they tell me about you!

I am going to read The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett--one of those books I've had a copy of forever but somehow never got around to reading. I *might* read Darkly Dreaming Dexter later in the month, but I'm not sure I'll get there.

I decided to read some of the short stories to get started with the NPR list for horror. I read The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (both the graphic and the original) and then I read Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both are good. The short story by Poe is much more violent and graphic than the graphic novel. The graphic novel being more young reader focused perhaps.

I read Intensity by Dean Koontz, which was on both lists. It was definitely intense and made me very uncomfortable. I'm glad to be done with it, to be honest.

>33 virginiahomeschooler: That one made my favourites in 2017! It was very intense, for sure. I listened to the audio.

>32 Kristelh: I read "The Tell-Tale Heart" back in high school and remember really liking it.

I absolutely loved I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and with my love of both the apocalyptic and vampire genres, can't believe I had missed this book until now!

>35 DeltaQueen50:, Good to know! I'm starting it later this week :)

>36 whitewavedarling: I hope you enjoy it, WWdarling!

Apparently I read a book that fits this month's selection with my first completion for this year in Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

>38 AHS-Wolfy: Great! I hope we'll see you around here more often.

Completed Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall. What a disturbing little book about a 14-year-girl who seems to be a complete sociopath and also thinks she's a witch. 4*

I finished The Thirty-Nine Steps - an exciting espionage thriller about a man fleeing from police and the 'Black Stone' group, by train, car and on foot across Scotland, trying to foil a plot to undermine British defenses before WW1.

I read a Nathaniel Hawthorn short story, Young Goodman Brown. It's the story of Goodman Brown, who seems to be happy with his new wife. However, he needs to meet a person deep in the woods one night. He returns a changed man. Very short (17 pages). I expected more of a story from Hawthorne. 3 stars

Finally finished The Maltese Falcon. I haven't had much luck with Hammett in the past. This time I read it like a straight novel rather than genre fiction and it went well.

I'm reading John Dies At the End and like it a lot so far. I'm only about 50 pages in.

I'm reading Infidel, the graphic novel. Looks interesting.

Last night I read Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad by M. R. James. It's a short story that I found in an old library book titled; Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural edited by Herbert Wise and Phyllis Fraser. It also has a couple of other oldies that I hope to get to before I return it. This book published 1944. Rough condition. I am glad the library hasn't tossed it. I enjoyed that story. About 45 pages in length.

I like "Oh, Whistle..." a lot, it's so atmospheric and taut. There's a short movie version from a few years ago with John Heard that's very good.

I finished Contact by Carl Sagan, on the NPR thrillers list. I found the inclusion strange, as it's not especially suspenseful. Sagan's speculations about extraterrestrial intelligence were interesting, though.

I finished John Dies at the End by David Wong - from the Horror list; I may get The Delirium Brief read this month as well (Charles Stross, Laundry Files series).

I will be reading The Collector by John Fowles. I hunted and bought this edition after it was featured on Criminal Minds.

The Collector is certainly creepy. Enjoy!

Finished The Hunt for Red October from the NPR list. I liked it better than my husband did but agree that the movie is better.

Finished the novella The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen. Written in 1894. Pre Lovecratian horror story. A favorite of Stephen King.

The Andromeda Strain featured on the Thriller Killer list, which I find a bit surprising. For me, this was a straightforward techno thriller about scientists fighting a localised biological crisis with a state-of-the-art lab. Very much a 1969 story, with women either trophy wives or lowly lab technicians. They had to change that for the TV movie.

>54 MissWatson: I re-read The Andromeda Strain a couple of years ago after having been vastly impressed with it soon after it came out (and with the original film). But I thought it had been touched a bit by the suck fairy--not only the things you mentioned, but that the science didn't stand up well.

>55 haydninvienna: It's been a long time since my biology lessons in school, and it wasn't my strongest subject, but I did wonder occasionally...

The Alienist / Caleb Carr
3 stars

It’s the late 19th century. A psychologist (aka “alienist”), a reporter, a secretary for the police (who wants to be an officer herself), and two detectives interested in pursuing new methods of solving crimes work together to find a serial killer – someone who’s been murdering young boy prostitutes. The psychologist is interested in profiling, something that’s not really been done before.

Overall, I’m rating this ok. It was slow moving, though it picked up somewhat in the last third to quarter of the book. There were times I found it a bit hard to follow, as sometimes a character’s first name, and sometimes their last name was used. I didn’t like the end, but I did enjoy reading about the beginning of profiling and “new” techniques of solving crimes – things like fingerprinting, photographing the imprint of last seen image on the victim’s eye, etc.

Here's it's the last day of the month and I'm not even halfway through John Dies At the End. I'm enjoying it and I'll try to finish it within the week.

I was able to finish two books for this month. One from the Thriller list, Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith, which was good, 3.5*. And one from both lists, Intensity by Dean Koontz which I really enjoyed, 4.5*.

Just finished The Yellow Wallpaper in time!

Finished I am Legend while it was still January, and loved it--full review written now that I'm finally catching up on January reviews!

I finally finished John Dies at the End, just a few days late. It's a 5 star read for me.