December 2016: Short stories

Sorry for the late thread, I'm guessing our would-be host has been busy elsewhere, and since I haven't gotten around to reading any myself yet I had glossed over the thread's absence. If it happens in the future you guys can always drop a line on my profile to remind me to remind the person (or myself, that certainly happens! lol). Usually I'd drop them a line and give them a chance to get it up, but since it's already so late I thought I ought to just go ahead and do it immediately!

So anyway! Short stories! The suggestions mentioned previously were:
The October Country - Ray Bradbury
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - Stephen King
Dark Water - Koji Suzuki
Haunted: Tales of the Grotesque - Joyce Carol Oates
Hauntings - Vernon Lee
The Lottery and Other Stories - Shirley Jackson
Japanese Tales of Mystery and Imagination - Edogawa Rampo

So what've you read, or what's in the works?

I'm halfway through The Doll-Master by Joyce Carol Oates. This is the first time I've read anything by her. This collection was recommended by Sally from Murder by the Books here in Houston. She usually steers me in the right direction. So far so good.

I thought I'd read M is for Magic by Gaiman, as it is tagged horror, but I finished it yesterday, and I'm not so sure. Now, with a collection of short stories, some of them may have been, but I'm not a short story fan, and especially on audio (I listened to this one), if you miss something, you pretty much miss the entire story, so maybe there was something in there, but I'm not going to count it.

I do have The Birds by du Maurier on hold at the library, so I hope it comes in for me this month.

The Birds / Daphne du Maurier
5 stars

I listened to the BBC audio dramatization of du Maurier’s The Birds (the same one Hitchcock based his movie on). It follows a family of three who have moved from London to the country. It takes place in England, it seems to be just after the war (WWII, I am assuming, as it was written in 1952). They notice birds congregating outside their home and becoming more and more aggressive.

I really liked this. Boy, that ending was creepy!!! I did see the movie years ago, and now I’d be interested in seeing it again. As I look at other reviews, it seems the movie is quite different. I’m not sure how close the dramatization is, but I thought this BBC version was done very well!

I finished The Doll-Master by Joyce Carol Oates. It was more creepy than scary.

I read all but six stories in The Mammoth Book of Haunted House Stories. I ran out of time, having to return it to the library. I'll get it again to finish it at some point. It had six stories I would rate four stars: Eavesdropping by Algernon Blackwood, Ghost Hunt by H. Russell Wakefield; Feet Foremost by L.P. Hartley; House Hatchet by Robert Block; The Patter of Tiny Feet by Nigel Kneale, and Playing with Fire by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle.

I read a few selections from Roald Dahl's Ghost Stories. I think of these as campfire stories, all with a little twist but none too spooky or deep. A good starter collection for kids.

I finished The Poison Eaters by Holly Black. Most of these fell into the fantasy category but a few could definitely be considered part of the horror genre, and most of the fantasy stories were pretty dark. The stories varied in quality but I liked Black's writing and plan to read more of her work.