Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark trilogy was one of my favourite sets of books when I was growing up. I especially loved books that presented stories and the folklore they were based on.
Contemporary
The 20th century contains a lot of small movements, categorized by modern history. Some are more prominent than others, and some are very difficult to define. That’s where the contemporary label comes in.
Post-modernism, structuralism, post-structuralism, post-post-modernism, deconstructionism, post-colonialism, hypertexts, and modern genre fiction can all be found here. Books that don’t fall into a broader movement can also be found here, including many topics of interest that are still current for readers.
Contemporary works were written mostly in the last 100 years. These books are usually a bit easier to find on shelf (though not always) in a bookstore.
You are viewing Contemporary reviews.
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The Book of Blam
Tišma makes death a haunting presence, coming in and out of focus, receding and approaching. It is always there and always palpable, and is never far away.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The play is three acts and at its core is about lost potential and the regrets that follow it. To some extent it is also about the corruption and power dynamics that can flourish in academia.
The Other
The Other is full of twists and turns and proceeds along at a fast pace — so fast that I could easily read it in the course of a long afternoon and evening.
The Face of Another
To describe Abe’s The Face of Another as a horror novel would only be scratching the surface of what it truly delivers.
The Fan
The amount of correspondence included here seems nearly silly when you think that this is before the age of internet and the two-line email and all of them — other than the telegrams and internal memos — required stationary, stamps, and envelopes.
The Amityville Horror
I have a very old movie-tie in edition of The Amityville Horror and it was printed back when it was able to put the whole ‘based on a true story’ claim on the cover.
Psycho
Bloch writes a twisting thriller that manages to surprise, even when you’ve watched the film first.
All the President’s Men & Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
I often read as much about American politics as I do about the politics about my own country. Though it feels like I’m on the outside looking in when I read books like this, it to some extent feels closer than is comfortable as well.
The Dead Girls
What drew me to this book initially was the simple fact that my local independent bookstore had it in stock and it was a mystery published in the late 1970s that was dubbed a classic.