Books »Come Along With Me

by Shirley Jackson (1982)

I am an adoring fan of Shirley Jackson, her novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle and her short story, The Lottery (which is included in this collection) are among my favorites. One of the best parts of Come Along With Me are the chapters from her unfinished last novel that lends it’s title to the collection and it’s one of the few here that fully embody the signature strangeness and darkness that I love in her writing,  which I found sadly lacking several of the stories. This is of course a matter of my expectations getting in the way and all the stories, even the lighthearted ones are well written.

It’s a shame so little was left behind of what was sure to have been another incredible novel, but it’s inclusion as well as her darker stories including my favorite, “The Summer People”, make this collection worth a read, at least for Jackson fans. I personally could take or leave the essays and lectures (as unintellectual as it may sound I prefer to read fiction than read about fiction).

I’d advise skipping the intro because it rubbed me the wrong way to have her husband talk about getting the collection together with his new wife, whom he dedicates it to. Kind of disconcerting.

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Posted on May 2, 2010

Books »What to Expect When You’re Expecting

by Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel

Yes, it’s true: Jim and I have a little one on the way!! Safely past my first trimester, we are excited to find out if it’s a boy or a girl in the next couple months. The classic What to Expect When You’re Expecting was our first purchase when we discovered we were pregnant. It answers so many of the questions mommies-to-be have, plus some you (or at least I) had never thought of.

Of course, all that information can also get one worried, so I put the book back on the shelf for weeks at a time. The new edition cover features a strange Photoshop-illustrated, photograph hybrid woman, but don’t be concerned, the information inside is still the same as it’s always been (with modern updates of course).

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Posted on April 18, 2010

Books »I Married A Dead Man

by William Irish (1948)

An implausible thriller containing train collisions, stolen identities, pasts reemerging, and doomed romances, I Married a Dead Man is the stuff of classic Hollywood noir. No surprise, considering author Cornell Woolrich (using the pen name William Irish) is the author of the books that Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, Mississippi Mermaid, and Cloak and Dagger (to name just a few) were based on.

Woolrich is also the author of one of my best book of the year picks, Rendezvous in Black and while I Married a Dead Man lacks the darkness, strangeness, and suspense of that gem, it’s still a satisfying noir that’s a quick read for summer time.

The book was made into a 1950’s Barbara Stanwyck film, No Man of Her Own and (with less success) loosely adapted into the 1992 comedy called Mrs. Winterbourne starring Ricki Lake and Brandon Frasier.

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Posted on April 11, 2010

Books »The Fig Eater