Lot Lizards - Ray Garton (Vampire novel set at a truck stop in Yreka, CA. Fun read so far. Oh, and 'lot lizards' are prostitutes that hang around truck stop parking lots.)

I just read the novelization of the 2001 Planet of the Apes for the first time. I was hoping for some understanding of that bizarre final scene that lowered a lot of ratings for the film but the book doesn't go there. It ends with the Wahlberg character alone in space after he takes off from the POTA. It's an OK read, doesn't add much to the experience of seeing the film, and some of the best stuff in the film (like Tim Roth going ape shit) doesn't come off as well in the book. On the other hand, the humans don't seem quite as inappropriately voiced as they do in the film.

Now reading the novella Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar.

read 'Room' (redrum!) by Emma Donoghue this month, now halfway through Charles Burns 'Black Hole', which considering the subject matter, seems an apt point to post

Last Words-Michael Koryta

The Girls by Emma Cline

Northern California, during the violent end of the 1960s. At the start of summer, a lonely and thoughtful teenager, Evie Boyd, sees a group of girls in the park, and is immediately caught by their freedom, their careless dress, their dangerous aura of abandon. Soon, Evie is in thrall to Suzanne, a mesmerizing older girl, and is drawn into the circle of a soon-to-be infamous cult and the man who is its charismatic leader. Hidden in the hills, their sprawling ranch is eerie and run down, but to Evie, it is exotic, thrilling, charged—a place where she feels desperate to be accepted. As she spends more time away from her mother and the rhythms of her daily life, and as her obsession with Suzanne intensifies, Evie does not realize she is coming closer and closer to unthinkable violence, and to that moment in a girl’s life when everything can go horribly wrong

Family Tradition intrigues, will have to treat myself to a copy next Abebooks/Amazon splurge

Picked up The Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult: Uncanny Tales vol 1 from a charity shop few days ago. Has stories by (amongst others) Edgar Allen Poe, Sheridan Le Fanu & Washington Irving, som old skool chills there.

The copy was published in 1974 & the original price is UK 40p, some forty odd years later and the price i paid was 50p, bloody inflation for ya!

Hail to the Chin: Further Confessions of a B Movie Actor, by Bruce Campbell.

I enjoyed Bruce's first two books. How was that one?

I'm not done yet, but so far so good. If you like If Chins Could Kill, you should definitely like this one.

Must read this one!

I only read two books last month - largely because i got really bogged down reading The Gunfighter - the first of his Dark Tower series. It had some terrific passages but in between was some of my least favorite writing from King. It all seemed very amateurish compared to his usual polished style. So, that took me almost three weeks to read and it was only 150 pages! Should I go on with King's Dark Tower series? The completist in me (and King fan - I've read and mostly enjoyed about 40 of his other books) says yes. King says yes (in his two intros to the copy of The gunfighter that I read - that's right, not just one, but two intros - both better written and more interesting than the book itself). Any Dark Tower fans out there?

The other book I read went down a lot easier - a real page-turner compared to The Gunfighter. It was Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. Quite possibly the most upbeat post-apocalyptic novel I've read - sort of the antithesis to Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Quite enjoyable.

Now, thanks to some positive word of mouth here, I'm reading and enjoying Lovecraft Country.

The Gunslinger he wrote when he was younger- still in college, I still love the book. But my favorite of his series is The Dark Tower II and III, both are easily in the top of his work. l I'd put the second book in the Top 5 of his entire work. I also really enjoy the 4th book, which we see a younger Roland. 5,6,7 are worth reading to complete the series though not as strong as the previous books. He then published a more recent book, that can be skipped or read between parts 4 and 5, it's a story within a story within a story that actually is a fun fable like tale.

Welcome back! We're missing you at the Sci/Fi Challenge.

Thanks for the info on Dark Tower. That's a high rec indeed for parts II & III and that has renewed my flagging enthusiasm. I've got a handful of other books backed up at the moment (Matt ruff's Bad Monkey, The Atrocity Archives by Charles Stross, and Age of Miracles by Karen Walker at the top of the pile), but I am sure I will return to The Dark Tower soon. I have been putting it off for a long time but I am a King fan and have always intended to read it.

How's the smoke in Portland today. We've reached a new level of haze - good time for reading and watching apocalyptic stories!

Thanks! I might try and get in a late entry, I do have some scifi flicks I haven't seen or watched in awhile.

I still want to read Marvel's Dark Tower comics, seems some is adaptations from the books, and original stores.
I do like how he has created his own universe of crossovers, what with Randall Flagg being a part of the series, and Father Callahan from Salem's Lot showing up in book V, and Hearts In Atlantis and Black House and some of his other work being part of it.

Hazy and smoky! Plus went out to my car at lunch and it's covered in ash! I hope we get some rain soon!!!

King has been great about interweaving characters and places in books in his universe. I didn't read any King from 1992-2004, and I've just started the Dark Tower series but I have read just about everything else. Duma Key and especially under the dome were the works that got me really excited about reading him again.

We have thunderstorms threatening - you can almost smell the moisture in the air - but so far only a few trickles have fallen. If the rain comes we should get some relief from the smoke and ash.

Love Duma Key. Probably my favorite book of his of the last 10 years is 11/22/63. Under The Dome was great, the series started out good then fell apart, it went from one of the highest rated summer shows to tanking by the 3rd season.

Finally got rain last night, nice going outside and not smelling smoke.

The thunderstorm we got yesterday was very welcome - even though we were without power for about an hour because of it. My son and I didn't care - we ran outside and played in the rain then sat on our porch breathing the much fresher air. Afterwards we could actually see the sun and feel its heat - for the first time in days!

I haven't tried to watch the Under the Dome series. I just watched the mini-series for 11/22/63 last month and thought they did a very good job with it. Really a great adaptation that made me want to go back and reread the book.

Eeny Meeny by MJ Arlidge. Detective hunts evil serial killer, not very well written but story is compelling enough. the chapters average about 3 n a half pages and the final forty or so pages are the intro to the author's next book. guess the publishers wanted to bulk it out, prob qualifies as a short story on kindle

Been re reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series, currently on book 4, one of the longest of the series, I like it quite a bit, sort of a coming of age western with Roland as a teen.