Author: Shannon Turlington
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Golden Ages of Horror: Reading Elizabeth
About two years ago, I discovered Valancourt Books, which reissues out-of-print horror, generally from the 1970s and early 1980s, in really attractive slim trade paperbacks. My latest read from them was Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall (originally published under the pseudonym Jessica Hamilton). What a disturbing little book about a 14-year-girl who seems to be a complete sociopath…
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Gorgeous Cover Alert! Passing Strange
My first read of 2019 fit the bill: light and easy. Passing Strange by Ellen Klages is a lovely love story with a backdrop of San Francisco in the 1940s. Excellent cast of women characters.
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Happy birthday, Mary Shelley and Frankenstein!
This year is the two-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein, and today is also Mary Shelley’s birthday. So let’s celebrate this great novel and author with ten facts about Frankenstein. Mary Shelley’s lover (later husband), the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, was friends with the poet Lord Byron (who both were not nearly as badass…
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Recommended Reading: Red Clocks
I am reading a lot of books in the “Angry Women” category this year, which seems appropriate for the year of #metoo. My latest read, Red Clocks by Leni Zumas, takes place in an alternate United States (or in the near future?), when a Personhood Amendment to the Constitution has made abortion and in vitro fertilization illegal. It…
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Reading angry women
“I have lived with that anger, on that anger, beneath that anger, on top of that anger … for most of my life.” – Audre Lord “Once upon a time / I had enough anger in me to crack crystal” – Kiki Petrosino “Out of the ash / I rise with my red hair /…
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Disaster
Good morning. Lately, I have been attracted to stories about disasters, both real and imagined. I am currently reading Isaac’s Storm by Erik Larson, about the disastrous Galveston hurricane of 1900, and learning a lot about hurricanes in the process. Recently, I have watched the films Everest (2015), about the tragic expedition of 1996, and…
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Reading May 2018: The Power and more
My favorite read this month was The Power by Naomi Alderman, which I gave five stars. It posits what if a power awakens in women, an innate ability to generate electric power, so that they can defend themselves and hurt other people, so that they, in just a few years, become more powerful than men? I found…
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Memoirs in my reading stack…
This year, I’ve been upping the number of memoirs I read, which is surprising to me, because I haven’t been drawn to the genre in the past. But I’ve been having good luck with the ones I’ve chosen lately, and I’ve found each one to be inspiring, in its own way. I would recommend any…
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Growing…
No place in my home gets enough sunlight to start seeds, so I’m trying something new. These are potential basil plants for the garden. We’ll see how they do.
Shannon Turlington 