May 2017 - J. Sheridan Le Fanu/Ghosts

May 2017 - Ghosts - Featured Author J. Sheridan Le Fanu



In a Glass Darkly which contains "Green Tea" "The Familiar" "Mr. Justice Harbottle" "The Room in the Dragon Volant" and "Carmilla"
Uncle Silas
The Watcher
Wylder's Hand

There are also numerous short stories

An Account of Some Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street
An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House
The Child that Went with the Fairies
The Dead Sexton
Dickon the Devil
The Drunkard's Dream
The Ghost and the Bone-Setter
Ghost Stories of Chapelizod
Laura Silver Bell
Madam Crowl's Ghost
Schalken the Painter
Stories of Lough Guir
Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen
The Vision of Tom Chuff
Wicked Captain Walshawe, of Wauling
The Evil Guest
The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh
The Last Heir of Castle Connor
Passage in the Secret History of an Irish Countess
The Bridal of Carrigvarah
Jim Sulivan's Adventures in the Great Snow
A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family
An Adventure of Hardress Fitzgerald, A Royalist Captain
'The Quare Gander'
Billy Malowney's Taste of Love and Glory
The Murdered Cousin

This month also lends itself to numerous other writers such as Joe Hill, Susan Hill & Peter Straub

Please post your ideas of other authors. I love ghost stories!

I'll be either reading or listening to In a Glass Darkly

I love ghost stories too, and I have a few on my shelf to choose from. Previously this year I have read the following ghost stories: The Elementals by Michael McDowell; A Stir of Echoes by Richard Matheson; The Boy Who Drew Monsters by Keith Donohue; and Horrorstor by Grady Hendrix.

I think one book I will read for sure is All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage, which is tagged ghosts and which I recently bought. I may get in one or two more off my various lists.

>3 sturlington: I have Horrorstor on my bedroom bookshelf. That means its in the queue for this year. I will add it to the list for this month. Thanks!

If I am able to, I will get to Stir of Echos as well. It's readily available from my library and it sounds good.

>3 sturlington: I really liked A Stir of Echoes, which I just read in March, I believe (Matheson's month!).

I have a few options:

The Girl on Legare Street / Karen White
Blood Bound / Patricia Briggs
It / Stephen King (would be a reread, but I think there's a long wait list for the audio (which I wanted to try) at the library... there was a long list a few months back, anyway; maybe I'll check again...)
The Mystery of Grace / Charles de Lint
Delia's Shadow / Jaime Lee Moyer

I already have the de Lint book from the library, so I will definitely do that one. I'll see if "It" is available or not. If I fit in another, it will likely be Blood Bound.

ETA: I don't know how closely these really fit; I'm going based on tags.

If anyone wants ghost story recommendations, these two have made my favourites in previous years:

The Winter People / Jennifer McMahon
This House is Haunted / John Boyne

>7 LibraryCin: Both of those are on my tbr but need to be acquired from the library. Definite possibilities.

Well, this fits ghosts, but not so much horror. Someone (though possibly only one person, based on the small font) has tagged it such, so I'll post it here. However, hopefully I'll have time to read something that really fits, in my opinion.

The Mystery of Grace / Charles de Lint
4 stars

Grace is of Mexican descent, is a mechanic, and is covered with tattoos. John is a really nice guy, an artist. When John and Grace spend a night together, they seem to be super-connected. Imagine John’s surprise when Grace literally disappears from his bathroom the next morning! I’d like to say more about the book (much more is revealed in the second chapter), but the big reveal is not mentioned in the blurb about the book, so I will keep it to myself (but you can see it based on tags if you look; don’t look if you don’t want to see!).

The chapters were told from alternating points of view. I really liked this. Really good urban fantasy (which de Lint is so good at!). I liked both main characters and I liked Grace’s world and the friendship she made with Conchita. The mythology/superstition was interesting, as well.

I finished The Winter People. Unfortunately, I had a bit of trouble engaging with this ghost story.

I did try to read All Things Cease to Appear but found the protagonist so detestable I had to stop. It wasn't really a ghost story, anyway, but rather literary fiction that may have had a ghost in it.

>10 sturlington: Aw, I'm sorry you didn't like it. (The Winter People)

I finished another one. The Shadow Year is a very subtle ghost story, about a boy coming of age in a small town in the 1960s. I really enjoyed it.

>9 LibraryCin: I love Charles de Lint's writing. You're right that The Mystery of Grace isn't really horror, but it fits the ghost theme very well. I discovered recently that de Lint had written a couple of horror books under the pseudonym Samuel Keys and I picked up I'll Be Watching You. It'll be interesting to see how it compares to his other fantasy work.

I also finished listening to the audiobook version of In a Glass Darkly by Le Fanu. The first three shorter stories were pretty good and the last two were excellent. "The Room in the Dragon Volant" isn't a ghost story but it's a well crafted thriller/mystery. "Carmilla" is an exceptionally creepy vampire story.

>13 mathgirl40: Yes, I've read a couple of "Samuel Keys'" books, as well. I had to request I'll be Watching You via ILL, but I have it here now. :-) I have a couple other books to get to first, but it's coming up soon.

I just started "The Room in the Dragon Volant" I'm enjoying this audio, but had some Hoopla issues so I had to delete and reinstall.

I finished In A Glass Darkly a bit late, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.