August 2017: Flannery O'Connor - Women

This month we focus on Women authors. The Focus author is Flannery O' Connor, 1925-1964, who wrote Southern Gothic.

I'll be reading The Lifted Veil by George Elliot (Mary Anne Evans)

Thanks for setting up the thread. I'm not sure what I will read yet.

Thank you for the thread!

I have decided on: The Book of Speculation / Erika Swyler.

I forgot I just got this: The Grip of It by Jac Jemc. I had thought the author was male, but I was wrong, so I'll read that one.

I am currently reading through the works of Elizabeth Gaskell and the short story collection The Old Nurse's Story is a collection of stories and the title one is a ghost story so I'll count this one for this months selection.

The Elliot is a short story but not in a collection. I'll try to get it this month but may save it for later.

I am really having trouble picking things from my tbr this year. I'm guessing I just don't have as many horror books on my tbr as I used to?

The one I picked doesn't really fit. I use tags to choose from my tbr, and someone had this tagged horror, but I guess everyone's definition is a bit different.

I'm going to post it here, anyway, because it's what I'd planned on, but it really isn't horror. :-(

The Book of Speculation / Erika Swyler
3 stars

Simon is a librarian who has just lost his job. His old house is falling apart around him and he can’t afford to fix it. His has pretty much raised his sister, Enola, but she’s been gone for a long time. She reads tarot cards for a travelling circus. When a bookseller gives him a book with his grandmother’s name in it, he starts researching. He discovers that the women in previous generations of his family all drowned on July 24. When Enola comes home to visit close to that date, he is worried.

The book goes back and forth in time, following Simon’s life and back in time, following the circus that one of his ancestors belonged to. At first, I didn’t mind the historical portion of the story, but somewhere along the way, much of that part of the story lost my interest, though I still enjoyed Simon and Enola’s portion of the story. Overall, it was ok.

>7 LibraryCin: I'm still making my way through the Gaskell collection of short stories. I'll post when I'm done. It's a bit of an uneven collection.

I'm very late with my update. August was tremendously busy and I didn't get much time on LT. However, I did finish a book for this challenge: Maplecroft by Cherie Priest. This was an alternate-history/fantasy/horror novel that offers an interesting twist on the Lizzie Borden story.