Read Recently -- May -- Monsters of divers kinds
Monster of God: the Man-eating predator in the jungles of history and the mind by David Quammen
Despite what you might think from the title and from my recent reading habits, this is not an atheist tract. Rather, it's a book about Alpha Predators; lions and tigers and bears (and crocodiles). Quammen goes some interesting places around the world, and looks at what happens when humans meet the creatures that used to eat us (and still occasionally do). He starts off with the lions of India (no, you read that right, India--they're a small group living in one forest, the last of the asian lions), moves on to the salt-water crocodiles of northern Australia, then the brown bears of Eastern Europe, and finally the Siberian Tiger. It's a fascinating read, going off on all sorts of what seem like tangents only to reinforce the original point unexpectedly. Highly recommended.
Everything's Eventual: 14 dark tales by Stephen King
This latest collection of King's short fiction features a cover of the poster for the movie 1408, because the story for same is inside.
The first story, "Autopsy Room Four" is about a man who is bitten by something on a golf course and left paralysed. So much so, in fact, that he is taken for dead when he is found, and is sent to the morgue for an autopsy. Of course, he's alive. And conscious. And he can feel . . . A seriously scarey story.
The second, "The Man in the Black Suit" is about a boy growing up in Maine in 1914 who goes fishing one day and meets the devil in the woods.
"All That You Love Will be Carried Away" is a non-horror story about a travelling salesman who checks into a motel one night. He's a student of graffiti, from which he got the sentence that titles the story. This was easily my least favourite story in the book, cause I don't see the point to it.
"The Death of Jack Hamilton" is about the last days of the Dillinger Mob.
"In the Deathroom" is about an American reporter who falls afoul of a south- or central- american dictator and is taken in for interrogation. Like the first story, this one is very tense.
"The Little Sisters of Eluria" is a previously unwritten chapter in the quest of Roland, the Gunslinger of King's so-named series. Injured in battle, Roland is taken in by a group of women who are the titular religious healers . . . or are they?
"Everything's Eventual" is the story of a young man with a paranormal ability that he can use to kill people without trace, and how he is convinced to use that power, and what it costs him.
"L.T.'s Theory of Pets" is the story of a marriage breaking down because, in a perverse version of "the Gift of the Magi", each person bought the other the wrong pet. It's a little more complicated than that, and there's a serial killer involved, but really, that's what it's about.
In "The Road Virus Heads North", a man buys a picture at a garage sale, the last possessions of the demented genius who painted the picture then killed himself. The picture depicts a monstrous young man and a sports car, but the background starts changing, and people the new owner interacts with start dying . . . again, creepy and effective, though I have a few problems with the ending. They're minor, though.
"Lunch at the Gotham Cafe" has a couple meeting to discuss their divorce at the titular restaurant when the Maitre d' goes crazy with a knife.
"That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French" is about a couple driving through Florida on a vacation . . . over and over again. The titular feeling is deja vu. And they have. Not as boring as I'm making it sound.
"1408" is the story King started writing as an example in On Writing, but he wasn't able to leave it alone. A professional skeptic checks into a haunted hotel room as research for his next book, and gets more than he bargained for. This is one of the best stories in the book, and I was neither surprised nor displeased to learn they had made it into a movie. Of course, I never actually got out to see it, but I'll catch the DVD.
"Riding the Bullet" is about a young man hitchhiking home from college upon hearing that his mother is in the hospital. Some rides you just shouldn't accept.
"Lucky Quarter" is about a down-on-her-luck hotel cleaner in Carson City, Nevada, who is tipped a lucky quarter one day. A psychological story rather than a horror story.
There are enough hits on this one that I recommend it to fans of horror, and/or to fans of King.