book review Archives

Pallbearers Club, The

Scary Jackets and Creepy Dressers Author: Paul Tremblay Art Barbara (fake name to protect the not-so-innocent) was an awkward adolescent, encumbered with a back brace and a steadily curving spine. He is now sharing his spiral into addiction through an unlikely supernatural memoir. Art claims that his friendship with Mercy was more than just two quirky adolescents with a fixation on booze and the macabre. Mercy was, of course, feeding off his life-force, and now she has her vampiric hands on his manuscript, red lining his mistakes and showcasing Art for the unreliable narrator that he is. Is this a story [...]

Frances Carden2023-07-02T09:25:16-07:00July 2nd, 2023|Tags: book review, horror, read, readin, reading|

She Rides: Chasing Dreams Across California and Mexico

Living Vs Surviving Author: Alenka Vrecek Time often heals, but it also takes away choices, opportunities, dreams. What we once promised ourselves we would do slowly becomes inconvenient, uncomfortable, improbable, then impossible. Finally, we let go, citing maturity, convenience, consequences, responsibility. At fifty-four, Alenka is facing this reconciliation head-long and she recounts it in She Rides: Chasing Dreams Across California and Mexico. As she sees it, there are two choices: to give into the ravages of a treacherous body after a horrifying head-on confrontation with cancer or to strike out and live her dream – dangers, challenges, and horrified family be [...]

Frances Carden2023-06-28T09:09:24-07:00June 27th, 2023|Tags: autobiography, book review, memoir, read, reading, reviews, travel|

Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires, The

A Quirky Read Worth the Hype Author: Grady Hendrix I’m not a Grady Hendrix fan, or at least I wasn’t, but my book clubs keep selecting his offerings. And I admit, I’ve been curious about this one for a while. So, I dove in. It begins with Patricia and her family. Her no-nonsense, all-business, absentee husband; her weird, Nazi fascinated child (Blue); and her declining and sometimes presciently creepy mother-in-law. Patricia is your everyday suburban mom: stressed, bored, trying to keep it together. Mildly affluent. Mildly happy. Mildly fake. This all changes one night when Patricia goes to take the trash [...]

Frances Carden2023-06-26T17:05:24-07:00June 26th, 2023|Tags: book review, dark comedy, horror, read, reading|