reading Archives

My Year of Really Bad Dates

The Dangers and Heartaches of Dating Author: Rachel J. Lithgow Let’s be honest: movies and TV lie, because dating at any age is horrible. For Rachel, it’s insult added to injury. She is recently divorced and recovering from essentially being her depressive husband’s around-the-clock caretaker and his verbally abusive family’s favorite punching bag. She’s broken and finally seeking a relationship that gives instead of only taking. Even worse, the man who was her touchstone after the divorce, her on-again off-again ex-boyfriend Joe, is leaving her to move to another state with another woman, a blonde real-estate agent with a “live-laugh-love” vibe. [...]

Frances Carden2025-10-21T14:49:42-07:00October 21st, 2025|Tags: book review, dating, dating after 50, dating after divorce, memoir, online dating, read, reading|

Heads

Evil '80s Science and Rebellious Disembodied Heads Author: David Osborn Over fifteen years ago now, I purchased a huge eBay mystery book lot that just keeps giving. What’s better than horror novels, you ask? Old horror novels, with ridiculous names, 80s style covers, and enough camp to keep a horror hound happy. That’s where David Osborn’s Heads comes into play. It was the next in the still astonishingly huge pile. The story follows an unethical, secret lab with hot doctors who like to experiment on supposed “volunteers.” Now, back in the 80s, the whole idea of cryogenics and head freezing and [...]

Frances Carden2025-10-20T11:10:17-07:00October 20th, 2025|Tags: 80s, book review, campy, horror, read, reading, science fiction|

Lure

Revenge of the Old Gods Author: Tim McGregor In the chapel of a lonesome fishing village, the bones of a monster hang over the beleaguered worshipers. In this place, the chapel is not popular, and the tithes that keep the priest and his children alive rarely come in. The villagers themselves are hardly doing better, eking out an existence at the behest of the tremulous waves. They think their luck has changed, however, when a luremaid (mermaid) appears offshore one day, and the men of the town decide to hunt, capture, and imprison the creature. And their luck does change . [...]

Frances Carden2025-10-18T11:24:45-07:00October 18th, 2025|Tags: book review, horror, mermaid, read, reading|