the to-read pile

I managed to make good on my promise of “no coronavirus this week”.

Harley Quinn reading a book and sipping an espresso
She’s so much funnier without Joker. Seriously, see Birds of Prey.

Today you get a taste of my to-read pile, curated to complement the (usual) flavor of the blog. Some of these are research for the next book, all are non-fiction. Please feel free to peruse my Goodreads at the site (follow me, I’ll follow back) or get a snapshot of my current reading just to the left of this post.

Actually, all of these links are to Goodreads because I don’t want to favor one book vendor over another:

Alchemical Belief: Occultism in the Religious Culture of Early Modern England: because while my research for “Fool’s Gold” is long done I still find the subject interesting. Looks like a crunchy academic book worthy of a slow read.

Fingerprints and Phantoms: True Tales of Law Enforcement Encounters with the Paranormal and the Strange: because law enforcement has no incentive to make stuff up and tend to make careful observations, I’m hoping this is a cut above similar accounts.

They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers: another in a refreshing current trend of UFO books that are less about what UFOs are and more about what they mean to people (see also: American Cosmic; UFOs: Reframing the Debate; The Greys Have Been Framed)

Future Sounds: The Story of Electronic Music from Stockhausen to Skrillex: as a lifelong raver I want to know how we got from there to here and my itchy mind can’t just enjoy something without craving context (wish they’d left the title “Mars by 1980” though)

Life between Two Deaths, 1989-2001: U.S. Culture in the Long Nineties: ditto – I lived it, now I want to digest it (crunch crunch crunch)

American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America: because I need to find more critters for my fictional menagerie manager to drag back to his master.

Monster, She Wrote: The Women Who Pioneered Horror and Speculative Fiction: as a woman writing gothic fiction I’d like to know more about who came before me.

What are you reading? What do you want to read? Any recommendations? And if you’ve read any of the above, what did you think of them?

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Allison Thurman

Raised on a diet of Star Wars, Monty Python, and In Search Of, Allison Thurman has always made stuff, lately out of words. She lives in a galaxy far, far away (well, the DC metro area) with too many books and not enough swords.

One thought on “the to-read pile”

  1. “In the Slip” by F.D. Lee (https://www.fdlee.co.uk/) is first for this weekend’s recreational reading. Her “The Pathways Tree” series is excellent (read newly-released volume 4 last weekend)
    Then more rambling through my copy of Cecelia Campochiaro’s “Making Marls” (https://ceceliacampochiaro.com/making-marls/), her second knitting math/engineering textbook! (the first was about stitch sequences, this one is multi-strand colour combinations)
    After those, I’ll just go with what my mood has me grab. Suspect it’ll be “Sharps” by K.J. Parker … first read it as an ebook a long while back but I now have a paper copy sitting on my desk and my eyes keep straying to it …
    And “Posy Simmonds” by Paul Gravett, which is sitting on top of “Sharps” is also something I’m eager to get to; have loved her graphic novels and one-off cartoons for many years.
    Also want to knit, of course.

    P.S. Did I remember to tell you I posted a book list in mid-March? I know there are titles that will please you in it: https://catdesk.dreamwidth.org/45235.html

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