I knew I would not be able to resist. Even though September slid in so very quietly (I was thinking more about that extra day off from work than anything else), it did not take me long to come across the R.I.P. announcement via Iliana at Bookgirl's Nightstand. Although I will just be reading along in spirit (pun intended . . .), there is an official page for a few guidelines and suggestions and a place to share links and reviews, if you are so inclined. How can this possibly be the 14th year?! I think I have probably read along each and every year, so I can't not pick out a book or two to read for the season.
It was my intention to just grab a very few books off my reading piles at hand, but the pile ended up about twice the size I was planning. If I can read two of these books by the end of next month I will be very satisfied. One for each month surely must be manageable? I tried to choose books that are not the usual books I select each year.
These seem like perfect fall choices:
Strangers, Taichi Yamada -- From my Reading Japan stack! Must have at least one ghost story in the pile. "Middle-aged, jaded and divorced, TV scriptwriter, Harada returns one night to the dilapidated downtown district of Tokyo where he grew up. There, at the theatre, he meets a likable man who looks exactly like his long-dead father. And so begins Harada's ordeal, as he's thrust into a reality where his parents appear to be alive at the exact age they had been when they had died so many years before."
The Brimstone Wedding, Barbara Vine (Ruth Rendell) -- This would be a reread, but I am ready to revisit her work. "When a superstitious nurse in a rural old-age home reveals her relationship with a married man to a patient, she is given the key to a secret cottage that also unlocks a door into the patient's terrifying past."
Deja Dead, Kathy Reichs -- "In the year since Temperance Brennan left behind a shaky marriage in North Carolina, work has often preempted her weekend plans to explore Quebec. When a female corpse is discovered meticulously dismembered and stashed in trash bags, Temperance detects an alarming pattern—and she plunges into a harrowing search for a killer. But her investigation is about to place those closest to her—her best friend and her own daughter—in mortal danger…"
The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, R.A. Dick -- "Burdened by debt after her husband's death, Lucy Muir insists on moving into the very cheap Gull Cottage in the quaint seaside village of Whitecliff, despite multiple warnings that the house is haunted. Upon discovering the rumors to be true, the young widow ends up forming a special companionship with the ghost of handsome former sea captain Daniel Gregg. Through the struggles of supporting her children, seeking out romance from the wrong places, and working to publish the captain's story as a book, Blood and Swash, Lucy finds in her secret relationship with Captain Gregg a comfort and blossoming love she never could have predicted." Another ghost story, but maybe not a terribly frightening one!
The Crime Writer, Jill Dawson -- "From acclaimed novelist Jill Dawson comes this imaginative psychological thriller—a dark and compelling snapshot into the life of Patricia Highsmith that immerses readers into the intoxicating, nightmarish psyche of this brilliant, complex author."
The Uninvited, Dorothy Macardle -- "A gothic, bone-chilling Irish ghost story first published in 1941 and now brought back into print. The title benefits from an introduction by well-known academic Professor Luke Gibbons and Martin Scorsese and various critics, including William K. Everson and Leonard Maltin, regard The Uninvited as one of the best ghost stories ever filmed." I think this is going to be a 'must read' and then 'must see' story one way or another this year!
Melmoth, Sarah Perry -- "It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts—or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears. . . ."
I think I am in for a good story whichever book I choose. Are you going to read along, or just read a scary story or two this season?