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A List of Lists: Links to Booklists Recently Shared on Facebook

October is a busy month, and it kind of wore me out. One thing I did to make it easier to share some of the great booklists out there during the time that includes Teen Read Week and Halloween was to post them on our Facebook page. Over the past few years we haven’t really posted there very much but it is an easy way for me to post a link to something cool right away when I find it. Unfortunately, our Facebook page doesn’t actually have a lot of viewers, which means that if the only way you get information from Monster Librarian is through our blogs, then you probably missed out on seeing some pretty cool stuff (even if you “liked” our page, Facebook’s evil plan to force us to pay for advertising means our reach isn’t necessarily all that great, so actually visiting every once in a while instead of waiting for us to show up in your news feed is a good way to see what’s going on).

So I thought I’d share some of the links to booklists that I posted there that I don’t think got posted here while I was working on developing original content here. Some of them are pretty cool, and all of them are just a little different.

 

Bewitching Tales: Great Books for Halloween Reads from School Library Journal.

Pretty self-explanatory.

 

The Devil’s 10 Best Appearances in Literature at Flavorwire.com.

I’d argue with some of these choices, but it is an interesting list. Actually, it’s an interesting idea for a list as well.

 

Find Your Next Supernatural Read by Carli Spina at The Hub, the blog for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA).

A nice list of YA choices.

 

Horror in YA Literature is a Staple, Not a Trend by Kelly Jensen in School Library Journal.

I love this article. If you are interested in YA at all, read it!

 

Genre Guide: Horror for Teens at The Hub.

It’s really nice to see teen horror get its own genre guide. And about time.

 

Ten Best Halloween Read-Aloud Picture Books for Kids at BookRiot.

There are some nice choices here, and it’s always nice to see the early elementary crowd get some recognition– they love the scary stuff, too!

 

Top 10 Horror Fiction for Youth: 2013 by Gillian Engberg from Booklist Online.

Pretty self-explanatory.

 

Top 10 Horror Fiction: 2013, by Brad Hooper from Booklist Online.

Also self-explanatory. It’s nice to have a summary of good recent titles, though.

 

RA for All: 31 Days of Halloween– Love for Monster Librarian by Becky Siegel Spratford at RA Horror for All.

Becky had a different post on reader’s advisory in horror fiction every day of the month, including a very interesting series of guest posts from the folks at Booklist. I just happened to link to this particular day because I’m proud to be included here, but really, anyone interested in reader’s advisory in horror fiction ought to visit here regularly.

 

10 Novels That Will Scare the Hell Out of You by Julie Buntin at The Huffington Post.

These are all titles that tie into the haunted house subgenre.

 

The Top Ten Horror Stories by Stephen Jones from Publishers Weekly.

Anthologist Stephen Jones, editor of A Book of Horrors, shares his top ten favorite horror short stories.

 

Halloween Reads @ your library from MonsterLibrarian.com

This is not the only original booklist I’ve produced over the last month or so, but it is one that’s directly related to Halloween. I put together new and original content and booklists every year at this time, so it’s worth it to browse not only this year’s archives for October, but past years as well. This list is part of something new I’m trying where I focus on a particular topic or creature (I’ve already touched on The Phantom of The Opera, The Invisible Man, and witches) for a list of books or media that can be used to promote horror through library collections, so look out for the “@ your library” posts for related booklists.

 

Halloween Reading: Joseph D’Lacey’s Top Ten Horror Books from The Guardian.

This is a list of choices made by horror author Joseph D’Lacey.

 

Quiet Horror, Still the Darling of the Horror Genre by Paula Cappa.

Paula writes about a genre of horror that has gone unnoticed for some time and is just recently gaining a little recognition– quiet, or atmospheric, horror. Paula’s blog is a great place to visit for older examples of stories in this genre, but more current titles (like Alison Littlewood’s A Cold Season) are now sneaking into the mainstream as well.

 

5 Must-Read Werewolf Novels from Barnes & Noble.

The werewolf genre is another one where the audience is depressingly underserved. Here are a few titles to give you a place to begin in making suggestions. The essential word there is “begin”.

 

The 5 Scariest Short Stories on the Market!

The title here is misleading, as these are not new stories by any means, but the list does show that quiet horror is starting to get some notice again.

 

13 of the Year’s Creepiest Books from The Book Case at BookPage.com.

This is a list of recent titles, and you’ll probably recognize some of the names.

 

The 5 Creepiest Anime Series of All Time from Geek Magazine.

Yikes. I’ll stick with Fruits Baskets, thank you very much.

 

9 Children’s Books That Absolutely Terrified Us from The Huffington Post.

It’s always nice to see Der Struwwelpeter on these kinds of lists. Well, maybe nice is not the right word. The author here made some interesting choices that I suspect many people may disagree with.

 

10 of the Creepiest Books That Kids Love at Babble.com.

I love this list because it contains books outside the usual suspects, like Heckedy Peg by Audrey Wood, a book that I LOVE and used to read aloud in storyhours all the time.

 

Horror Stories: 25 Must-Read Books that Inspired Scary Movies at Complex.com.

Very cool list– the author comes down on the side of “the book is better than the movie”, but either way, I think it’s a win.

 

So there you have it. Lots and lots of links to booklists of all kinds, for children, teens, and adults, from creepy anime to haunted houses. It takes a long time to compile a month’s worth of booklists, so please visit us on Facebook to see what other treasures I turn up!

Posted on November 9, 2013 by , Reply

Gris Grimly’s Frankenstein

It’s so unfair that I just found out about this. Gris Grimly, illustrator of  two very creepy books of Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories (Tales of Death and Dementia and Tales of Mystery and Madness (reviewed here), now has an illustrated version of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, just out since August 27.  Grimly was interviewed by Publisher’s Weekly about the process of re-creating, designing, and illustrating Frankenstein, a story which has been adapted and presented in many different ways (it’s a really interesting interview, and here is a link so you can check it out for yourself). One of the things I learned from reading it was that Grimly had blogged about the process as he worked through the book, created illustrations, got frustrated, made changes, and pulled it all together. For four years. How I missed knowing that a brilliant illustrator of both children’s and YA books was working on, and blogging about, this fantastic project for FOUR YEARS is crazy! I so wish the publisher had contacted us and offered a copy to us for review. Anyway, the blog he wrote as he was creating this book is a pretty neat look into the mind of an illustrator who is serious about respecting the author’s intent while also making the story his own, and here is a link so you can visit there. I loved Kenneth Oppell’s prequel to the Frankenstein story, This Dark Endeavor (reviewed here), which (at least in the Kindle version) was paired with the original novel, and is intriguing and gripping enough to motivate some kids into attempting the original. However, from what he says, Grimly takes what appears to be a much more direct, visual, and fantastic approach to the story, one that may draw in an entirely different audience of YA readers. But mainly, right now, I’m just bummed that, with the book four years in the making, and Grimly publicly blogging about it, that I didn’t know about it until now. And if you didn’t know about it before, and you see just the bits he shows on his blog,  I suspect you’ll want to know more, too.

Posted on August 30, 2013 by , Reply

The Top 10 Horror Stories: Stephen Jones’ Picks

There’s a short but very interesting article by Stephen Jones at Publisher’s Weekly. Jones, editor of the recently published anthology A Book of Horrors (which received an enthusiastic review from our own Dave Simms– you can read the review here). Jones named his top ten picks for horror stories, and I’m going to link to his list here. See if you agree!

The authors he mentions are well-known in the genre, and if you don’t know exactly where you can find the stories he mentions, most of them have collections or longer works that might already be in your library. Some of the choices are ones you might not expect, like Ray Bradbury, who’s frequently defined as a science fiction writer, so it’s a great opportunity to market the horror genre to a new audience. You could do a great display bringing some of these to light!

Posted on January 23, 2013 by , Reply
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