Category Archives: Reading fiction

The 2015 moldy oldie(s): Midwich Cuckoos of the Damned

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Every Halloween I dust off a long-forgotten supernatural horror story to read and review. It’s been a busy November, which is why I’m only getting to writing up my review of 2015’s selection today.  This year’s “moldy oldie” is the … Continue reading →

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Planet of the . . . absurd

Posted on August 5, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Who knew that the author of Planet of the Apes (1963) was a Frenchman who was also author of The Bridge Over the River Kwai (1952)? Pierre Boulle (1912-1994) had a sense of the absurd which led him to depict men and apes … Continue reading →

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Going back to “Underworld” before they release a fifth film

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Brian Bixby

I’m not a big fan of Underworld, but I did pick up the Blu-ray set of the movies a year ago. Now I hear there’s a fifth movie on the way, although casting problems may delay it. So I decided … Continue reading →

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Review: Rachel Urquhart, The Visionist

Posted on January 28, 2015 by Brian Bixby

Writing a novel about the Shakers forces a serious novelist to have to make several choices, some of which will shape the story, others of which can detrimentally affect the story. To her credit, most of Rachel Urquhart’s choices in The … Continue reading →

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Review: Violet Hunt, (More) Tales of the Uneasy (1911, 1925)

Posted on November 17, 2014 by Brian Bixby

Every year at Halloween, I dig up a “moldy oldy,” a generally forgotten book of supernatural fiction to read. This year, for a change, I tackled a pair of short stories collections: Tales of the Uneasy (1911) and More Tales … Continue reading →

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Review: Vernon Lee, Hauntings

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Brian Bixby

Vernon Lee wrote in an essay that the supernatural and the arts were diametrically opposed to each other. So, of course, she wrote three collections of supernatural stories over the course of her long (1856 – 1935) life. How do … Continue reading →

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Review: the supernatural stories of Gertrude Atherton

Posted on October 20, 2014 by Brian Bixby

After reading an anthology of Victorian-Era ghost stories by women writers, I decided I would read through a volume of supernatural stories by one of the authors with whom I was less familiar. As it turns out, I’ll be reading three … Continue reading →

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Review: Women ghost story writers of the Victorian Age

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Brian Bixby

Ever since the Women’s Lib movement of the 1960s, editors have produced endless anthologies of stories written exclusively by women to prove that women can write as well as men, and to bring undeservedly obscure female authors to our attention. … Continue reading →

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A Mary Wilkins-Freeman twofer

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Brian Bixby

Ever hear of Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freeman (1852 – 1930)? It’s not one of those names that has come ringing down the ages. She was one of those female New England regional writers circa 1900,[i] at a time when the … Continue reading →

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How did the reading habits of your parents affect you?

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Brian Bixby

My parents were both firm advocates of education and voracious readers. My father liked the books he grew up with, and history books, while my mother was more inclined to British murder mysteries and American paperback novels. Initially, this affected … Continue reading →

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