10 Things I'm Loving This February

Hello darlings! I hope you are having a spectacular February! Valentine's Day is behind us (did you see my goth love songs playlist, spooky love decor ideas, creepy cards, and ghoulish gift guide posts?) and hopefully you've all been celebrating Black History Month and Women in Horror Month! As for me, I've been watching a new horror documentary, listening to gloomy tunes, reading a thrilling book, eating delicious vegan sweets, and more. As I've been doing on a monthly basis with these "ten things" posts, I'm sharing with you 10 items I'm loving this month, which encourages me to be grateful for the little (and big) things while also passing along cool things for you to check out. See the 10 Things I'm Loving This February below:

Goth Gift Guide: Nefarious Non-Fiction for Curious Creeps

My idea of the perfect gift? BOOKS! I'd be happy buried beneath books, and while I really, really try to limit my collection these days due to space issues, I am finding it hard to resist adding the non-fiction books below to my personal Christmas wish list! There are books featuring hidden wonders from around the world, photographic collections of macabre items, recollections of 31 days of October spent in Salem, Victorian ways of death, haunted histories, personal art collections, and even a horror-inspired coloring book. These are all fairly new items, released just this year, and any of these are sure to make my fellow creeps happy!

Check out the nefarious non-fiction books I've selected for fellow spooklings below:

Watch Now on Netflix: Extraordinary Tales (2015)

I haven't been posting as many "Watch Now on Netflix" articles as I would like and have a lot of (fairly) new Netflix titles to recommend to you that I need to catch up on (hopefully soon, maybe in one big post)! However, when I saw this animated tribute to Edgar Allan Poe's work, I knew I had to write something about it immediately. You see, I have been wanting and waiting to check out Extraordinary Tales for quite some time now, and was ecstatic when it was recently added to stream on Netflix Instant!

This animated horror anthology features horror greats like Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee, Guillermo del Toro, Roger Corman, and Julian Sands narrating five Edgar Allan Poe tales and one wraparound story. Each animated short is narrated in a different style, with one having a stark graphic novel look, another one looking like a soft watercolor painting, another featuring bold colors in old comic book style, and so on.

Holiday Gift Guide 2015: Non-Fiction Books for Horror Lovers

Stumped for a gift for your favorite dark heart? One of my favorite gifts to give and to receive is a book! And luckily there have been many neat non-fiction books released recently that would make perfect gifts for horror lovers or those that appreciate darker, more morbid tomes.

Below you'll find my suggestions for eight non-fiction books I think would make fantastic gifts, ranging from Halloween adult coloring books to picture books on gothic television shows and movies to horror artwork to dangerous fashion to horror memoirs and more!

13 Days of Creepmas: 7 Macabre Books to Add to Your Creepmas Wish List

Looking for some unusual, strange, and macabre books this Christmas? I hope you are, because I have hand-picked some that are sure to send shivers down the spines of their lucky readers! I've picked a variety of books, some which are new, while others have been lurking in dark corners for years, but all are the perfect spooky antidote to the holiday cheer that seems to be infecting everything.

31 Days of Halloween: The Best Books for Halloween Part 2

I love curling up with a spooky book, and now is the perfect time to delve into a creepy book that will immerse you in Halloween spirit! There are lots of horror books you can read this time of year, but I like to enjoy scary books that are Halloween-themed or at least set during Halloween. I wrote about 5 of my faves a few years ago, but I wanted to share a few more that I love reading this time of year! This year’s picks vary from horror novels, to picture books, to children’s books and even non-fiction books about the holiday!

31 Days of Halloween: The Best Books for Halloween

Isn't October the best time to curl up with a spooky book? Though horror is my favorite genre and I read it year-round, there is just something special about reading about ghouls and goblins around Halloween. I especially love baking some pumpkin treats and settling in with a nice cuppa coffee and a Halloween-themed book!

However, not just any scary book will do for Halloween…the books I read during this spooky season HAVE to be set during Halloween or be about Halloween. So below you’ll find my top 5 picks for the best books for Halloween!

1.) The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury – Bradbury is the undisputed king of Halloween, which is why I have two of his Halloween books listed here. The Halloween Tree is by far my favorite story, filled with nostalgia, Halloween history and is a touching story about the bonds of friendship one Halloween night. If you haven’t read this, check it out now! There is also a very well-done cartoon narrated by Ray Bradbury himself that is definitely worth tracking down! You can buy the book on Amazon.

2.) October Dreams: A Celebration of Halloween edited by Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish – This collection is packed full of Halloween goodies, from short stories to Halloween essays to authors’ personal reflections on Halloweens past. It is my favorite Halloween anthology and boasts entries from Poppy Z. Brite, Richard Laymon, Peter Straub, Thomas Ligotti, Ramsey Campbell and many others. I also love the fact that it is so expansive, coming in at 600+ pages!! Now that’s a lot of Halloween goodness right there! Available on Amazon.

3.) Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween by David J. Skal – A more scholarly but no less entertaining take on Halloween where Skal examines the who, what, when, where and how of the All Hallow’s Eve holiday. I love Skal’s work, and this is one of my absolute favorites since it will give you an entirely new appreciation for the best holiday. Available on Amazon.

4.) Haunted Air by Ossian Brown – This is a coffee table book that makes for a haunting conversation piece! It is filled with vintage Halloween photographs from 1875 to 1955, mainly of creepy Halloween costumes! Besides an introduction by none other than spookmeister David Lynch, there are no captions, no text, just whimsical and unsettling photographs. Available on Amazon.

5.) Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury – Yes, another Bradbury book makes my list, but with good reason. Bradbury evokes the very aroma of Halloween with his vivid descriptions and this haunting coming-of-age story is set squarely around the magical time of Halloween. Available from Amazon.

I can’t seem to get into the spirit of Halloween without reading these books! And anytime I miss autumn I can pick one of these up and be transported to my favorite time of year (I do this quite often in the spring and summer).

What are your favorite Halloween books?

RIP Ray Bradbury, King of the Autumn People

The Halloween Tree painted by Ray Bradbury

When I learned today that literary icon Ray Bradbury had passed, I was overwhelmed with shock and then sadness. For all you autumn people out there, you know how much I love his books based around our favorite holiday, All Hallow's Eve. From the spectacular Something Wicked This Way Comes (also an excellent movie) to the short stories in The October Country to my personal favorite, The Halloween Tree (also made into a fun animated movie [narrated by Bradbury but sadly only available on VHS] and audio book), Bradbury idolized, celebrated and had a healthy respect (and fear) for the hallowed holiday. 

I will never forget Bradbury's poignant writing style, especially in his Halloween-themed works, where his words could conjure up the sights and sounds of bright, crunching leaves, the smell of warm pumpkin spice and the bittersweet feeling of being a kid on the cusp of adulthood around the best time of the year.

No one else could describe October-obsessed people like myself as eloquently as Bradbury (excerpt from The October Country):

“That country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. That country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain.” 

May you rest in peace amongst endless pumpkin patches under an autumn sky, Ray.

October won't be the same without you. 

Book Review: Werewolves - An Illustrated Journal of Transformation

Read my review on Fatally Yours!

Book Review: The Art of Hammer

Read my review on Fatally Yours!

Book Review: Horror Movie Freak

Horror Movie Freak is a “gore”-geous guide to essential horror movies that will certainly be a treat for any horror fan, especially with Halloween right around the corner! This beastly book and its glossy, full-colored photos will definitely fit right in on any horror fiend’s bookshelf!

READ REVIEW ON FATALLY YOURS!

Book Review: Shock Totem Vol. 2

Shock Totem is a publication I reviewed about a year ago. Back then I eagerly awaited the second issue of this well-made annual magazine…and waited, and waited…

Finally, after a year Shock Totem is back with its second issue and I couldn’t be more thrilled! I was again impressed by the glossy cover of the magazine, which looks more of like a slim book rather than a magazine. The cover design by Hicham Haddaji is eye-catching and I couldn’t wait to dive into the contents!

READ FULL REVIEW ON FATALLY YOURS

Book Review: Day by Day Armageddon - Beyond Exile

Following up his novel Day by Day Armageddon (disclaimer: which I’ve never read), author J.L. Bourne gives us Beyond Exile, the next chapter in a military soldier’s attempt at surviving and journaling the zombie apocalypse.

I’ll be honest (as I always am) – I really wasn’t into this book when I first started reading. Perhaps it was because I hadn’t read the original, but I just couldn’t get into the short, direct journal entries filled with military jargon. However, after about 100 pages in the story really started making pace and I started enjoying it more and more!

Continue reading on Fatally Yours!

Book Review: The End of Church Street

A group of homeless goth kids who run the back alleys of Orlando, Florida are being targeted by a vampire slayer who thinks they are real creatures of the night. Though the kids like to wear fake fangs and don black capes to terrorize the tourists, they are pretty much harmless and the only people to bother them are the bored cops. Now, Vampire King and Queen Adam and Lucy must protect their brood of runaways from a real threat that is staking and decapitating members. Everyone is a suspect, from a detective called Duncan to the kids’ strange butler Renfield and even some of the kids themselves. Can they catch the deranged Van Helsing-wannabe before it’s too late?

Read more at Fatally Yours

Book Review: A Boy Born from Mold and Other Delectable Morsels

Following his unique first book, Simon Snootle and Other Small Stories which I absolutely adored (review), author Lorin Morgan-Richards has released another delightfully delectable collection of illustrated short stories in A Boy Born From Mold. In this, the author’s second pocket-sized, handmade and handbound book, he returns with quirky stories of fantastical characters, from the titular boy born from mold named Ruin (or Rune proper) to a young vampire named Zoog whose parents are distressed at his distaste for blood. The small tome boasts seven new tales, each a delight to read!

Continue reading on Fatally-Yours.com!

Book Review: Pay Phone by Brandon Ford

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Book Review: Dead Set - A Zombie Anthology

Zombies…what more can really be said about them? Our culture is inundated with zombie imagery in films, video games, magazines and books, familiar to pretty much anyone. In the horror genre there are dozens of new zombie films and books every year, so it’s amazing that fans aren’t fed up with the whole zombacalypse theme. However, it seems that despite the genre being flooded zombie stories, fans can’t get enough of them and the subgenre seems stronger than ever.

Continue reading my review on Fatally Yours!

Book Review: Brains - A Zombie Memoir by Robin Becker

 

Read the review (written by yours truly) on Fatally Yours