bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/20/2008
"The Dummy": Dinner date gone awry . • "the people who came there laughed quietly and dined thoroughly, appreciating the principle that the check was always a little more than the restaurant and the entertainment warranted..." • Another situation where...
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/19/2008
"Elizabeth": Is this life? Well, I'm depressed. • Her apartment reminds me of the apartment in "The Daemon Lover". But this one has more of a presence -- it's almost a character: ...after more than four years in this one...
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/17/2008
"Flower Garden": In which we find another us/them country/city situation. • First line: After living in an old Vermont manor house together for almost eleven years, the two Mrs. Winnings, mother and daughter-in-law, had grown to look a good deal...
PAWaterCooler.com (Free subscription) | 11/17/2008
Aha! Another Shirley Jackson fan. That was one spooky lady. “The Lottery” is great, but my favorite will always be “The Haunting of Hill House”. No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream. Hill House, not sane, stood by [...]
Needcoffee.com (Free subscription) | 11/17/2008
I post this only to point out how important literature is to people's safety. Anyone who had read their Shirley Jackson would have known to treat a piece of paper with a great black spot on it with more care. Direct link for the feedreaders. Found via Dark Roasted Blend. This post from: Needcoffee.com
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/13/2008
"Afternoon in Linen": In which Harriet "don't know any". • This made me fall in love with Harriet: "Recite one of your poems for Mrs. Kator, Harriet." The little girl looked at her grandmother, at the sweet smile, and at...
Philippine Genre Stories (Free subscription) | 11/13/2008
Check out the " Luck Of The Draw " audio link over at The New Yorker . The free audio file is a reading of Shirley Jackson 's most famous short story, " The Lottery ", which was first published in The New Yorker in June, 1948.
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/12/2008
Man, I can't believe I missed yesterday. I'm really finding sticking to the schedule difficult this time around. "After You, My Dear Alphonse": I bet this one gets used in classrooms a lot. • I loved this one. I thought...
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/10/2008
"The Witch": In which we have either a nice, sweet, possibly confused old man OR a nice old man with a strange sense of humor OR a crazy psycho killer old man. • La la la, a lady on the...
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/07/2008
"My Life with R. H. Macy": And now I will never think of Macy's in quite the same way again. • This is the first story that's been in the first person, yes? • I actually don't have much to...
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/06/2008
"The Villager": In which Miss Clarence doesn't deny being Mrs. Roberts. • Love this: "She went into Whelan's and sat at the counter, putting her copy of the Villager down on the counter next to her pocketbook and The Charterhouse...
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/05/2008
I can't believe I missed a post already! I blame election craziness for the general crappitude of my internet service yesterday. "Like Mother Used to Make": In which I wished for a Roald Dahl "Lamb to the Slaughter" ending. •...
Emdashes (Free subscription) | 11/04/2008
I never knew that films had been made of Shirley Jackson's classic June 26, 1948 story, " The Lottery ". Turns out you can view a classic 1969 short based on the story right now on the blog we saw that... , via the magic of YouTube. (But if you've never read the story, do that first!)
bookshelves of doom (Free subscription) | 11/03/2008
"The Intoxicated": In which a young woman scares the bejeebers out of an older drunk man. • I love the opening line: "He was just tight enough and just familiar enough with the house to be able to go out...
Original Content (Free subscription) | 10/29/2008
My faithful readers are probably aware that when I'm not obsessed with the Transcendentalists , I'm obsessed with Shirley Jackson . So imagine my delight when I learned that Leila at bookshelves of doom is doing another Big Read, this time on The Lottery and Other Stories . And I own all the stories! November will be wonderful. I've already told you the story about how I read The Lottery to my kids...
