Edgar Allen Poe Discussion

I'm leaving it up to you to write what you want about anything you've read by Edgar Allan Poe!!

Happy Halloween!!

Hey Everyone!!

We've not been very active on the blog recently.
I'm going through a patch were I'm not sure what sort of book I'm in the mood for. I have a stack of at least 5 books waiting for me! Usually when I'm not reading it's because I don't have anything to read!
I'm still reading The Picture of Dorian Gray which isn't a very big book!! I was hoping to have it read in time to see the new adaptation, but it's not in theatres any more.
Unless there are any huge objections for Novemember and December I'll pick an easy read for the book of the month. I thought of skipping the crazy busy holiday season, but I worry about losing book of the month! Just because it's slow now doesn't mean it always will be!! I am open to suggestions, please leave a comment to this post!
I have also been bad at checking the email I'll try to be better at that! So, if you have any recommendations or reviews you'd like to do please email us!! Or if you just have a list of some of your favorite books or even a favorite author I'm happy to do some research and write a post about them!
Keep Reading!!!
~Lisa

Man Booker prize 2009 Winner has been announced!!

Hilary Mantel (the bookmakers' hot favourite) has been named the winner of the £50,000 Man Booker Prize for Fiction for Wolf Hall, published by Fourth Estate, an imprint of Harper Collins.

'Lock Cromwell in a deep dungeon in the morning,' says Thomas More, 'and when you come back that night he'll be sitting on a plush cushion eating larks' tongues, and all the gaolers will owe him money.'

England, the 1520s. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is his chief advisor, charged with securing the divorce the pope refuses to grant. Into this atmosphere of distrust and need comes Thomas Cromwell, first as Wolsey's clerk, and later his successor.Cromwell is a wholly original man: the son of a brutal blacksmith, a political genius, a briber, a charmer, a bully, a man with a delicate and deadly expertise in manipulating people and events. Ruthless in pursuit of his own interests, he is as ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself. His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages. From one of our finest living writers, Wolf Hall is that very rare thing: a truly great English novel, one that explores the intersection of individual psychology and wider politics. With a vast array of characters, and richly overflowing with incident, it peels back history to show us Tudor England as a half-made society, moulding itself with great passion and suffering and courage.

taken from:

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/navigate.do?pPageID=1423

Wordless Wednesday or Whatcha' Reading?

October's Book of the Month

It doesn't have to be this exact book! :0) I was thinking the two stories we should read are The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart they are similar and short! ;0) Then we can discuss whatever other Edgar Allen Poe stories we've read and talk about our favorites and so on!
Please leave comments or email us if you are having problems finding the two stories in the same book.
Also for the month of October if you have a list of horror, sci-fi, or mystery stories that are your favorite please send them our way and we'll post them!! Or if you just have a favorite author of those genres!!
Keep Reading!!!

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak -- A Book Discussion

~Discuss the symbolism of Death as the omniscient narrator of the novel.Why is Death haunted by humans?

~The Grave Digger's Handbook is the first book Liesel steals. Why did she take the book? What is significant about the titles of the books she steals? Explain how Liesel's own attempt to write a book saves her life.

~How does Max's life give Liesel purpose? At what point do Liesel and Max become friends? Max gives Liesel a story called "The Standover Man" for her birthday. What is the significance of this story?

~Liesel Meminger lived to be an old woman. Death says that he would like to tell the book thief about beauty and brutality, but those are things that she had lived. How does her life represent beauty in the wake of brutality?

Reader's Choice October

Halloween Party by R.L. Stine
The invitation arrived in a black-borderred envelope and was delivered by the beautiful and mysterious transfer student. The inside showed a coffin with the inscription "reserved for You" -- perfect for an al-night Halloween party in an old house on Fear Street.
The party was well under way when the lights went out. That's to be expected at the Halloween party. But when the lights came back on, there was a boy on the floor with a knife in his back. Just a Halloween prank? Maybe. Maybe not. Now the guests trick-or-treating has turned to terror. And it looks like someone's idea of a party game is murder!


Hell House by Richard Matheson
Rolf Rudolph Deutsch is going die. But when Deutsch, a wealthy magazine and newpaper publisher, starts thinking seriously about his impending death, he offers to pay a physicist and two mediums, one physical and one mental, $100,000 each to establish the facts of life after death.Dr. Lionel Barrett, the physicist, accompanied by the mediums, travel to the Belasco House in Maine, which has been abandoned and sealed since 1949 after a decade of drug addiction, alcoholism, and debauchery. For one night, Barrett and his colleagues investigate the Belasco House and learn exactly why the townfolks refer to it as the Hell House.



The Black Cat, The Cask of Amontillado, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Masque of the Red Death, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Pit and the Pendulum, and The Tell-Tale Heart are the most well known Edgar Allan Poe works.

If you vote for Mr. Poe please write your top 3 stories in the comment area! That way we can determine what 3 to discuss at the end of October!!