The new year always brings big talk about resolutions, ending bad habits, and doing better. However, I’ve finally accepted that I’m a horrible person and likely to stay that way. It’s a time-saving attitude, I feel, and frees me up to worry about where my next good book is coming from. Luckily, I’m a horrible […]

Do you adore ghastliness? Are you a fan of the horrid? If you said “yes” to these questions, these nonfiction picks will appeal to your ghoulish nature. Chosen for their revolting subject matter, they are sure to disgust you. The Hot Zone by Richard Preston- A thriller of science “fact” that explains  gruesome filoviruses and […]

The weather outside is definitely not frightful, and for that, I feel very aggrieved. To help me deal with my weather-related disgruntlement, I have found some pleasingly frigid novels. Each is set in a miserably wintry clime and will suit anyone seeking vicarious coldness. Turn the heat way down at home and pile on the […]

When Luke Hadler kills his family, then himself, it splits the small Australian town of Kiewarra apart. In  The Dry, by Jane Harper, Luke’s boyhood friend, Aaron Falk, comes back for the funeral after twenty years, having left as a teenager under the weight of suspicion that he and Luke had had something to do […]