Do you ever look back at your reading list and wonder why
on earth that title appealed to you?
Well, if you look at my recent reading list, you will definitely wonder,
“why?”
I often read fantasy, but this spring I made a foray into
horror. While poking around some website
or other, I ran into the movie, “Let Me In,” a creepy Scandinavian vampire
movie. There is also a remake titled “Let
the Right One In.” The book these movies
were based on also has two titles: “Let the Right One In” and “Let Me In.” If I have it sorted out correctly, he published
his book with the title “Let the Right One in.”
Then it was called “Let Me In” for the Swedish movie. Then the book was called “Let Me In,” but
the American movie was titled Let the Right One In. I might have it backwards. After
all of this confusion, it seemed like a
good idea to read the book. It was
interesting to read a vampire story written by a Swedish author. His name is John Ajvide Lindqvist and he
specializes in horror novels and short stories. 
My next journey into reading horror novels was the Golgotha series, “Six-Gun Tarot,” and“Shotgun Arcana,” and “Queen of Swords.”," all written by R.S. Belcher. I don’t know how to describe this series. Steam punk Western horror comes to mind. Each book expands the characters and stories introduced in the first book.
Of course after that series, I needed to cleanse my palate,
so to speak. I read “Jars of Hope,” the
story of Irena Sendler, written by Jennifer Roy.
Ms. Roy’s aunt was a Holocaust survivor whose story is told in “Yellow Star,” also written by Jennifer Roy. Irena saved 2500 children from the Nazis and kept careful records of
each child, buried in jars in a friend’s garden. Most of the children, however, lost their
entire families and were never reunited with their loved ones. We read this book for Beginner’s Book Club.
I stayed in the realm of nonfiction for another book, “Educated:
a Memoir,” written by Tara Westover. I
thoroughly enjoyed this book. Tara was
born into a family of survivalists who lived up in the mountains of Idaho. She wasn’t even homeschooled. She simply didn’t go to school. Her family ran a junk yard and survived a series of accidents, injuries which usually went without medical care. Tara taught herself enough math, history,
science and language to successfully take the ACT test. She started at Brigham Young University,
where she was exposed for the first time to issues like the world wars, the
Holocaust, civil rights, etc. She went
on to Harvard and eventually earned a PhD in history in 2014. Her book is somewhat
controversial because her family members have different memories of their
younger years. 
Finally, I went back to the horror genre. I don’t know why. I read “The Final Winter: an Apocalyptic
Horror Novel,” by Iain Rob Wright. This
chilling (pun intended) book presents a small group of survivors trapped in an
English pub during a horrific snowstorm.
Is it really the end of all things?
This book reminds me of some other things I’ve read and seen, especially
by Stephen King, and it needs a ruthless editor. But I finished it. This last book is available on Kindle as a
free book. We probably won’t add it to
the collection. See you at the library!
