The High Five Podcast Episode 45 – Favorite Horror Movie & TV Discovers of 2021

Posted on by TJDietsch

With my penultimate 2021 review episode, I’m looking back at some of my favorite horror movies and TV shows of the year!

Throughout the episode, I also mention a bunch of previous episodes, you can find them here:

As always, you can email me at high5tj at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Also feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel!

The High Five Podcast Episode 42 – Favorite Book & Comic Discoveries Of 2021

Posted on by TJDietsch
With 2021 coming to an end, I’m looking back at some of my favorite pop culture experiences of the year. This time around, I’m focusing on books and comics I read for the first time this year, with plenty of nods to previous episodes for newcomers (see links below)!

If you’re curious about the other episodes I mentioned, here are a bunch of handy-dandy links!

As always, you can email me at high5tj at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Also feel free to subscribe to my YouTube Channel!

The High Five Podcast Episode 30 – The Works Of Grady Hendrix!

Posted on by TJDietsch

On this week’s episode, I discuss my recent journey making may way through most of author Grady Hendrix’s fantastic horror novels. I’m mainly covering Horrorstor, Paperbacks From Hell, My Best Friend’s Exorcism, The Southern Book Club’s Guide To Slaying Vampires, We Sold Our Souls and just a bit about The Final Girl Support Group!

For what it’s worth, I think I realized why some might not connect to We Sold Our Souls as much. I think it’s because there’s no friendship at the heart of the story like there is in most of the other ones. This also explains why it feels more akin to HorrorStor to me because Amy’s in a similar boat.

If you’re interested, I wrote a bit about HorrorStor here and covered Paperbacks From Hell here.

As always, you can email me at high5tj at gmail.com or follow me on Twitter and Instagram.

Riding With The King: Dreamcatcher (2001)

Posted on by TJDietsch

How do you go through a particular artist’s work when you want to absorb it all? I take a variety of paths, sometimes trying to go through the efforts chronologically, other times by theme or subject. With Stephen King’s books, I’m a bit more willy nilly! I’ve read a good number so far and have purchased even more, so I often find myself staring into my horror To-Read box wondering which King to tackle next. Though I still have his latest, If It Bleeds, to devour, I decided to dip into the box and chose 2001’s Dreamcatcher for two reasons: one, it’s long and two, I heard it wasn’t very good. Luckily, I was wrong about one of those things!

Continue reading Riding With The King: Dreamcatcher (2001)

Halloween Scene Book Report: Stage Fright (1988)

Posted on by TJDietsch

Immediately after finding my way to the excellent Valancourt Books while reading Paperbacks From Hell, I became enamored with the publisher and their PFH label. I’d missed the first ten entries (though I’m going back and picking them up as I make my way through the series), but I didn’t want to miss out on future installments, so I jumped at the chance to pre-order the next one they announced: the 1988 horror-sci-fi-action-thriller Stage Fright by Garrett Boattman. I mean, just look at that cover!

Continue reading Halloween Scene Book Report: Stage Fright (1988)

My Favorite Book Reading Experiences Of 2019

Posted on by TJDietsch

Let’s keep this Best Of 2019 thing going! So far, I’ve covered my favorite classic horror movie viewings of last year and now I’m on to books. I keep this rad super hero wall-mounted shelf in my office and stack up the physical books I’ve read throughout the year. As you can see in this photo, I also have a list next to it that I can put digital and library conquests on as well. It sure makes it simple to do a list like this!

Continue reading My Favorite Book Reading Experiences Of 2019

Won’t Somebody PLEASE Think Of The Children: Secrets Of The Shopping Mall by Richard Peck

Posted on by TJDietsch

Several months back one new podcast I’ve been listening to — How Did This Get Played — lead me to another new one: Teen Creeps! Hosts Kelly Nugent and Lindsay Katai spotlight young adult scare fair from the 70s, 80s and 90severy week, often with a guest. This instantly perked my ears because I actually had a similar idea for a podcast a while back. In fact, I may have even dabbled with calling it Won’t Somebody PLEASE Think Of The Children which I eventually turned into a not-so-reoccurring feature here on the ol’ blog.

I read a few Goosebumps in my youth, but was far more drawn to R.L. Stine’s Fear Street books, but even more so to Christopher Pike’s offerings. I can’t say how many I read or how far I got into the genre, but it’s been a lot of fun listening to Katai and Nugent explore that territory on the podcast. At some point in the back catalog — I’ve been going through every episode from the first one — someone mentioned a book called Secrets Of The Shopping Mall by Richard Peck, noting that it was about kids in a mall at night and something creepy living in there too. I immediately requested a copy from the library and read it in about three sittings after Thanksgiving!

Continue reading Won’t Somebody PLEASE Think Of The Children: Secrets Of The Shopping Mall by Richard Peck

Riding With The King: The Institute

Posted on by TJDietsch

Last year I decided that, even though I don’t mind buying books second hand, I’d like to get Stephen King’s latest as they come out. As it happened, he released not one, but two books in 2018, the incredibly creepy The Outsider and the fairy tale-esque Elevation. This year, The Institute came out and I was so excited to dive in, though it took me a while to get through it (what else is new?).

Continue reading Riding With The King: The Institute

Halloween Scene 2019!

Posted on by TJDietsch

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That is, the time when my kids have gone back to school, the weather gets chillier and I inject unhealthy quantities of horror into my veins. Last year, I went way too big with a project that might change into something else, so this year I’m keeping it somewhat simple when it comes to the horror films, books and comics I’ll be putting in my eyeballs. Continue reading Halloween Scene 2019!

Riding With The King: End Of Watch (2016)

Posted on by TJDietsch

I keep a checklist on my phone of all the Stephen King books out there that I use to keep track of which ones I own, in what format and whether I’ve read them or not. Dude’s got so many offerings that it’s hard to keep everything in my head and I’m not a big fan of buying the same book more than once, even at flea market or yard sale prices!

After writing about the four King books I read in 2018 and looking at my list, I realized that I’ve actually read more of his most recent dozen books than his first dozen. I dig this fact because it means I still have plenty of his works to read, but also it reminds me that he’s still spinning yarns that I can’t wait to get my hands on and tear through.

Continue reading Riding With The King: End Of Watch (2016)