Books

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

Posted on August 27, 2021 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 September 29, 2020September 29, 2020 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 September 16, 2020 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 January 2, 2020January 2, 2020 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 December 4, 2019December 2, 2019 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 December 2, 2019 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?).

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Halloween Scene 2019!

Posted on September 6, 2019September 6, 2019 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 January 25, 2019September 24, 2019 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.

My Favorite Book Reading Experiences Of 2018 Part 3

Posted on January 9, 2019September 27, 2019 by TJDietsch

Alright folks, we’re hitting the home stretch here with the last post about books I read in 2018. Hopefully, I’ll keep up on writing about the novels and non-fiction works as I read them, so these year-enders (or beginners at this point) don’t become so unwieldy, but we’ll see about that. Check out parts one and two here and here then hit the jump for the last entry.

My Favorite Book Reading Experiences Of 2018 Part 2

Posted on January 9, 2019October 2, 2019 by TJDietsch

Over the course of my reading in 2018, I found myself drawn to the dark corners of the library and my own book collection. As you can see from this photo of the books I read and gleaned from the first in this three-part series, darkness makes its way into a lot of my book selections.

With this post, I’m going to focus on two horror writers who captured my imagination repeatedly this year: Stephen King and Lauren Beukes. I may not have torn through the books as quickly as I’d hoped, but I still walked away from all six of these thankful that I’d stuck with them and gone on those rides.