Reading Report October/November 2024.

Am still on my Julian Hawthorne jag. Ordered “The Strange Recollections Of Martha Klemm” which collects his two Klemm stories. “Absolute Evil” and “A Goth From Boston.” The intro explains that the first story was reprinted in 1919 as “Island Of Ghosts” with a minister recast as a Professor. This is the version I read in “Strange Island Stories.” So, I finished reading the original. A fast-paced horror-adventure with Klemm as the protagonist.

Read Hawthorne’s other Martha Klemm story “A Goth From Boston.” Nothing supernatural here, just a romantic adventure with a lot of the emphasis on the adventure. There are hints of the plotline from “Absolute Evil” in similarities to a situation mentioned by a character who had visited an island with a woman and a little girl but it isn’t played like a sequel.

Worth mentioning that there are several literary references in the story and all of them are to works still familiar (and in print!!!) just over a century after this story first saw print in “All-Story Magazine” in 1919. Including a line from Walt Whitman who Hawthorne had actually known…

From Hawthorne’s “Six Cent Sam’s” I read “Greave’s Disappearance,” a mystery featuring an impossible vanishment. Even though I could figure out how it was done I didn’t see the ending twist coming! Also read “Raxworthy’s Treasure,” a lighter story with clever touches but nonetheless a crime story. It involves a miser, an inheritance a mysterious house and a ghost!

And I also read Hawthorne’s “A Goth From Boston,” one of the stories he published a hundred years ago in “All-Story.” Cirsova Press has been republishing them. A fun adventure/romance. Too bad people aren’t writing stories like this today!

Finally read Frank Stockton’s “The Bee-Man Of Orn,” which I had confused with Dahl’s “Royal Jelly.”

Read an A.R.C. of ‘Nathan Burgoine’s excellent “Upon the Midnight Queer.” His second collection, featuring Gay retellings of Christmas stories. I’d read some of them before on his blog. Burgoine is an absolute master of his craft.

Read the excellent weekly stories posted by Kaje Harper and the equally excellent monthly story E. H. Timms writes for the Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. (Links for those are on this site to the right of this column.)

For the Halloween season I listened to a reading (on You Tube) of Arthur Gray’s “The Everlasting Club.” Possibly one of my favorite ghost stories. If there’s ever an anthology of college-set ghost stories, this one belongs in there.

Re-read (online!) a revised version of Jerome Steuart’s “The Autumn Woods.” He’s finally bringing it out in a book, and there’s even an exhibit featuring the artwork he did for the stories in Dayton (I think!) He’s expanded the stories and I’ll link to his blog. He’s that good! https://jeromestueart.com/category/autumn-woods/

Stumbled across an anthology in the library: “Witches: Wicked, Wild and Wonderful,” ed. By Paula Guran. From it, I read “The Witch’s Headstone,” by Neil Gaiman, which became part of “The Graveyard Book.” Also read Nancy Holder’s “The Only Way to Fly,” which was also in the anthology “100 Wicked Little Witch Stories” where I read the next few selections on this list. “The Only Way to Fly” takes “Bewitched” to its logical extremes.

Read Cynthia Ward’s “The Robbery.” A nifty story with a nasty ending. (also in the Guran anthology.)

Read Adam-Troy Castro’s “Vend-A-Witch.” It’s a one-joke story but the joke is very funny!

Read Steve Rasnic Tem’s “A Hundred Wicked Little Witches,” a grim story that ties in with the idea of witch hysteria.

Read Basil Wells’ “Wall Of Darkness,” a story from the ‘40s in “100 Wicked…” That’s the great thing about those old Barnes and Noble anthologies; I’d never heard of Basil Wells.

Started reading Julian Hawthorne’s novel “Sara Was Judith.” It’s a page turner!

Read two stories in the Library Of America’s complete stories of David Barthelme: “The Piano Player,” and “The Joker’s Greatest Triumph.”

Read Mack Reynolds’ story “Mind Over Mayhem” for his birthday. Fun 1950s crime story from before he started writing sci-fi. Reminded me a little of Pronzini.

Got Graham Greene’s “Our Man In Havana,” if only for the oft-parodied title. First book I bought at the new West Side Barnes and Noble in Wichita. Read a couple of pages.

Started reading Julian Hawthorne’s fairy tale “Callodon.” And speaking of Hawthorne I have been delighting in “Twenty Days With Julian & Little Bunny By Papa.” The book is the segment from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Journals about taking care of young Julian and a pet rabbit while his wife and daughter went to visit her mother. Nothing really eventful happens in this but the account is charming! This is not the dour and gloomy Hawthorne of “Young Goodman Brown,” it is a sweet father realizing how much time goes into caring for his child. It made me hungry for the vegetables they ate!

—jeff baker, November 19, 2024.