July's Reads

What's better than a good book on a long, lazy summer day? Here's a couple we're loving, plus a few on our to-read list. 

• Mapping the Interior (2017), by Stephen Graham Jones

In the wee hours of the morning, a sleepwalking boy awakes in his living room to see his dead father walk through a doorway. What follows is a frantic search for answers to this supernatural mystery, but it becomes a meditation on life, family relationships, and what we could do to protect the ones we love. What Jones does with ghosts and haunted spaces is intriguing and chilling.   

• Paper Girls, Volume 1 (2016), by Brian K. Vaughan (author) and Cliff Chiang (artist)

Halloween. 1980s nostalgia. Teen girls delivering newspapers and investigating weird happenings. If you like any of these things, read Paper Girls. It’s also been compared a lot to Stranger Things. What else could you ask for? 

• The Elementals (1981), Michael McDowell

McDowell serves up creepy atmosphere on the Alabama Gulf Coast. The opening chapter is hilarious and heartbreaking all at once--a perfect portrait of a dysfunctional family funeral. McDowell's style is part Faulkner, part Stephen King, with a good dose of dark humor and family soap-opera drama. Oh, and you'll remember this phrase: "Eat my eyes!"

What's next on our list? More McDowell with his Blackwater series. Also, we'll be digging into Edgar Cantero's Meddling Kids (2017)--the cover glows in the dark! 

Let us know what you're reading these days. --Lisa