You can read last year’s here. Best Book You’ve Read So Far in 2025 For fiction, I’d have to go with Antkind. Wonderfully weird and full of surprises—stop-motion filmmaking, one of my favorite interests, is just one of the many splinters lodged in its surreal, obsessive heart. If you’re not already a fan of Kaufman’s … Continue reading The Mid-Year Book Freakout 2025
Over the years, I’ve been trying to make my way through folktale traditions from all across the globe. This one is both familiar and not. You get the first forms of stories like “The Three Billy Goats Gruff,” an early alternate version of “Chicken Little” (I think), and several tales and adventures featuring Ashlad, a … Continue reading Marginalia #57
It’s a postmodern, post-apocalyptic sci-fi hippie commune novel. It’s poetic, strange, and easy to read if you’re familiar with Brautigan. I’ve read most of the books now, but I want to check out the poems soon. His poem “A Boat” features a werewolf and is one I always return to. Saloum is a French/Senegalese co-production … Continue reading Marginalia #56: In Watermelon Sugar, Saloum, Squid
If you have more sci-fi acumen than I do, you may have heard of this before 2024. I came across it after several recommendations. It’s hard to describe and talk about. Anna Kavan has been called “Kafka’s Sister,” which makes sense (this has repeated occurrences, dreamlike sequences, and a bizarre bureaucracy). Still, given the frequent … Continue reading Marginalia #55: Ice, The Vourdalak, Mapambazuko
Bill Griffith, the cartoonist of Zippy the Pinhead fame, wrote and drew this biography of Schlitzie the Pinhead, which also covers the history of the sideshow tradition in America. If Schlitzie didn’t capture your heart and imagination in Tod Browning’s Freaks, he will undoubtedly do so here. I found this in the Fangoria archive in … Continue reading Marginalia #54: Nobody’s Fool, Yor, and Bisk
Based on the Sawney Bean story like The Hills Have Eyes, Off Season is a blast and is considered one of the first extreme horror books. It resembles a mix of Hills, Night of the Living Dead, and Last House on the Left. Off Season is gory but well-written. Ketchum writes from multiple perspectives and lulls you … Continue reading Marginalia #53: Off Season, Darkness, Anthology Resource Vol. 1
More from the margins… Continue reading Marginalia #52: The Boxer’s Omen, Turn Every Page, The Meridian Brothers
Marginalia from the last week or two. Continue reading Marginalia #51: War by Candlelight, Plan 9 from Outer Space, and KOKOKO!
Breece D’J Pancake hailed from West Virginia and writes like an Appalachian blend of Ernest Hemingway and early Cormac McCarthy, infused with the dark humor of Denis Johnson. While reading this collection, Jesus’ Son by Johnson often came to mind, possibly influenced by Pancake. Pancake’s writing is both gorgeous and devastating, capturing the lives and … Continue reading Marginalia #50: Breece D’J Pancake, What a Way to Go!, Guy Klucevsek with Mister Rogers
Stephen McClurg 