It's A Book - By Lane Smith

Don't Fear the Reaper

All our times have come

Here but now they're gone

Seasons don't fear the reaper

Nor do the wind, the sun or the rain...

we can be like they are

Halloween~~the time of year where some people like to scare the wits out of themselves to ensure they are ready to celebrate with the true spirit of the night....and yes,  I am one of those people. There's nothing like locking the doors, windows, I don't close the blinds because if something is going to come get me~~I want to see it or them.

In no particular order, here is a list of some my favorites scary/creepy books made into a movie or TV mini-series.

Come on baby...don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers ( 1956) Based on the book by Jack Finney's, The Body Snatchers.

When some of Dr. Miles Bennell patients start telling him that their family members just aren't the same, he and his psychiatrist buddy blame it on epidemic paranoia. By the time Bennell realizes there is more going on then he thought~~like finding a decomposing body turning into dust with a giant pod next to it becoming the copy of the body~~there are only a handful of normal people left. The tension builds slowly, and the enemy isn't a alien you can see, they look just like your friends and loved one. The big problem is trying to stay awake because the Pod People take over the body while you are sleeping, even if you just doze off. When some of his friends are caught and made to sleep, they become Pod People, Bennell ends up running down a major highway trying to spread the word yelling...."They're here already! You're next! You're next!" while starring into the camera.... Does anybody listen? Will the Pod People take over? What are those trucks rolling down the highway filled with?

This is on the list of  the best science fiction movies ever. Kevin McCarthy and Dana Wynter starred in it~~It is a classic, and they did a great job with Finney's book. (The original!)

We can be like they are
Come on baby....don't fear the reaper
Baby take my hand...don't fear the reaper
We'll be able to fly....


Burnt Offerings (1976) based on the book Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco

Does it get any better then leaving Queens NY and heading out to mansion-sit for the summer on Long Island? In the book the Rolf family, Marian, Ben, son David and aging Aunt Elizabeth do, but in the movie they go from a city in California to a mansion in the California countryside.  Besides taking care of the mansion, they are instructed to take care of the reclusive mother that lives upstairs. Just leave the food outside the door, don't try and interact with her. Strange things begin to happen, death, depression, accidents~~and every time there is an accident or someone dies or gets hurt, the house rejuvenates, flowers bloom, woodwork shines and the pool gets cleaner. When the family begins to realize somethings not right and try to get away, trees fall into the road, the car doesn't start or some other inconvenience occurs. Goose bumps as we come to the end of the book and the movie. Is that really the wind rattling the windows? Karen Black, Oliver Reed and Bette Davis starred in it.

Love of two is one
Here but now they're gone
Came the last night of sadness
And it clear she couldn't go on

The Haunting (1963) based on the novel The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

(again, watch the original, not the 1999 version)

Dr. Markway wants to find scientific evidence of the paranormal, so he invites three people, Eleanor, Theodora and Luke, who have experienced the paranormal, to come to Hill House for a few weeks. Seems the caretakers won't stay near the house after dark, they lock the gate and go home and won't return until the morning. Plus, nobody else has a key to the gate.....any one's radar start to go off about now? The four strangers get to know each other, and Dr. Markway fills the other three in on the house history~~suicide, death, the usual strange goings on in a old house; doors that have heartbeats, walls that moan...and a portrait of the dead owner whose spirit comes to life. Nobody chooses to leave, because seeing/hearing is believing right? To this day, one of the best ghost stories ever written, and the movie shows that you don't need blood and gore to make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson and Russ Tamblyn starred in this one.


Then the door was open and the wind appeared
The candles blew then disappeared
The curtains flew then he appeared...saying don't be afraid
Come on baby...and she no fear


Jaws (1975) based on Jaws by Peter Benchley.

If there was a book that will make you think twice about swimming, this is the book. When the remains of a dead girl washes up on the beach, Sheriff Brody is told she died from a shark attack. Sheriff Brody wants to close the beaches because of the shark attack, but hey! It's summer and it is the time of year that Long Islanders make their money so Mayor Vaughn nixes that silly idea. The book grabbed me right away and they did a wonderful job with the movie. The timing of the release of the movie was great, the beginning of the summer, and close to where I live. The music in the movie built of the tension...dun dun dun dun...SHARK! We all searched the horizon for fins before we jumped in the ocean that summer...mostly we sat on the beach. Roy Scheider, Richard Dreyfuss, and  Robert Shaw starred in this.

And she ran to him....then they started to fly

They looked backward and said goodby...

she had become like they are

Salem's Lot (1979) based on Salem's Lot by Stephen King

Okay, while reading this book, years ago~~I didn't sleep much for the next few weeks. When Tobe Hooper was doing the mini-series for TV, yes I had to watch it. Hooper and King~~talk about great minds... I did have the doors locked, windows bared, wore my three cross necklaces (all at once) just happened to have a nice piece of wood handy....and any kids flying around after dark were not allowed in, even if I knew them. For me, this is one of the scariest, creepiest books I have read, and the series did the book justice. Once again we have a creepy house with a bad history. Ben Mears is a writer who returns to his home town, Salem's Lot, after 25 years to write a book about the creepy Marsten House. Mears also was hoping to rent it~~someone beat him to it.  Shortly after this, a young boy is killed and strange things begin to happen. Seems the boy isn't dead, he has been turned into a vampire and beginning with his brother, starts to turn others into the undead. This is one of  Stephen King's early books and still one of his most popular. Just thinking about it, I will make sure I am home before dark~~and lock, bar the doors and windows. David Soul, Bonnie Bedelia star in this with the wonderfully sinister James Mason as the ancient vampire's familiar.


She had taken his hand....she had become like they are
Come on baby....don't fear the reaper.
(Thanks to Blue Oyster Cult)

I know there are many more to choose from, I had to narrow the list down, but these are a couple that I have fond (?) memories of, and I wanted to choose those that I thought were great scary books that had been done justice by the movie or mini-series.


Lock the doors~~turn the lights on~~check one of these out, movie or the book.


Happy Reading! ~~and watching...

Bel Canto by Anne Patchett

"Music conveys moods and images.

Even in opera, where plots deal with the
structure of destiny, it's music, not words,
that provides power."
Marcel Marceau


Sometimes when you choose a book for a book discussion, you never know how it will go over. I have chosen books and thought I would have a nice size group, and hardly anyone showed up; I have chosen books that I think won't fly~~and it's a hit!


When I chose Bel Canto, I was curious: how was a book about hostages, terrorists, South America and opera go over. The night of the book discussion was a nasty, rainy, chilly night...if I hadn't had to go out I would have stayed home curled up with a good book. Imagine my surprise when fifteen hardy readers showed up!


Great questions; would terrorists really hold hostages for over four months? If you don't speak the same language, can you fall in love with each other? How come the government didn't do something sooner? Would hostages and terrorists form bonds with each other like is described in the book? Would someone really refuse to leave when offered the chance? Does music really sooth the savage beast (terrorists)?


In Bel Canto, we have people from all over the world attending a birthday party for a high powered Japanese CEO. The only way they were able to get him to attend was they had his favorite opera singer, Roxanne Coss, performing. When the terrorists appear and  make it known that they are there to kidnap the president of the country...they are shocked to find out that he decided to stay home and watch his favorite soap opera instead of coming to the party....which gave us all a chuckle. The terrorists, having over two hundred hostages, decided to let the women, children and sick hostages go, but not before one of the hostages had died. That left forty-nine male hostages, and one female, Roxanne Coss.


We felt that because of the death of the one hostage, the others formed a silent bond among themselves  not to attempt to escape. They didn't want any of the others death on their conscience. The bonds formed between some of the hostages and the terrorists seemed to come about because of the age of the terrorists. Except for the three generals, the dozen or so terrorists were all young. They could have been someones son, daughter, grandchild..not these gun slinging "babies."

When Roxanne Coss found one of her fellow hostages played the piano, she began to practice everyday. We talked about the description of when she sang, time seemed to stand still, even the birds stopped singing to listen to her. Even the terrorists sat and listened captured in the rapture of her singing.

We talked about who was the core character? Roxanne, as the only woman? Was it Gen, the translator who could speak almost all the languages of the hostages? Was it Mr. Hosokawa, whose birthday party it was when all this happened? One group member thought it was Roxanne Coss, which led to  quite a lively discussion. Not everyone agreed, one of my group said quite pointedly, "Well, Ma'am, I disagree with you!"  He felt it was Gen because he could communicate with everyone...some of the group nodded in agreement. Then some of the group pointed out that when Roxanne sang, everything stopped. Everyone walked into the room when she sang, hostages and terrorists alike, outside, the police stopped yelling through the bullhorns and, as Patchett describes, the birds stopped singing, even the wind seemed to stop. While Gen could communicate with everyone, Roxanne communicated to everyone through opera.  (That's why I picked the quote at the top...it fits perfectly with this book.)

We all agreed that the book stayed on a level tone until the last three pages. The ending was not what some of us expected. Some felt we would have liked more of an ending, more closure.

I love when a book surprises me, and when it brings so much out in people. A good book,  a great group and a good discussion~~one of our best as a matter of fact.

***Bel Canto is loosely based on a event that happened in the late sixties in Lima, Peru where terrorists took over a house and kept hostages for over four months. (There was no opera singer.)

Happy Reading!

Mystery/Thriller Summer Book Discussions

At least half mystery novels violate the law
that the solution, once revealed, must seem to be inevitable.
Raymond Chandler

The thriller is the most popular literary genre
of the 20th century.
Ken Follett


This summer we did some book discussions. I have been asked over the years to do summer book discussions, and this year I finally said okay, let's give it a go. We met every other Tuesday at 4pm, a group ranging from two to fifteen folks got together to discuss two of my favorite genres....mysteries and/or thrillers.  I thought it would be fun to read an author's first book, or the first book in a series of books. (And of course, some books that I had already read.)

We kicked it off the end of June with Death at La Fenice by Donna Leon. This is the first book of a fabulous series set in Venice. Inspector Guido Brunetti, the vice-commissario of police, has to solve the case of who killed the Maestro? Seems there are several suspects. In the end, it will come down to what is the right thing to do? We loved the setting of Venice,  the interaction between Brunetti with his family and his fellow police people. Leon gives you feeling you are there with the characters, and there in Venice. Leon's description of Venice made us all want to go. (We also loved the food described in the book.)  We could sense that Brunetti was going to be an even more interesting character as the series progresses. The best part of this discussion for me? That the folks there said they enjoyed this series so much they were going to continue on with it.

Next up was The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva. (I know, your surprised I have a Silva book included) This was Mr. Silva's first book and the one that got me hooked on his books. Set in England during WWII, the book is fiction, but it is based on real events. How does British Intelligence (MI5) confuse Nazi Germany about their D-Day plans when it seems they know about them? They also thought they had captured all the German Abwehr agents in England, but there seems to be some sleeper agents ready to be activated in England. One of those agents is determined to get the information to Germany no matter the body count.
We talked about Churchill and how he used people to achieve the safety of England: his friendship with history professor Alfred Vicary to convince him to work for MI5,  match his wits with the Nazis and hopefully keep MI5 one step ahead of them: U.S. Navel Officer Peter Jordan, because of his poor judge of character, ends up being blackmailed and used to spy. We enjoyed the twists and turns in the book. It was a page turner...many said they finished it in two days because they had to know how it ended. Big question for the group? Just WHO was the Unlikely Spy? We all had different answers and every time a different character was mentioned by someone, we would all think about it and realize.....
One of our members, who rarely reads this genre, liked it and had her other book club read this book too~~she told me they raved about it.
For those who were new to Mr. Silva, he now has several new fans.

Dennis LeHane has one of my favorite duos in a mystery series, Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Set in Dorchester, Mass, we get to meet these two private detectives in A Drink Before the War~~the kickoff to this terrific series. Great discussion on how an investigation into a missing cleaning woman led to involvement with prostitution, blackmail, gang-warfare, corruption and murder. We chatted about Kenzie and Gennaro, their cast of friends, how some of the things the two uncovered affected some of us and LeHane's writing style. For me, Le Hane reminds me of the noir style of writing:  hard-boiled, cynical, snarky characters surrounded by smokey shades of grey. (Think Raymond Chandler) One great comment by one of our group was "This doesn't happen in real life!"  This led to another great discussion on what is real life and what isn't.
If you watched the move, Gone, Baby, Gone, you have met Kenzie and Gennaro. This movie was based on book four of the series.

Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. As you can guess, this one was the hit of the summer book discussions. Over fifteen people showed up. The discussion was about how popular the trilogy has become. Set in Sweden, we meet Mikael Blomkvist. He has just finished being the defendent in a high profile trail...where he was found guilty. When he is offered the job of finding Harriert Vanger, who disappeared forty years ago, well, he has nothing else to do...We agreed that while the names took some getting used to, the style of Larsson writing was intelligent and some said it was the best book they had read in the last five years. The character who was the groups favorite was without a doubt was Lisbeth Salander, who Blomkvist hires to help him on the case. Salander is brilliant, a computer genius,  antisocial and has a lot of emotional baggage. We loved her. Mikael Blomkvist was a good secondary--not that that was Larsson's intent. Blomkvist, never realizing what Salander felt for him, made some of us want to shake him and say "wake up!" The book has many twists and underlining plots, family secrets and discovering what did happen to Harriet Vanger~~all made for a great discussion. I had warned some readers that they needed to get past the first 100 pages before the book took off. I assured them that the payoff would make it all worth while.  I promised we would do book two in the late fall and book three in the late winter...if I can get the copies.

Scott Turow is probably one of my favorite legal thriller writers. Years ago, I read Presumed Innocent and enjoyed it...full of political corruption, betrayal, courtroom drama and of course, murder, what was there not to like? I thought since Turow had come out with a sequel to it, Innocent, (twenty years later) if would be fun to reread it and then catch up with the characters in the sequel. The group were surprised with how they got hooked right away. We talked about the insight he gave into the justice system and how using the present tenth made us feel we were right there watching what was going on. One group member said they felt like yelling "look out!" during one section of the book. The best part? We all agreed that we were shocked and surprised by the ending. (Well, not me because I had read it before.)  Seemed nobody expected the ending to be what it was at all while reading the book, and when they found out  who the murderer was, they were shocked. 
I will say that the movie based on the book, starring Harrison Ford, is terrific too.

We finished up the summer book discussion with Nemesis by Jo Nesbo. This was another great series many in the group became hooked on. Who robbed a bank, shot the cashierand just disappeared into thin air? Outside of trying to remember the characters and keeping the names straight, it was a great read. Norwegian Detective Harry Hole takes us on a whirlwind of a  ride from Norway to Brazil, as he tries to find the killer....and prove himself innocent in the mysterious death of someone he knew. There were multi-layered plots that did end up connecting toward the end. The big part of the discussion was the comparison between this book and the Larsson book. Several felt this book was better then Larssons and look forward to continuing to solve murders with Harry Hole.
Unfortunately this was book three in the series. The first two books were being translated into English and there weren't sufficient copies for me to get for the group. Nobody thought they had missed anything from not having read the first two.
**When Nesbo isn't busy writing books, he plays in the Norweigian rock band, Di Derre.

One question about the two European authors, Larsson and Nesbo, was the concern that anything was lost in translating the books from Swedish and Norwegian to English? From everything I read about both of them, the answer seems to be no. The translators seem to have done a superb job of translating both books.

We had some great discussions with these books. In fact, we had such a great time, many in the group requested we continue the mystery/thriller book discussions...and we will.
If you are looking for a new series, check some of these out. Want to read a popular author's first book, here you go with some good ones. Any one of them I would highly recommend. 

Up next will be The Poet by Michael Connelly on October 19th at 4pm.This was Connelly's first book and it was one that you couldn't put down....