Truman Capote | Turn the Page Reviews

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke & the Bookish. It’s awesome. Every Tuesday, the lovely ladies over there give us book bloggers wonderful and fun topics to create our lists! Check out what others have posted by going over there! http://brokeandbookish.blogspot.com

This week’s topic is-

Top Ten Books For Halloween

This was a challenge for me, since I am the biggest wimp ever and I do NOT really read lots of Horror books.

So, here is my list- and I only picked books that I have actually read!

1. The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe

“Villains!’ I shrieked. ‘Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! Tear up the planks! Here, here! It is the beating of his hideous heart!”

2. The Shining by Stephen King (I am in the middle of reading this right now!)

“Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I’m not gonna hurt ya. I’m just going to bash your brains in.”

3. Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

“People who cease to believe in God or goodness altogether still believe in the devil… Evil is always possible. And goodness is eternally difficult.”

4. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

“I thought that Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment that I cut his throat.”

5. Dracula by Bram Stoker

“The last I saw of Count Dracula was his kissing his hand to me, with a red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of.”

6. The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris

“What does he do, Clarice? What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing? He covets. How do we begin to covet? We begin by coveting what we see every day.”

7. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

“No, no—there are depths, depths! The more I go over it, the more I see in it, and the more I see in it, the more I fear. I don’t know what I don’t see—what I don’t fear!”

8. The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

“That’s what she was, Joanna felt suddenly. That’s what they all were, all the Stepford wives: actresses in commercials, pleased with detergents and floor wax, with cleansers, shampoos, and deodorants. Pretty actresses, big in the bosom but small in the talent, playing housewives unconvincingly, too nicey-nice to be real.”

9. The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,
As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.
Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door —
Only this, and nothing more.”

10. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

“The road to Manderley lay ahead. There was no moon. The sky above our heads was inky black. But the sky on the horizon was not dark at all. It was shot with crimson, like a splash of blood. And the ashes blew towards us with the salt wind from the sea.”

At Armchair BEA today’s topic is Ethics. We were given prompts to the discussions that asked us to give recommendations to new bloggers to ensure credit is give where it tis due. This is a topic that interests me a great deal, as I have only been blogging 3 months, and wonder this myself. So rather than write about a topic I do not have much knowledge on, I am instead going over to Armchair BEA at http://www.armchairbea.com and read what more seasoned bloggers had to say.

Our genre today is NON FICTION.

Uh oh, I thought, I’m not going to have much to say on this since I read mostly fiction. Then I rethought it, and am going to give it a shot!

Is there any specific type your prefer or dislike?

Well, I thought, I don’t like memoirs, but then I remembered I read The Glass Castle I really enjoyed it. Then I thought-one of my favorite books was The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion. If you have ever lost anyone close to you-you have to read this. Ms. Didion is an amazing writer and really describes what I thought was indescribable. I also enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (though I did like the eat and love part more than the pray-just saying).

Do I like true crime– goodness no! But wait, I did read

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote and really liked it. Oh yeah- and recently I read

In the Garden of Beast, by Erik Larson, about the American ambassador and his family living in Nazi Berlin right before WWII, which was AWESOME!!

I also read The Lost Dogs- Michael’s Vicks Dogs and Their Tale of Rescue and Redemption by Jim Gorant. It was a well written book of a horrible story.

As for historical non fiction, well, I do enjoy it, but can’t for the life of me think of one book right now, which is a little embarrassing since I was a History major, and taught U.S. History in high school.

Finally, biographies? NO, I do not read them. Wait- that’s right- I loved Tuesdays with Morrie– but wasn’t that more a memoir?