It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror, edited by Joe Vallese

 

Reviewed by Christy

            I love horror. Well, most horror. I'm generally not into body horror, extreme gore, or most slashers (though I do have a soft spot for the Scream franchise and the original Halloween). This kind of leaves me out of step with a lot of horror fans. But regardless, I still enjoy hearing differing viewpoints and experiences when it comes to horror, which is why I picked up It Came from the Closet.

            Although I'm not a member of the LGBT community myself, I think it's important to listen to perspectives from people different than me. And what a more interesting way than through scary movies! As with any collection of essays or short stories, there are hits and misses. The ones that stood out to me most were Carmen Maria Machado's "Both Ways" (Jennifer's Body), Jen Corrigan's "Three Men on a Boat" (Jaws), Sumiko Saulson's "Centered and Seen" (Candyman), and Tucker Lieberman's "The Trail of His Flames" (The Nightmare on Elm Street). I enjoyed quite a few others but these were particularly engrossing to me. The one that made the most impact, however, was Joe Vallese's "Imprint". Vallese details his and his husband's journey to parenthood through surrogacy. A close friend had such easy pregnancies with her own children that she was delighted to be a surrogate for her friends. Unfortunately, she would go on to have more than one miscarriage. Each time was devastating but the second one was particularly heart breaking. Amanda, the surrogate, got pretty far long in this pregnancy - well past the point that was considered tenuous. They knew it was a girl due around Easter, and everyone called her Chickie. But the baby didn't make it. To say this essay packs a punch would be an understatement; I had to take a break after listening to it. Surrogacy is a controversial topic but I think many people will feel deep sympathy as Vallese mourns a child that will never be. (Vallese and his husband are now proud parents to a little boy.)

            As with the essay mentioned above, a lot of these are emotionally heavy. But I do think they're worth checking out! The authors tell their personal stories while also giving readers a new way to think about their favorite scary movie. I feel like I learned a lot.

Christmas Stories by North Carolina Writers and Twelve Poems, Too edited by Ruth Moose

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

 

This time of year I especially enjoy a good Christmas story.  Oh, I’ll read one anytime; I’m not one of those to turn my nose up at a book set in a different season, but there’s just something about having the holiday swirl around you when you’re reading a book that enriches both experiences.

The problem is that the holidays bring deadlines, tasks, and gatherings, which puts a crimp into my reading time.  This year I picked up a slim collection by an assortment of North Carolina writers and found it was just the ticket.  The selections are short, many under ten pages, and a few are excerpts from other works.  Authors include Lee Smith, Robert Morgan, Sue Ellen Bridgers, and Kaye Gibbons.

I’m not sure what I originally expected, but I found myself utterly charmed.  While the title had me expecting mostly short stories, I found them to seem more like memoir and essay which I liked.  I first turned to Lee Smith’s “Christmas Letters,” thinking it would be a selection from her novella of the same name but it turned out to be a lovely reflection on those “Here’s what I’ve been doing” letters that show up in the Christmas cards.  As a person who writes such letters, I found her thoughts on it to be enlightening and heartening.  I flipped the pages and randomly selected another entry, “Santa’s Coming,  Regardless” by Robert Inman which was another winner, and one that will stick with me for Daddy Jake’s wise words about Santa. Some selections are indeed previously published –Kaye Gibbons’ selection is from her novel Ellen Foster—but most seem to be original.

This is a fine collection, and some would be good for reading aloud.  The brevity doesn’t affect the quality, and I really liked that they weren’t all tear-jerkers.  Many had a definite Appalachian quality to them.

If you’re looking to take a break this holiday season, I think you’ll find much to enjoy in this volume.

Ripped From the Headlines: The Shocking True Stories Behind the Movies' Most Memorable Crimes by Harold Schechter.

 

Reviewed by Jeanne

Schechter is the author of several true crime books, including Hell’s Princess:  The Mystery of Belle Gunness, Butcher of Men, which Christy reviewed previously.  Obviously, he has a way with titles.

This book is a collection of 40 essays listed by movie which have some connection to a true crime case.  Some are more easily connected than others, but all are fascinating.  Some are well known and obvious—Psycho and Ed Gein, for example—while others are less known.  I was intrigued to see Arsenic and Old Lace listed, so of course I had to read that one first and found that there was a case of a woman murdering boarders by poison, though she wasn’t nearly as charming as Cary Grant’s aunts in the film.  I didn’t know that Scream was influenced by Danny Rolling’s murderous rampage in Florida.

Some of the movies listed are sensational and with only a slight connection to a crime such as Eaten Alive!

Usually the essay begins with a recap of a movie, and then describes the real life crime behind it. Some of these have some graphic detail which I could have done without, but for the most part they are restrained and informative.  I was more interested in the movie aspect, and for that part Schechter offers both description and a bit of a critique.  There were a lot of movies I was vaguely aware of—I recognized titles, such as Butterfield 8—but really didn’t know much about the movie itself.  Now I want to see Double Indemnity, a movie written by Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler, and starring Barbara Stanwyck and Fred McMurray.  I’m also curious about M, the 1931 Fritz Lang movie based on a child murderer which was a breakthrough role for Peter Lorre.  I wish I had read this book before stumbling on Shadow of a Doubt, the Alfred Hitchcock thriller starring Joseph Cotton; it would have given the movie an added dimension.

While one movie is highlighted, there are some crimes which inspired several films.  Some of those are also mentioned in sidebars.  The Leopold-Loeb crime was the basis for both the movies Rope and Compulsion, for example, and the notorious Burke and Hare were the basis for The Body Snatchers, The Doctor and the Devils, and at least two entitled Burke and Hare.

There is an index, very handy for checking which Hitchcock films made the list, or if a specific movie shows up in a chapter headlined by a different film.  I was surprised by how often Theodore Dreiser’s name came up. His book An American Tragedy (based on a real crime) influenced more than one film.

I intended only to browse this book, but ended up reading the whole thing.  The short chapters made it easy to put down and pick up again later. Overall, I would say this is more a book for film buffs than for true crime people, but that’s just my perspective: I read it more for the movie info than the murders.  Catalogers seem equally conflicted: our copy is in the true crime section, while another library has it in their film section.

Blue John Remembers by Clarence Baker Kearfott

Reviewed by Kristin

 

Blue John Remembers is a collection of local remembrances by architect Clarence Baker Kearfott found in the Bristol Herald Courier in the 1950s, likely in 1958. Published in book format by the Bristol Historical Association in 1995, the articles are an eyewitness account of life in the Bristol area from the first half of the 20^th century.

 

I knew we had this book in the genealogy and local history section, but I had never picked it up. When I came across a copy and saw the name Kearfott, I thought “AHA!” While working on the city directory digitization project, I saw hundreds of banner ads showcasing Clarence Kearfott as a prominent local architect. The biography in the front of this collection says that he designed churches, colleges, industrial plants, hospitals, schools, and many residences throughout the area, as well as much of Hungry Mother State Park. His daughter Ruth Kearfott Harris provided a list of buildings and residences that he built, and it goes on for several pages.

 

Each column is just a page or two in the book, many with accompanying illustrations that give a nice flavor to the memories contained within. Reading about the first automobile in Bristol in 1907, you can envision the snorting horses and the rutted roads as the newfangled contraption came putt-putting along. A more fanciful story is told in the era of the Space Race as Kearfott recalls his imagined trip to the moon way back in 1901, courtesy of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York.

 

Examining the writing with a backdrop of its time, I found a few hints that made it obvious these columns were written by a white man of privilege in the 1950s South. His memories of people of other races or nationalities seemed a bit condescending, although not overtly crass or cruel. Kearfott’s 1916 memory of a German music teacher named Kratochwill was distinctly marked by anti-German feelings, and he noted that public sentiment caused the man to leave Bristol. I did a little genealogical searching and found that Rudolph Arbrecht Kratochwill did indeed teach music at Sullins Academy and Virginia Intermont College, and moved to Greeneville, Tennessee a few years later where he obtained his United States citizenship in 1924.

 

Likewise, I was intrigued by some other characters mentioned in the columns, and was able to find “Old Taylor,” a black fishmonger in the 1910 census. He was George Taylor, age 63, a retail merchant of fish and oysters. “Aunt Liz Watson” had a unique house across from East Hill Cemetery, hung with bright metal product signs, and a herd of goats. I didn’t find mention of her goat keeping in the census, but she did live at 332 East State Street, and when she died on July 18, 1950, she was recorded as being approximately 115 years old.

 

Kearfott talks about the Marrying Parson Burroughs, the State Line Dispute, the Harmeling Opera House, Halley’s Comet in 1910, the Aurora Borealis in 1918, indoor plumbing, and so much more. This first-hand account of local happenings is well worth reading.

Have a Nice Guilt Trip by Lisa Scottoline and Francesca Serritella

Reviewed by Kristin

I have been on a Lisa Scottoline kick lately.  In the past two months I have read seven of her books—both novels and humorous non-fiction.  I’ve worked my way through Rosato & DiNunzio, a suspense filled series about an all-female law firm in Philadelphia.  The characters within, from “Tony down the block” to power-hungry rival lawyer Nick Machiavelli, all feel so real.  Lisa and her daughter Francesca also write weekly “Chick Wit” columns for The Philadelphia Inquirer, which are then published as collections and end up shelved in our non-fiction humor (818) section.  This loud and raucous Italian-American family operates with what looks like true affection for one another.  Of course the true character is the matriarch of the clan—Mother Mary.

Mother Mary was a tiny little woman with a big attitude.  A mere 4’11” in height, she lived to age 90 until her passing in 2014, which just happened to be shortly after Have a Nice Guilt Trip was published.  If there’s one thing mothers know, it’s guilt, right?  I think it’s because most mothers would do almost anything in the world for their children.  With that utter willingness to sacrifice, mothers hold a special place in the very existence of their children.  Family dynamics, especially between mothers and daughters, can be tricky, but they are usually born of love.

Mother Mary was quite the contrarian but loved the spotlight (as long as it was on her terms.)  She would insist that she didn’t need the book club party to sing Happy Birthday to her, but would surely enjoy it when the crowd broke out in song.  Mother Mary was also known to wear a long white lab coat, and whether that was because of the extra pockets or the camouflage needed when she just didn’t feel like putting on a bra, well, that’s anyone’s guess.

Lisa writes of relationships as she is sandwiched between feisty mother Mary and daughter Francesca.  Now that Francesca has flown the coop, (I mean, moved out on her own,) Lisa is managing by filling the house with animals.  With four dogs, two cats, chickens, a pony or two…Lisa is a fierce animal lover and defender.  Family can have fur, right?

Francesca brings a fresh perspective to the “Chick Wit” columns and the books in which they are contained.  Best friends, ex-boyfriends, and city living experiences all make an appearance in this young author’s writing.  While I’ve never moved to New York City, had a rock band boyfriend, or made new friends while walking a dog, Francesca is enjoyable and amazingly relatable.  Plus, while Mother Mary may have given daughter Lisa a hard time occasionally, she always had a soft spot for granddaughter Francesca.

Join Lisa, Francesca, Mother Mary, Brother Frank, and all of the furry Scottolines (by the way, the name rhymes with “fettucine”) through this delightful series of books written by this mother-daughter duo.  Additional titles include:  Why My Third Husband Will Be a Dog; My Nest Isn’t Empty, It Just Has More Closet Space; Best Friends, Occasional Enemies; Happy and Merry; Meet Me at Emotional Baggage Claim; Does This Beach Make Me Look Fat?; I’ve Got Sand in All the Wrong Places; I Need a Lifeguard Everywhere But the Pool; and I see Life Through Rosé-Colored Glasses.