Japanese Fairy Tales
A little treasure from my library. Read more
Posts by Collection
books
Ghosts of Yesterday
Jack Cady is an author I was quite fond of, for a while. His stories are quiet and understated, at best eerie rather than scary. Thematically, he tends to treat ghosts and hauntings as metaphors for the effect of history and the past on the present. His collections are generally an interesting read, if your tastes run in that direction. Read more
Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things
Not a post about the book, per se, but it does discuss “Rokuro-kubi”, one of the stories in the collection, as well as the shortcomings of internet citations. Read more
One Hundred Demons
I like anything Lynda Barry writes. A lot of it hits home. Read more
Cebuano Sorcery
Fascinating 1965 report on Filipino faith healers in Cebu, their methods, and the folk beliefs surrounding them. Read more
Bartleby the Scrivener
Quoted in a little quote/photocollage post that I once wrote. An odd, odd, little tale. I’ve always liked it. Read more
The Interior Castle
Quoted in a little quote/photocollage post that I once wrote. Read more
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Quoted in a little quote/photocollage post that I once wrote. Read more
American Gothic Tales
One of my blog readers took issue with Oates’s (non)-definition of the Gothic; nor did they consider this anthology, as excellent as it is, to be truly representative of gothic fiction. But it is an excellent anthology. Read more
The Etymologicon
Forsyth runs (ran?) a blog called The Inky Fool, which seems to have gone quiet. At the time I wrote the original post, the blog was a quirky look at word histories that led directly to this, his first book. He’s moved on a bit, I think. Read more
Supernatural Noir
The post isn’t a review; it’s the announcement that I’d discovered the book, Joe Landsale’s contribution to the book, and some general thoughts about noir. Read more
Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft
Written in the form of letters to Scott’s son-in-law, Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft is both a sceptical dismissal of supernatural phenomena, and an excuse to tell good spooky stories. It’s enjoyable and often informative on both levels. Read more
20th Century Ghosts
The first short story collection from Joe Hill, a writer I thoroughly enjoy. This volume is a big reason why. I admire how well Hill can inhabit the mindset of the young people who populate many of his tales. Read more
Shadowings
My post is really about the Masaki Kobayashi film Kwaidan, but many of the stories in the film are from Shadowings and other Hearn collections. Read more
A Visit from the Goon Squad
Mentioned in an article listing several short story cycle style novels that I’m fond of (or was at the time). Read more
Fun Home
Mentioned in an article listing several short story cycle style novels that I’m fond of (or was at the time). Read more
Ghostwritten
Stories from the lives of various characters lead one into the other, up to an inevitable (perhaps) conclusion. Read more
If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
One of Calvino’s better known experimental works. The stories aren’t even stories–just beginnings. I was very, very, fond of Calvino for a while. Read more
Locos
Offbeat, fantastical stories about life in the Spanish expat community of New York City. Read more
Pnin
The adventures of an Russian expat professor at a small American college. No doubt influenced by Nabakov’s own American teaching experiences. Light and humorous. Read more
Q&A
The novel that became the film Slumdog Millionaire. A poor tiffin seller must defend himself against charges that he cheated to win a TV quiz show. A bit different from the movie; both are good. Read more
The Bridge of San Luis Rey
A monk tries to trace the inscrutable workings of God in the aftermath of a bridge collapse. The novel has just gone into US public domain, so now is a good time to check it out. Read more
The Brief History of the Dead
A story of existence after death, and how memories keep past loved ones alive (perhaps more than metaphorically). What happens when there is no one left to remember you? Read more
The Monkey’s Wrench
An Italian construction worker tells stories of his adventures to his fellow countryman, a chemist, while both are stuck in a miserable Russian town on business. Read more
The Pillow Boy of Lady Onogoro
The concubine of an eleventh century Japanese general finds that her lover doesn’t quite do it for her. So she hires a blind stableboy to whisper erotic stories to her while she and her lover are bed. Read more
Shuck Unmasked
Where would the devil go, if he wanted to retire? This lovely, charming comic book takes a guess. In the post, I say “Walt Kelly meets Neil Gaiman” – that’s probably still the best description. Read more
Vampire Loves
The un-life and loves of the vampire Ferdinand. I only mentioned this in passing while discussing Shuck Unmasked, but genuinely a charming, terrific read. Read more
The Oxford Book of Gothic Tales
I bought this in response to a reader’s comments on my review of American Gothic Tales. I remember that, at the time, I vastly preferred the modern gothic tales to the traditional eighteenth and nineteenth century offerings. I have a more favorable view of gothic romance now, but I probably still prefer the modern offerings. Worth reading. Read more
The Dark
This was my first conscious introduction to the anthologies of Ellen Datlow – I’d previously read Supernatural Noir, without taking note that she was the editor. A collection of nontraditional ghost stories, often told in a “literary” style that only touches on the supernatural. Read more
Bring My Your Saddest Arizona
This was a great collection of slice-of-life short stories. My post specifically discusses the science-fiction flavored “Why the Sky Turns Red When the Sun Goes Down”—a sad, lovely tale. Read more
Not Exactly Ghosts
Enjoyable collection of M.R. James-inspired, though non-antiquarian, ghost stories. Several are set in the fictional Asian colony of Kongea, reflecting Caldecott’s career as the governor of the then-British colonies of Hong Kong, and later Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Read more
The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories
A huge collection of representative stories of The Weird, as defined by the VanderMeers. Fascinating reading. Read more
John The Balladeer
A traveling musician roams the Appalachians, encountering forest folk and mythical creatures along the way. Read more
Coraline
Young Coraline discovers another world behind a magic door. Now she must save herself and all the other trapped children, or be stuck there forever. Read more
Five Children and It
Classic children’s adventure about five siblings and a Psammead, or sand fairy. This is apparently a staple of British childhood, but I didn’t read it until I was an adult. I’m glad I did. Read more
The Five Jars
M.R. James’ only children’s novel. It’s delightful; I wish he’d written more. The narrator (James, presumably) has adventures with talking animals and little elf-like people. It reminds me a bit of James’ story “After Dark in the Playing Fields.” Read more
The Rector of Veilbye
This is considered the first modern crime novel, predating Poe by about a decade, and Sherlock Holmes by fifty years. It’s a psychological crime story, rather than a whodunit. Mark Twain plagiarized Blicher’s novel for Tom Sawyer, Detective, but the original is better. Read more
Tom Sawyer, Detective
Mark Twain plagiarises (I’m sorry, but he does) the plot of Steen Steensen Blicher’s The Rector of Veilbye, adding some Sherlockian flavor that wasn’t in the original. I like the original better, but if you enjoyed Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and wouldn’t mind more, check this out. Read more
Strange Tales from A Chinese Studio
This is a collection of Chinese supernatural tales, compiled by scholar Pu Songling in the late seventeenth to early eighteenth centuries. I have several translations of tales from the collection: the Herbert Giles translation from 1880 (probably the best known translation); Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisure, the 1913 translation by George Soulie; and the 2006 translation by John Minford. Read more
Old Testament Legends
James’ collection of Old Testament apocrypha is not nearly as dry as you’d expect something like this to be. His voice is much like it is in his ghost stories. If you were raised Christian or Jewish, this is an interesting way to look at the mythology almost from “the outside” — and if you were not raised in either of those traditions, then it’s an interesting collection of legends from a different mythology. Read more
Five Modern Noh Plays
Mishima’s updating of traditional Noh plays. I haven’t read this for a while; I should re-revisit this. The post discusses two of the plays that I liked best. Read more
The Cyberiad
The Cyberiad is a delightful collection of short stories about the constructor robots Trurl and Klapaucius as they travel the galaxy, and I know you all want me to classify it as science fiction. But it’s not. I really want to classify it as fairy tales, but I’m going to compromise and call it fantasy, instead. Read more
Kitaro
This manga about the adventures of a little yokai boy feels very of its time (the late 1960s), but was fun to read nonetheless. Read more
The Beast with Five Fingers
I never wrote a full blog post about Harvey’s collection of ghost stories, even though Harvey is one of my favorite ghost story writers. He’s not as well known as he should be. But I do bring up individual stories several times. Read more
The Times Anthology of Ghost Stories
The winners of a 1975 ghost story competition by the Times of London, judged by Amis, Highsmith, and Lee. Some excellent stories, not all of them scary. Holds up pretty well, I think. Read more
The Book of Fantasy
This was one of my first collections of international fantastic fiction, and I love it. I never wrote a review of it, but I do play a little book-scrying game with it, here. Read more
Ghost Gleams
Stories originally told as campfire stories to the students of a boys’ school in Wales, in the early twentieth century. Many have a sort of M.R. Jamesish-feel. Light, but entertaining. Read more
The Scarlet Plague
Humankind is almost completely wiped out by a virulent, ebola-like disease in the summer of 2013. James Howard Smith, an English literature professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is the last man alive who still remembers that summer. The story is told in flashback, to Smith’s grandsons.Read more
Hitchcock and Bradbury Fight in Heaven
McSweeney’s Quarterly 45: An issue of a literary magazine masquerading as a book. Read more
The Macabre Megapack
Great weird short stories by otherwise mediocre authorsRead more
Couching at the Door
Historical novelist D.K. Broster’s only collection of ghost stories and macabre tales, published in 1942. Excellent, quietly creepy stories. It’s a shame she never wrote more. Read more
The Bishop of Hell
I called this a “guilty pleasure” when I first read it; I’ve read a fair bit more Gothic romance since then, so perhaps I wouldn’t feel so guilty if I read it now. Read more
Red Spectres: Russian Gothic Tales
An excellent collection of supernatural and fantastical Russian short stories from just before and just after the dawn of the Soviet Union. Read more
The Bone Key
A collection of loosely linked short stories about a shy and slightly psychic rare book archivist and his encounters with the supernatural. Inspired by the author’s fondness for both M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft. Read more
Aura
I remember that I picked this up because a reader from Mexico who visited my site mentioned that Aura was their favorite Fuentes novel. I was not disappointed. Read more
Constancia and Other Stories for Virgins
In my post, I talk mostly about “Constancia” and its relationship to Fuentes’ novel Aura. But the rest of the collection was also quite good, as well. Read more
A Thousand Forests in One Acorn
The original post only linked to my review of the book at The Mantle – but that magazine is gone, and alas, I no longer have the review. Read more
Blow Up and Other Stories
Love, love, love this collection. Cortázar (specifically “La noche boca arriba”) was my introduction to magical realism, and is still one of my favorite short stories. But nearly everything by Cortázar leaves me breathless. Read more
Ghosts
A charming, meandering book of philosophical musings disguised as a novel.Read more
– Me, back in 2014 or so.
When I Was Mortal
One of two Marías short story collections that I read while on my Spanish literature kick. I’ve never read his novels, but I love his short stories. They have, variously, supernatural, ghosts, crime, and the macabre. Read more
While The Women are Sleeping
One of two Marías short story collections that I read while on my Spanish literature kick. I’ve never read his novels, but I love his short stories. They have, variously, supernatural, ghosts, crime, and the macabre. Read more
Help for the Haunted
A collection of linked short stories about journalist and occult detective Vera Van Slyke and her Watson, the ex-medium Lida Prasilova. Great fun. Read more
Selected Short Stories
I loved this so much. Every so often, I remember Tagore, and go find more of his short stories—there are easy to find public domain translations on Project Gutenberg, and other places. And I fall in love again. Read more
Yurei: The Japanese Ghost
Zack Davisson’s book about Japanese ghosts, or yurei is an interesting discussion of traditional Japanese belief systems and the history of the kaidan (ghost stories, or weird tales). Includes a great selection of representative kaidan as well, some previously untranslated, I think. Read more
A Spot of Bother
A fun little selection of macabre tales from a blogger that I was following at the time. Read more
All Souls Night
I know I said that I never write about a book I don’t like, and I don’t dislike All Souls’ Night. But I say in my post that I had put the book aside; nearly seven years later, I still haven’t picked it up again. Read more
Antique Dust
Fun collection of mid-twentieth century antiquarian (or at least, “antiquer”) ghost stories. Objects have histories, and auras, it seems. Read more
The Mark of the Shadow Grove
A trio of linked novellas about women from a family of witches. Lovecraftian, but with strong female characters and links to world mythology. Read more
Ghosts and Family Legends
Catherine Crowe was a fairly well-known collector of “true” supernatural phenomena. Ghosts and Family Legends is partly anecdotes told by friends around a fire during the Christmas season, and partly fully structured stories that I assume are fiction. Read more
The American Rivals of Sherlock Holmes
At interesting look at how early twentieth century American detective fiction differed from its British “drawing room mystery” counterpart. Read more
American Fantastic Tales
This is a two-volume set collecting examples of American fantastic and supernatural literature from Poe until the first decade of the twenty-first century. My discussion was really about the second volume, which went from the 1940s to about 2010, but there wasn’t a good cover image of that volume in Open Library. Read more
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories
Great collection of horror stories written by authors whose works have been published by Valancourt. The first of a series of such volumes, and a strong start to that series, too. Read more
Uncertainties 1 and 2
The first two volumes of Swan River Press’s ongoing anthology of uncanny tales, and still my favorites of the series. Read more
Two Bottles of Relish
Lord Dunsany’s tongue-in-cheek pastiche of classic detective fiction. All the stories were fun, and full of Dunsany’s lovely, lyrical prose and raconteur-like voice. Read more
A Chimaera in my Wardrobe
I picked this up online somewhere (I doubt it’s in physical print any more). Really cute and fun. I would have read more, if Tina Rath had ever written more. Read more
Shadows at the Door
Thirteen excellent, atmospheric ghost stories. Quite varied, too. Read more
The Antiquary and the Crocodile
A collection of M.R. James-related essays by Helen Grant, originally published in Ghosts and Scholars. Read more
The Holmes-Dracula File
I like Saberhagen’s Berserker stories, but I’d never read any of his other work This was a bit of an impulse ebook purchase. Not bad. Read more
The Department of Dead Ends
This collection of inverted mysteries was quite enjoyable, and reminded me a bit of those long form articles you sometimes see in The New Yorker or The Atlantic. A good read. Read more
Honolulu Mysteries
Noir pastiche with hints of Hawaiian supernatural folklore. The stories were originally serialized in a newpaper (mystery on Sunday, solution on Monday), so the pacing can be a little strange. Still enjoyable, especially if you are interested in Hawaiian folklore. Read more
Mexican Bestiary
Mexican Bestiary is an entertaining discussion of various mythical creatures from Mexican folklore, but this entry in the bookshelf is really meant to cover all the reference books that I mention in the related post. Read more
The Mammoth Book of Terror
This is an anthology of true horror, which I actually don’t read as much as I read ghost stories and fantastic tales. Bookstores and blogs often tend to lump ghost stories, the weird, general supernatural, and horror all under the same umbrella of horror, but a few stories in this anthology reminded me that they are quite, quite, stomach-turningly different. Read more
The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories 2
Didn’t start out as strong as the first Valancourt Book of Horror Stories, but still some excellent stories. Read more
The Picture of Dorian Gray
A few years back, I did a three part series on flower symbology in The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was fun. The series assumes you’ve read the novel already—specifically the more common twenty chapter version, not the original thirteen chapter version. Read more
Serendipity and the Three Princes
Peregrinaggio di tre giovani figliuoli del re di Serendippo (The Peregrinations of the three young sons of the King of Serendippo) is a sixteenth century collection of fantastical tales in a framing story, rather like 1001 Nights (but not so elaborate). Read more
Forty Two Stories
Yet another translation of Hans Christian Andersen!… Why am I adding to the pile? For the simple reason that I am very fond of the originals, and I do not think that justice has been done to them by any of the versions I have come across.Read more
– M. R. James, Introduction to Forty Two Stories
Hungry Ghosts
A comic book adaptation of some well-known Japanese folk stories, told as a game of Hyakumonogatari Kaidankai (A Gathering of 100 Weird Tales). Except it’s only eight stories. Includes some Japanese recipes at the end, and some excellent artwork throughout. Fun! Read more
The Solar Pons Series
This bookshelf entry is in honor of the entire August Derleth-authored Solar Pons series (I’ve not read the Basil Copper-authored Pons stories). I think it’s the best Sherlock Holmes pastiche out there. Read more
Stories of the Strange and Sinister
Supernatural tales by another author who should be better known. He’s better at the sweet and whimsical than at the dark and macabre. Read more
The Croquet Player
It’s 1936. Something strange is happening in remote Cainsmarsh: too much fear, paranoia, suspicion. Too much drug use for such a rural region. What is the miasma that pervades the region? Read more
Glimpses of the Unknown
More “lost” ghost stories! I love anthologies like this, but I accept that they can be hit or miss. Glimpses of the Unknown was gratifyingly more hit than miss. Great anthology. Read more
The Ghosts of Birds
Interesting collection of unconventional essays (“creative nonfiction,” I guess): retellings of stories from folklore and mythology, prose collages, translations, and book reviews. In some cases, I’m not entirely sure if the subject of discussion (a book, or poem) really exists; shades of Jorge Luis Borges. Read more
Tales of Terror
The first of three “terror tale” anthologies ostensibly edited by Boris Karloff. This one is a ghost story collection. Most of the stories included are fairly well known today, and can be found in numerous anthologies, but it would make a nice introduction for newcomers to the genre. Read more
And the Darkness Falls
The second of three terror tale anthologies ostensibly edited by Boris Karloff. This one is a huge anthology of what might be best called “dark tales”, both supernatural and non-supernatural. The best of the three anthologies, in my opinion. Read more
The Boris Karloff Horror Anthology
The third of three “terror tale” anthologies ostensibly edited by Boris Karloff. The entries in this anthology were more “pulpy” feeling than in the previous two. Read more
Guilt is a Ghost
A follow-on novel (I called it a “sequel/prequel/inbetween-quel”) to Prasil’s Help for the Haunted, about occult detective Vera Van Slyke and her assistant Lucille Prasilova. Enjoyable, but best read after reading the first Vera Van Slyke book, in my opinion. Read more
The Last Seance
A collection of supernatural and supernatural-adjacent short stories by Agatha Christie. The detective stories pretending to be ghost stories were generally better than the actual ghost stories. So I’m classifying this entry as Crime. Read more
The Mysterious Mr. Quin
Crime stories with a supernatural flavor, in the form of the mysterious Harley Quin. But the solutions to the mysteries are strictly naturalistic. I really liked this collection. Read more
Bookhunter
In many respects the American Library has become the most basic First Amendment institution. We are guards, yet we guard no less than the sum of human knowledge. We are the library police.Read more
– Jason Shiga, Bookhunter
The Library Fuzz
A library cop (!) whose job is to collect overdue books and fines, runs into murder and other felonies while making his rounds. Written in the seventies, but feels like the fifties. But that’s ok, I like nineteen-fifties crime stories. Good fun. Read more
From Out of the Silence
A flawed, but still enjoyable collection of supernatural tales, by a mostly obscure author. I featured Bessie Kyffin-Taylor in my Women Writers of Folklore and the Fantastic series. Read more
Uncanny Stories
A collection of psychologically complex ghost stories and metaphysical theorizing; the ghost stories were more enjoyable. Includes Sinclair’s best known short story “Where the Fire is Not Quenched,” which (in my opinion) anticipates Sartre’s No Exit by twenty years. Read more
The Death Mask
Quiet but inventive ghost stories, set in the period around World War I. The volume was praised by both M.R. James and H.P. Lovecraft. I featured her in my Women Writers of Folklore and the Fantastic series. Read more
Of One Blood
Originally serialized in Colored American Magazine around 1902, and written by that magazine’s editor, Pauline Hopkins. Recounts the tale of a mixed-race doctor who sails to Africa and stumbles upon Telassar, the lost capital of ancient Ethiopia. Read more
The Conjure-Man Dies
The first and possibly only Golden Age detective novel by an African-American author. It’s kind of a mixture of the ratiocination and hard-boiled genres, set in Harlem. I wish that Rudolph Fisher had lived to write more about John Archer and Perry Dart. Read more
Spirits Abroad
What a great collection this is! Written by a Malaysian author living in England, mostly about Malaysian characters (sometime in England). Full of elements of Malaysian folklore. The folklore creatures remind me a little of Filipino folklore, and the Malaysian characters and their family dynamics remind me a little of my own family. Read more
Tales of the Dead
This is an 1813 English translation of Fantasmagoriana (or part of it, at least), a collection of German gothic supernatural tales that is famous for being the reading material of Mary Shelley and company, the summer that Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Read more
New Ghost Stories
I really like Lettice Galbraith. This 1893 collection of ghost stories is fun and surprisingly modern in feel. Several of the stories revolve around a crime, combining two of my favorite genres. Read more
Fantastic Tales (Racconti Fantastici)
An interesting collection of stories from the 19th century Italian writer Iginio Ugo Tarchetti, translated by Lawrence Venuti. Ghost stories, tales that borrow from folklore or have a fairy-tale sensibility, and some outright weird ones, told with a gothic sensibility. Read more
Yellow Glass and Other Ghost Stories
A collection of antiquarian and/or folklore-inspired ghost stories by British folklorist and historian Francis Young. Read more
Things We Lost in the Fire
“Adela’s House” is the best haunted house story I ever read. That story alone makes this collection worth it. Read more
The Necromancer
The Necromancer was one of the “seven horrid novels” famously discussed by two young women in Jane Austin’s Northanger Abbey. The version the pair were referring to was a 1794 translation by Peter Will (as Peter Teuthold) of the 1792 German original. Read more
The Inn at the Spessart (from Tales)
The Inn at the Spessart was one of three collections of märchen written by nineteenth century poet and Romantic Wilhelm Hauff. The version I read was from Tales of Wilhelm Hauff, as translated by S. Mendel in 1886. This is one of the earliest complete collections of Hauff’s märchen in English, and it’s charming. Read more
Apparitions: Ghosts of Old Edo
Ghost stories set in the Edo Period of Japan, centered around the lives of ordinary, working-class urban people. Really lovely. Read more
Lord Halifax’s Ghost Book
A compendium of “true” ghost stories collected over the years by Charles Lindley Wood, 2nd Viscount Halifax. Published posthumously by his son, Charles Wood. Read more
Ghosts From the Library
This is a collection of “lost” supernatural and apparently supernatural tales from well-known Golden Age crime writers. I suspect it will be more interesting and enjoyable to crime fiction buffs who don’t mind some spookiness on the side, than it will be to ghost story fans who aren’t that into detective stories. Read more
The Honjin Murders
A classic locked-room mystery, set in 1937 Japan. This is an admiring tribute to Western Golden Age detective fiction, with an over-the-top, inventive solution. Read more
Medieval Studies and the Ghost Stories of M.R. James
An exploration of the links between James’s fiction and his scholarly life: his research, his interests, his likely anxieties. Since I think delving into the underpinnings of a James story is as enjoyable as the tale’s “pleasing terrors,” this book was a must-read. Read more
talks
Prepping Data for Analysis Using R
This workshop (co-presented with John Mount) lays out the fundamentals of preparing data and provides interactive demonstrations in the open source R analysis environment. Read more
An Introduction to Differential Privacy as Applied to Machine Learning
A brief introduction to the ideas behind differential privacy, and a review of how differential privacy can be used to enable safer re-use of holdout data in machine learning. Read more
Validating Models in R
John Mount and I demonstrate a number of techniques, R packages, and code for validating predictive models. Part of Strata+Hadoop R Day. Read more
Statistically Validate Models with R
John Mount and I demonstrate methods to reliably evaluate machine learning models using R and R graphics. Read more
Improving Prediction using Nested Models and Simulated Out-of-Sample Data
A discussion of nested predictive models and how to properly fit them. Read more
Myths of Data Science: Things You Should and Should Not Believe
In this talk, we go back to fundamentals and look closely at some usually unexamined assumptions about statistics and machine learning. We debunk “myths” that arise in common data science tasks, and offer potential fixes to issues that can arise. Read more
Practical Data Science with R
A preview of our then about-to-be released second edition of Practical Data Science with R. We discussed the direction that the R community had taken since our first edition, and how this affected the second edition. Read more
Preparing Messy Data For Supervised Learning (Python)
An introduction to the principles of the vtreat package for fitting machine learning models on messy real-world data, and to its Python implementation. Read more
Advanced Data Preparation for Supervised Machine Learning
An introduction to the principles of the vtreat package for fitting machine learning models on messy real-world data, and to its R implementation. Read more