Mastics-Moriches-Shirley Community Library Reader Advisory Blog: Oh, the Horror!!

If you dare, stop by our main floor display (just outside the fax/copy room) featuring creepy books selected for their scare potential! Below are just a small selection of what's available at the Community Library.

Revelations edited by Douglas E. Winter
Featuring opening and closing novellas by Clive Barker and stories by David Morrell, F. Paul Wilson, and Whitley Strieber, among others, a collection of stories offers an alternative, apocalyptic twist on the chronology of the twentieth century. (Publisher Summary)

Ghosts Know by Ramsey Campbell

After publicly attacking psychic Frank Jasper, who he believes to be a talented charlatan, on his controversial talk radio program, Graham Wilde is plunged into a terrifying nightmare where reality and fantasy blur together after Jasper accuses him of being behind the disappearance of a teenage girl. (Publisher Summary)

The Six Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher

Harboring supernatural secrets and mysterious origins, the fantastical cattle town of Golgotha in mid-19th-century Nevada is thrown into a maelstrom when a primordial evil emerges from an abandoned silver mine, rendering a death-marked sheriff, his half-human deputy and other posse members the world's only protectors. (Publisher Summary)

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

Genre: Adult Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 out of 5

"Being Mortal is about the limitations of what modern medicine can provide for people as their lives draw to a close. Gawande argues that the objective of medicine should not merely be treatment and survival; medical care should also ensure dignity in death and having control over one's final moments. He argues that instead of aggressively fighting the inescapable realities of aging, we should ask the hard questions of ourselves and our loved ones -- What makes life worth living? When should we try to extend our lives, and when should we choose a better quality of our remaining days over extending their quantity?

This book is difficult to read. Not because of the way Gawande writes -- his style is highly engaging, and he never lapses into excessively scientific jargon or overly simplistic explanations -- but because of the tough subject matter. Gawande draws on his own experiences as a doctor and peppers his book with honest and humane stories of his patients, friends, and family; the stories he tells make the book more accessible, and also more heartbreaking. (And that's not a bad thing.)

No one likes to think about their loved ones', or their own, impending mortality. But it's important to have these hard conversations, because as Gawande says, "endings matter." - Amanda

Oh, the Horror!!

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