"Don't join the book burners. Don't be afraid to go in your library and read every book..." ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Aurelien digs out from under a pile of library sale books and catalogs her unread gems. Tune in for hot takes on old books!

Ranging from "the most unusual mystery novel ever written", to neurological non-fiction, to the YA of our nightmares, and short story collections from famous writers, plus all the various genre adventures, and a random secret gift, the gang's all here.

• Shade of the Tree by Piers Anthony
• Condominium by John D. MacDonald
• Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz
• Dawn by Octavia Butler
• The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring by John Bellairs
• The Man who Mistook his wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks
• Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
• The Nine Lives of Chloe King by Celia Thompson
• Wicked Witch Murder by Leslie Meier
• Bluebeard's Egg and other stories by Margaret Atwood
• From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by e.l. konigsburg
• Smoke and Mirrors by Neil Gaiman
• Shade's Children by Garth Nix
• The Floating Admiral by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton

What to read first, spooky friends?? Weigh in and support the show at https://www.patreon.com/spookyaurelien

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• Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod
• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com

Spooky salutations, listeners and readers! It's time for a "what I was reading when I wasn't here" mid-2023 check-in. Slither into the shade and have a listen, then make your plan of (reading) attack.

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• Black Bloom by Felix I.D. Dimaro
• After Dark with Roxie Clark by Brooke Lauren Davis
• Rolling in the Deep by Mira Grant
• The Two Doctors Gorski by Isaac Fellman
• The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
• The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean
• Amari and the Night Brothers by BB Alston
• Birds, the first story in Evil Flowers by Gunnhild Øyehaug, translated by Kari Dickson

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Episode references:

• Cari Can Read youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/caricanread
• With Cindy youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@withcindy

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• Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod
• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/spookyaurelien

"Here are the confessions of a vampire."

Let's read INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE (1976) by Anne Rice together, spooky friends! Tune in to hear Aurelien's running commentary on her first time reading Chapter 1/paperback book pages 1-34.

Readalong with your own copy or just listen in for the story!

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• Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod
• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/spookyaurelien

Could you slip through a hole in reality? Aurelien interviews horror author Hailey Piper, author of QUEEN OF TEETH, THE WORM AND HIS KINGS, NO GODS FOR DROWNING and more. It's a far-ranging conversation about so many ways we experience horror.

Listen for horror geekery about unreliable narrators, our fuzzy reality, takes on modern movies, hopeful hopelessness, splatter Westerns, and how to trick your loved ones into reading the horror you know they'll love.

• Listen to THE TURNING, Spooky & Strange ep 74: https://pod.link/1469388636/episode/25b72ed05e0c96a5b293f3cff3d4badf

Read the horror of Hailey Piper:

• https://haileypiper.com/piper-books/
• Pre-order CRUEL ANGELS PAST SUNDOWN: https://haileypiper.com/cruel-angels-past-sundown/
• Look out for her upcoming stories in Unspeakable Horror vol 3, We're Here, Les Petits Morts, and more!

Books Hailey Piper recommended:

• The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
• IT by Stephen King
• Mostly everything by Ramsey Campbell
• They Drown Our Daughters by Katrina Monroe

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• Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod
• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/spookyaurelien

We're off the map of weirdness by this point.

How to describe this bizarre, mysterious, fantastical but also grounded, fun with very real consequences at stake, easy to read with heavy themes, 90s book? Go through the janitor's closet and meet under the school for THE INVASION (1996) by K.A. Applegate. Leave your prior preceptions at the door, don't judge this book by its many covers, and let's jump in! Seriously, don't even google it.

Spoilers in this one!

Interesting word of the book:

• monstrous
  • adjective
• • • frightful or hideous, especially in appearance; extremely ugly.
    • shocking or revolting; outrageous:monstrous cruelty.
    • extraordinarily great; huge; immense:a monstrous building.
    • deviating grotesquely from the natural or normal form or type.
    • having the nature or appearance of a fabulous monster.

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-If you'd like to support the podcast or commission an episode, https://ko-fi.com/spookyaurelien

"Welcome to Aloisville, rainiest town in the rainiest state. Population: we don't recall."

Don your rain gear and don't forget your umbrella for NOTHING BUT THE RAIN (2023) by Naomi Salman, a short tale of a drowning town and the people left (or kept) inside. Would you rather forget, or do what you can to survive? What does it mean to survive?

No spoilers in this one!

Episode references:

• THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN by Michael Crichton: https://app.thestorygraph.com/books/3f86584b-518f-4923-a39e-14cc282f71f

• 58 RULES TO ENSURE YOUR HUSBAND LOVES YOU FOREVER by Rafeeat Aliyu: https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/58-rules-to-ensure-your-husband-loves-you-forever/

• THE LONG RAIN and ALL SUMMER IN A DAY by Ray Bradbury

Interesting word of the book:

vivarium noun, plural vi·var·i·ums, vi·var·i·a [vahy-vair-ee-uh, vi-] a place, such as a laboratory, where live animals or plants are kept under conditions simulating their natural environment, as for research.\ ----

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• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com
• If you'd like to support the podcast or commission an episode, https://ko-fi.com/spookyaurelien

"Sometimes I feel dead," I told her, "and I hate everybody."

Let's get lethargic, and philosophical, with MY YEAR OF REST AND RELAXATION (2018) by Otessa Moshfegh. A rare pick from the world of literary fiction, this book feels like eating alone in a dingy restaurant at 3am. It's not horror, but you may be unnerved in a different way. (Stick around for some Gatsby rambling near the end!)

No spoilers in this one!

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• Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod
• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/spookyaurelien

Why are some of us so attracted to being totally repulsed?

Aurelien and horror writer Ruth Anna Evans explore this question in a discussion of body horror and short fiction; the inherent horror of bodies; and why we poke at our bruises.

Plus, we share a non-spoilery preview of the collection OOZE: Little Bursts of Body Horror (2023), which is, across 21 stories, bizarre, strange, heartwarming, weird, surprising, and gross.

• Keep up with Ruth Anna Evans at https://twitter.com/ruthannaevans

• Grab OOZE in paperback form https://godless.com/products/ooze-little-bursts-of-body-horror-edited-by-ruth-anna-evans

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• Theme: Magical Transition by Kevin McLeod
• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com
• Support the show at https://www.patreon.com/spookyaurelien

"There's only one reality."

Take a stroll down a dark alley in Midtown to hear a modern horror cautionary tale, THE POSTMORTAL by Drew Magary (2011).

Read it at your own risk, this dark dark tale of humanity and vanity, and consider your answer to the question we are still asking today: would you want to live forever? No spoilers in this one!

• Read more from Drew Magary: https://twitter.com/drewmagary

• Interesting word of the episode: collectivism
  • noun
  • the political principle of centralized social and economic control, especially of all means of production.

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• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com

"The news calls it a curse, but deep down, it's a mystery."

Meet Aurelien in the skies tonight to talk about THE TURNING by Hailey Piper. Spoilers ahead for this surprisingly optimistic story of transformation and change.

• Read more from Hailey Piper: https://haileypiper.com/
• Read more stories from OTHER TERRORS: AN INCLUSIVE ANTHOLOGY (2022): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60527041-other-terrors

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Interesting word of the episode: pterosaur

noun any flying reptile of the extinct order Pterosauria, from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, having the outside digit of the forelimb greatly elongated and supporting a wing membrane.

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• Additional music and sound effects from zapsplat.com