Into the Forest discussion

A place to discuss books with Ghosts in them for our 2020 Reading Challenge.

If anyone fancies a Karen Russell short story, 'The Prospectors', for free in either audio (with KR narrating) or online format: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...

PS: what a great resource The New Yorker is.

I finished The Ghost Bride and I highly recommend it .

I'm currently reading The Remaking and its pretty decent so far! It's got witches and the ghosts of those witches.

I decided to use The Ghost Bride for this one as well.

If anyone wants to read a classic, I recommend The Haunting of Hill House.

Margaret wrote: "I decided to use The Ghost Bride for this one as well.

If anyone wants to read a classic, I recommend The Haunting of Hill House."

Ah, excellent. I forgot that I'm halfway through a reread of the Haunting of Hill House, and this should help me finish.

What is the next topic, by the way? I feel a bit out of the loop...

Emily wrote: "What is the next topic, by the way? I feel a bit out of the loop..."

We're not going in any order! Basically, I set up individual discussions for each reading challenge category so we'd have a place to discuss what we're reading for each category. But people can read in any order!

We're also experimenting with having the group reads we vote on be one of the themes from the challenge. Currently, our group reads are with the fae/fairies theme.

Margaret wrote: "Emily wrote: "What is the next topic, by the way? I feel a bit out of the loop..."

We're not going in any order! Basically, I set up individual discussions for each reading challenge category so w..."

Right! I guess I meant if the group reads (the ones that have nominated books) have already got a predetermined order or if we'll be voting on them every couple of months.

Emily wrote: "Right! I guess I meant if the group reads (the ones that have nominated books) have already got a predetermined order or if we'll be voting on them every couple of months.."

We'll vote on them. Which we'll probably start voting on which theme to use for our April-May books next week.

Two of my all time favorite ghost stories are Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn and Somebody Come and Playby Clare McNally

Carrie wrote: "Two of my all time favorite ghost stories are Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn and Somebody Come and Playby Clare McNally"

Wait Till Helen Comes was one of my favorite books as a kid! I have a memory of lounging on the carpet in my elementary school library reading it. I ended up buying it at the scholastic book fair so I could have it at home too. :)

I see no love for The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde . Not the greatest Wilde's fan, but I really enjoyed this short story :)

A Drowned Maiden's Hair by Laura Amy Schlitz and The Court of the Stone Children by Eleanor Cameron are good.

I notice that ghost stories can take a long time to reveal their fantastic side.

Asaria wrote: "I see no love for The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde . Not the greatest Wilde's fan, but I really enjoyed this short story :)"

It's been a long while since I read that one! Maybe I'll reread it around Halloween.

I just received Where The Wild Ladies Are. I haven't started, but it claims to be retellings of Japanese ghost stories.

When I recently reread The House of the Spirits I realized I'd forgotten how many ghosts are in the story, so I counted it for this category. The ghosts don't have major roles in the story, but for me that's about how much ghosts I could handle.

I never wanted to read A Fine and Private Place for this reason, because all the main characters are ghosts.
It is on the mythic fiction list so if anyone else doesn't mind this it would be a good choice for this category of the challenge

Margaret wrote: "Carrie wrote: "Two of my all time favorite ghost stories are Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn and Somebody Come and Playby [author:Clare McNall..."

I still have my copy from when I was like 8 or so. :)

A book just came out that would be great for this category, if you enjoy YA. It's called Ghost Wood Song by Erica Waters. It's about a fiddle that can call up ghosts, and has lots of folksongs in it too.

Ghosts are my jam! Witches and ghosts probably tie as favorite for me.

A really, really, really good "ghost" novella I read a couple years back is The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley and Kat Howard. It was a lovely, dark mashup of myths, folklore, deals/curses.

If you're looking for something by an Indigenous author, give Stephen Graham Jones' Mapping the Interior a try. He packs so much HEART in his stories that I often forget they're considered "horror."

And if you're looking for something with ghosts AND witches, I recommend Dusk or Dark or Dawn or Day by Seanan McGuire. It's sooooo good!

Jalilah wrote: "...I never wanted to read A Fine and Private Place for this reason, because all the main characters are ghosts.
It is on the mythic fiction list..."

It being on the Endicott list is why I read it, but it didn't WOW me like I thought it would. It's pretty deep, though. And very slow-paced. But I plan on giving the revised edition a read in a few more years just to make sure I actually didn't like it and wasn't just in a bad mood. LOL

I counted The Ghost Bride as my pick for this challenge item. But I also considered reading Sparrow Hill Road by Seanan McGuire or The Good House by Tananarive Due.

Leah wrote: "Ghosts are my jam! Witches and ghosts probably tie as favorite for me.

A really, really, really good "ghost" novella I read a couple years back is The End of the Sentence by [autho..."

I added two books to tbr. Look interesting :)

If you want something short, there is a short story [book:A Hundred Ghosts Parade Tonight|45481645] by Xia Jia that was published online.

http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/xia_0...

I just finished the kindle edition of The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and I’m almost done with the same title but not exactly the same collection published in paperback by Scribner. And I’m listening to Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. None of them are the ghost stories that I had originally planned for the challenge but they’re good!

Note: I edited this to include links.

Annette wrote: "I just finished the kindle edition of The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton and I’m almost done with the same title but not exactly the same collection published in paperback by Scribner. And I’m list..."

OMG I love MR James so much! I don't remember the name of the story off top of my head, but the one where the MC reaches under his pillow and feels something that shouldn't be there (view spoiler)[a mouth and hair!! (hide spoiler)] - ahhhh! Good times.

ETA: Looked at my book notes, it was "Casting the Runes" in case anyone is interested in catching some heebie jeebies. 😈

I ended up using The House of the Spirits for this category because as I was rereading it I'd totally forgotten how many ghosts are in it!
I read The Night Tiger for the Cats category, but I find Ghosts actually play a larger role in the story rather than cats!
There is another fantastic book I recently read that has ghosts but I don't want to mention it because if I did it would be a spoiler for anyone who has not read it yet!

Leah wrote: "Annette wrote: ..."

I agree, MR James is good at spooky!

For those looking for a YA option, I chose Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare released this year.

I'm currently reading House of Salt and Sorrows, which is a very loose YA retelling of the Twelve dancing princesses story... with ghosts. And I'm really enjoying the ghost scenes, even if they are a little silly-creepy.

Marta wrote: "I'm currently reading House of Salt and Sorrows, which is a very loose YA retelling of the Twelve dancing princesses story... with ghosts. And I'm really enjoying the ghost scenes, ..."

I read that one in February, and the ghost scenes are my strongest memories from it!

If anyone is looking for a different take on Ghosts Juniper Wiles by Charles de Lint is very good!