Mstrust's Year of Swell Stuff- #2

Welcome to my Category Challenge of Swell Stuff, which has about the loosest theme I could come up with. It's really just "stuff I like". As the year goes on, I imagine the category toppers will switch out.

I'm Jennifer and I live in Phoenix with husband Mike and frantic Boxer Coral. I'm in Vegas a lot because Mom lives there, and my sister, brother and nephew live in California, while my niece moved to Texas recently.
I write a weekly Substack called Autumn Lives Here that covers horror, true crime and Halloween all year long. I do book reviews, cocktail recipes, spooky travels, and weird true stories. I drop in an original short story sometimes too, and my story "Sitting Up with Granny" was featured in Season 5 of the Full Body Chills podcast.

Hosting duties: October's ScaredyKit will be Contemporary Horror.
I considered having a theme of slow things like molasses and turtles to depict what a slow reader I am, but then people would stop by just once a month to see if I'd made any progress and find that there had been little. I used to read a minimum of 100 books a year, but since I'm researching and writing so much now, my totals have gone way down. Drop in and say hi when you pass by.

Paul Holes! Hooray!

True Crime

1. Murder in Hollywood: Solving a Silent Screen Mystery- 3.5
2. The Devil's Rooming House-4
3. Little, Crazy Children-4

Non-Fiction

1. Living Like A Runaway- 3.5
2. Joe Gould's Teeth- 4

Favorite Authors

1. The Seventh Bride- 4
2. Lost Hills-4
3. Cut & Thirst-3
4. Dearly Devoted Dexter- 4.5

New To Me Authors

1. Muckross Abbey-4.5
2. My Year of Rest and Relaxation- 4.5
3. The Dinner- 4.5
4. Last Night at the Lobster-3.5
5. Famous Writers School- 4.5

Mystery, Thriller, Noir

1. Phoenix Noir- 3
2. The Christmas Guest- 4.5
3. Death in the Sunshine- 3.5
4. The Rising of the Moon-3.5

Black Nebula carrots

ROOTs

1. The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread- 3.5
2. The Bookshop-4
3. Homesick For Another World-4

Hot Weather Reads

1. Wild- 4

Horror & Halloween

1. Vexed To Nightmare- 3.5
2. H.P. Lovecraft: Great Tales of Horror-4
3. Nightbitch-3
4. A Certain Hunger-4.5

The adorable "powder puff" cactus

Cookbooks, Travel & Other Things

1. Killer Plants-3.5
2. Recipes from the World of H.P. Lovecraft- 4.5
3. The Mysteries- 3
4. I Must Be Dreaming- 3
5. Edible Houseplants-4

Finally: The Books I've Been Meaning To Get To

1. Starter Villain- 4
2. The Eyeball Collector- 4
3. Don't Point That Thing At Me-4
4. A Skeleton at the Helm-5

Next one's yours. Welcome!

Happy new thread! I like your pictures, especially the Anne Taintor -- she's hilarious.

Thanks, Christina! I adore Taintor. She always has the right snarkiness.

Happy new thread.

Happy New Thread! We were just outside Tucson visiting friends a couple of weeks ago and went at this time of year so we could see some cacti blooming. Didn't see a powder puff and the saguaros were mostly in bud, but we did see some.

Happy new thread!

Happy new thread!

>15 lowelibrary: Thank you!
>16 dudes22: Thanks! I have a prickly pear in my front yard that is covered in both fruit and beautiful yellow blooms that the bees love.
I didn't think you'd find a powder puff in the wild, but I looked up their habitat and they're native to North Central Mexico, so I guess they do grow wild. They look so dainty.
>17 MissWatson: Thanks!
>18 DeltaQueen50: Hello, Judy!

Here's something swell:

I've mentioned before that I love dried mango slices. Well, Langer's Mango Nectar, available at Costco, is very delicious and they remove those annoying mango strings that get caught in your teeth. It's just smooooth mango nectar.

31. Famous Writers School: A Novel by Steven Carter

Wendell Newton advertises his writing course in the back of a literary magazine, stating that he will help aspiring writers through his structured lessons. He begins working with a small collection of writers, sending out assignments that are explained through personal stories, such as the time when he was a young soldier working as a secretary to a general and was able to blackmail his superior into giving him a European vacation. In turn, his students send him whatever writing they want to, such as the ex-model and stripper who writes about the people who become obsessed with her, which quickly includes Wendell. Or Linda, who sends Wendell essays about stalking him and breaking into his house. The only student who is actually writing fiction, a tense crime novel that he sends in chapters, is the one who receives Wendell's strangest replies. Over weeks of correspondence, we find Wendell to be shadier than his early professionalism let on.

A satire of the snail mail writing schools of the past, the reader is plunged into slice-of-life stories from each character that may last a few paragraphs or ten pages. It may be a kidnapping, a romance, or a snotty reply from Wendell. Expertly woven together, it's both fun and remarkably well-written. I've never heard of this book or the author. I think I picked this up at the giant booksale one year. 4.5

>21 mstrust: A BB for me, for sure! Happy new thread---love your cat pics!

Thanks, Tess! Glad you found me!

It's a free week at Autumn Lives Here. We're making a gingersnap crisp and talking about crazy Lifetime movies. Drop in!
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

Happy new thread! Always entertaining!

Thanks, good to see you!

32. The Rising of the Moon by Gladys Mitchell

Young brothers Simon and Keith live with their older brother Jack and his wife June, a couple who are barely staying together. Their village is shocked when a performer in a traveling circus is murdered, quickly followed by another dead woman and another. The brothers begin their own investigation into these Ripper murders because much of the evidence points to Jack, but Scotland Yard sends a detective, Mrs. Bradley, who is surprised to find two young boys who can be so helpful to the investigation.

This is my first finished Mitchell, as I attempted Death at the Opera first but didn't make it past the first chapter. Going into this one, I assumed that it being a British mystery published in 1945, taking place in a village with an elderly female detective, that it would have a passing resemblance to an Agatha Christie. It really doesn't, as this village is peopled with characters who are far more broken than what you'd find in Christie. Jack and June are constantly barking at each other, miserable but unable to part. Jack, Simon and Keith are all in love with their pretty lodger Christina, who is portrayed as both intelligent and kind, yet wrestles around on her bed with the two young boys and allows them to grope and kiss her. Keith is just eleven. Mitchell's village is populated with people who are sometimes sad, angry, or jealous, so this sets it apart from the polite mysteries usually found in this era. 3.5

Something swell! My sister sent me a Louie's Derby Cake from Mertz's this week. Created for the Kentucky Derby, Mertz's is in Louisville but ships through Goldbelly. It's a sturdy, yet fluffy, butter cake that has a bourbon soak and is covered in a pecan streusel and drizzled in chocolate. It's delicious, and I really like the bourbon that mixes with the buttery cake.
My only complaint is that it is delivered without cold packs. The chocolate was melted when it arrived, but a few hours in the fridge and it was fine.
Sorry the pic is blurry but there are surprisingly few pictures of this cake online.

>28 mstrust: That cake looks and sounds delicious!

It is! There isn't much of it left :-D

>27 mstrust: I've read at least eight books by Gladys Mitchell (not including some before LT). The Rising of the Moon and Tom Brown's Body are my favourites. The screeching Mrs Bradley can become wearing after a while.

Hi Jennifer, that cake looks amazing! I am also slowly working my way through the Gladys Mitchell mysteries and I am finding them quite varied. Some I like - some not so much. The Rising of the Moon sounds like a good one, my next one will be The Devil at Saxon Wall which is the 6th book in the series.

>31 pamelad: >32 DeltaQueen50: I don't know how long I've had this particular Mitchell on the shelf, but probably around five years. It's one that I kept saying I'd get to because of the Ripper-like plot. Do you both find that she's writing a grittier version of the eras than Christie?
>32 DeltaQueen50: Hi Judy! I think I've decided that I quite like a bourbon soak.

>33 mstrust: Yes, I think Gladys Mitchell's books are much more grittier than Agatha Christie although I also find that some of her books work better than others. Although Christie always has a corpse or two, they are usually neat and tidy - no blood and gore to mess up the country house.

"Bourbon Soak" does have a nice ring to it!

>33 mstrust: Gladys Mitchell worked as a teacher throughout her writing career, so perhaps she had a more jaded view of humanity than Agatha Christie!

>34 DeltaQueen50: I put down Mitchell's Death at the Opera because it seemed so prim, with the teachers at a boarding school all atwitter because they were assigning themselves the roles to perform The Mikado. To be clear, they were going to perform the school musical, not the students.
I was thinking that a bourbon soak should be offered at spas!

>35 pamelad: Interesting! I know nothing about her, and had never heard her name until just a few years ago. Thanks!

Just noting that I bought Ring by Koji Suzuki today. And I saw three, THREE, different brands of pumpkin spice liqueurs at the store.

This week's Autumn Lives Here, we're making blood orange cocktails on our Picnic at Hanging Rock. Expect to get dirty.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

33. Homesick For Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh

A collection of short stories that focuses on strange people, or people who have lived safe lives but suddenly do something totally out of character. There are a few stories about widowers who are discovering that they had spent years living in their wife's shadow, while 'An Honest Woman' is about an older man who turns predatory when a young woman moves next door. 'The Weirdos' is hilariously told by a woman who is likely a sociopath, but a lazy unambitious one, and 'Slumming' is the story of a high school teacher who buys a summer cottage in a low-income river town that has been hit hard by the drug crisis. While describing the locals with disgust, she's unaware that she's quickly turning into one of them.
I've read My Year of Rest and Relaxation from the author and enjoy her strange plots, the characters who do the oddest things without a thought, but I have learned that Moshfegh clearly revels in writing absolutely disgusting passages meant to make the reader cringe. There are just a couple of stories here that don't have that trademark, but most do, and I don't know what to make of it, but to say that she's an excellent writer despite it. 4 stars

This week at Autumn Lives Here, we're making zombie head chocolates and pretending summer doesn't exist. Also, let's buy everything from Vincent Price. He was so great at moving stock.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

34. A Skeleton at the Helm edited by John Richard Stephens

A collection of short stories and poems that marry tales of the sea with the spooky and deadly. The editor has an extensive introduction that explains piracy, phantom ships, funerals at sea, sea monsters and just about anything dangerous or disturbing that is rumored to happen at sea. It's a very interesting discussion on its own, but then the reader then gets the spooky sea stories of Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, F. Marion Crawford, Bram Stoker, and many others, but best of all, several from William Hope Hodgson. His stories are 'The Voice in the Night', 'The Thing in the Weeds' (in my Top Ten for story titles), and 'The Derelict', a story first published in 1912 that must have been read by the screenwriters of The Blob because the creature found aboard the seemingly abandoned ship is so similar.
This book has a fabric cover with an inset showing a skeleton pirate, which you'll find plenty of in the stories. The paper is thick with an aged appearance and there are some illustration and woodcuts throughout. Highly recommended if the subject interests you. 5 stars

Summer is not my season, I hate it, you all know that. The good things about it would be a very short list for me, but here's something swell:

Trader Joe's key lime pie returns. It's creamy and tangy, and I even eat the graham cracker crust, which I'd usually leave. I do look forward to this each year.

>41 mstrust: Thanks for the tip! I'll look for this next time I'm at TJ's.

I hope you like it as much as I do!

35. Throttle by Joe Hill and Stephen King

This novella/long short story was inspired by Richard Matheson's Duel. Here, King and Hill have a biker gang called The Tribe who have just committed a double homicide over drug money. Led by Vince and made up of Vietnam vets, including Lemmy from Motorhead recreated here as an American, The Tribe has never gotten into murder or meth, but Vince was persuaded by his son, the newest member of the gang. Now they are riding the backroads of Arizona trying to put distance between themselves and the crime scene, but the semi barreling down the highway with them is the more immediate problem. 4 stars
This is available on Kindle.

This week at Autumn Lives Here, I have a whole buncha little known horror gems, and the pointless murder of Dr. Bartels.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/

36. Wild by Cheryl Strayed

A memoir of Strayed's largely solo hike along California's Pacific Crest Trail, which she began in the Mojave Desert, skipped the unpassable snow in the High Sierras, picking it up north of the mountains and continuing to the edge of Washington. Along the way, she met fellow hikers that she traveled and camped with for short periods, gaining much needed knowledge about how to survive this hike that she was unprepared for, having bought boots that were too small and destroyed her feet, and packing so much that she carried a pack that was too heavy.
Throughout the thousands of miles, she recalls memories of her abusive childhood, her recently ended marriage and her ex-husband, the death of her mother, her drug use, and if that isn't hard enough, a horrifying couple of pages that cover the family's neglect of their horses, which resulted in the ham-fisted euthanizing of one. I admit she lost my sympathy for her thirst and torn-up feet. I continued reading because it's an interesting, well written first-hand account of the hike, the people, and the hardships. 4 stars

I liked the King book. I love key lime pie and make it a several times a year, usually in the summer, which is my favorite season!

>48 Tess_W: I love key lime pie too, but I know that if I make one or buy it, I'll be stuck with the whole thing because Mike won't touch it. Or lemon meringue. He must be crazy.

>50 mstrust: Definitely cray-cray! I love to make lemon meringue pie in the summer. So tart!

I like a tart lemon or lime dessert. The man was drinking mushroom coffee this morning but won't eat a citrus pie. *eye roll*

Just a heads up to my Autumn Lives Here readers, you may not see the new post for several days as my drafts are disappearing from Substack. Poof, gone like the wind when I try to post them!
I have a tech guy that I'm trying to get hold of, but since I'm leaving for Vegas very soon, it may be days before I can address this.

After fighting with it all day, the new Autumn Lives Here is up! It's my 2nd anniversary.
https://jennifermorrow.substack.com/