Top Ten Tuesday - Halloween Reads

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly Meme dreamed up by the blog collective The Broke and The Bookish.  The primary charge is top ten scariest book covers but I don't really take much note of covers beyond a "That's cool! I will now never think of you again."  So I decided to go with the second choice - best books for Halloween. Which is likely going to be lame and a little odd.  I don't really read scary books though I like scary movies.  But here goes...

1) Dracula by Bram Stoker

For a little Gothic Victoriana. Good stuff for people who like Dickens and Vampires.

2) We Have Always Lived in The Castle by Shirley Jackson

Unsettling in an awesome sort of way. Short book and quick read. I have not read any other books by Shirley Jackson but I surely will be in the future.  It might also work for scariest cover.

3) Stiff: The Curious Life of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Nonfiction. Not scary at all but perhaps disturbing if you don't really want to contemplate what will happen to your body after death.  Mary Roach is a fantastic writer and this has been the most interesting of her books for me.

4) The Poisoners Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum

Nonfiction.  Fascinating book about how easy it was to die by accident and on purpose back in the 1920's.  If you like CSI type material you should enjoy this as well.

5) The Killer of Little Shepherds: A true crime story and the birth of forensic science by Douglas Starr

Nonfiction. The account of a truly disturbing serial killer running around in late nineteenth century France and how some novel investigation techniques finally caught him.  Again with the CSI lovers.

6)Speaks the Nightbird (Matthew Corbett #1) by Robert McCammon

This is ostensibly a mystery set in colonial America but it has a brooding and uncanny sensibility to it probably due to the fact the author has written several horror novels.  I really like this series.

7) And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie

This is one of Agatha Christie's darker offerings and is really a little disturbing!

8) Darkly Dreaming Dexter by Jeff Lindsay

One of the more original narrators I've read and Lindsay does a great job creating a morally complex serial killer.

9) Sunshine by Robin McKinley

This book divides folks but I'm a pretty big fan.  Has its otherworldy vampire moments and would be an awesome book to read this time of year.

10) Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier

 Because Mrs. Danvers is scary.  Big time.  And the whole book has the overhanging sense of menace.

That wraps it up.  I higher proportion of non-fiction than usual.  Could this mean that I find reality the most scary thing of all?   What do you find most scary in the world?