Readers Imbibing Peril V

I can’t believe the R.I.P. Challenge is now five years old! I’ve participated in it since its second year, and I think Carl is the best challenge host around, because rather than giving us a challenge, he gives us an experience. He looks beyond books, also adding art, films, and more to the mix, and it always feels like the perfect way to celebrate the arrival of fall. I was taking a breaking when the challenge was announced this year, but as soon as September 1st hit, I started reading R.I.P. books anyway! ;) And while I’ve continued to do so, I never actually got around to officially signing up. Whoops! Better late than never, right?

Shockingly enough, I haven’t put together huge list this year. So many bloggers participate in this challenge, and so many of them put together such great book collections, it felt unnecessary, especially since I’m arriving a month late to the party. But you can look over my list from last year if you need some ideas. Instead, I thought I’d offer one suggestion for each category Carl mentions; these are all books that I’ve read and loved since the last R.I.P. Challenge (linked to my reviews where available):

• Mystery: Bellfield Hall by Anna Dean
• Suspense: Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber
• Thriller: Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie
• Dark Fantasy: Red Spikes by Margo Lanagan
• Gothic: A Dark Dividing by Sarah Rayne
• Horror: Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Supernatural: Song for the Night by Chris Abani
• Nonfiction (ok, this isn’t a category in Carl’s post, but I can’t help it): The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum

I do realise that this list is very heavily weighted towards the US and UK, and I’m actually planning a post soon about the lack of genre choices easily available to those who love to read international fiction. But, for me at least, recommending books that blew me away comes before anything else. For my R.I.P. reads this year, I’ve tried to get a few more international books in the mix. If you read my Library Loot post last week, you already have a good idea of my R.I.P. pool, but I’ll list it here for fun! (I’ll start with the seven I’ve already read…so I guess that means I’m doing Peril the First.) I’ve linked the titles to the publisher’s page, and listed the aspects that I think make each of these a R.I.P. book for the titles I’ve already read or the category it fits into for the books I haven’t read yet.

• Wish Her Safe at Home by Stephen Benatar: the first person narrator goes slowly insane
• The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman: a private college, a Neo-Raphaelite love triangle, hidden letters, struggles with mental illnesses, and a murder mystery
• Blood Harvest by S.J. Bolton: an insular village with some strange old traditions on the moor, a house built next to a cemetary, girls going missing, and a secret crypt beneath a church
• The Between by Tananarive Due: odd dreams, strange ghosts, half-remembered former deaths
• The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum: murders galore
• Love by Toni Morrison: ghost narrators, an old house, gothic relationships
• Smilla’s Sense of Snow by Peter Hoeg: murder mystery, mystical connection with snow and ice
• Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand : gothic
• The Poison Throne by Celine Kiernan : dark fantasy
• The Ghost in Love by Jonathan Carroll: supernatural
• The Age of Dreaming by Nina Revoyr: mystery
• Stories ed. by Neil Gaiman & Al Sarrantonio: supernatural/dark fantasy/horror
• Wild Seed by Octavia Butler: supernatural/dark fantasy
• The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh : thriller
• Victorian Villainies ed. by Graham Greene: suspense
• Frenchman’s Creek by Daphne du Maurier: gothic
• All She Was Worth by Miyuki Miyabe: thriller
• The Bone Doll’s Twin by Lynn Flewelling: dark fantasy

There are actually even in my potentials pool, consisting of books from my own shelves I’m bringing in my car with me for my post-move, no-library period. But we’ll talk about those another day, shall we? Because for someone who said she wasn’t going to make a big list this year…that’s quite a few books right there, and they appear to be in a list format. ;)

Have you read any of my potential R.I.P. reads? I’m in the middle of The Bone Doll’s Twin right now, but where should I go next?

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