Currently Reading

The Funhouse by Owen West (AKA Dean R. Koontz) © 1980
Synopsis: Once there was a girl who ran away and joined a traveling carnival. She married a man she hated and begat a child she could never love. Now Ellen has a new life, a new husband and two normal children. Memory is drowned in alcohol and prayers--neither of which will save her kids from what awaits them in The Funhouse.
Comments: This book is based on the screenplay for the 80's slasher of the same name directed by Tobe Hooper (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre). This has always been one of my favorite horror movies, so I thought I'd read the novel, again. I remember reading it in intermediate school, but was too young to see the movie. That's how I got to know a lot of the 80's slashers, through their movie tie-in paperbacks. My parents didn't really care if I saw the movies, they just didn't want to accompany me. LOL! So, since I had free reign over my book choices, I got some exposure to my future love of slasher movies, via books. Pretty sneaky, sis!

The Curse of the Undead © 1970
Synopsis: Why is the vampire story so appealing? Why are brilliant talents drawn to tell and retell tales of the undead, the unquiet one who must return to feed on the vitality — the blood — of the living? What draws us back to read about Dracula and his fellows — monsters from the grave who seduce all sexes and ages to feed their foul hunger? Here are classic vampire tales from the 18th century to the present — from the gloomy and the terror-stricken tombs and castles of tradition to the spaceships of science fiction. Stories for readers who long to feel the cold hand on the heart, the creeping of the flesh, the sleep-destroying night fears that lurk on the edges of the enlightened modern mind.
Comments: I just picked this one up at Half Price Books in the 'Nostalgia' section. So many people bypass all those great old books just because they're "old." Pure reading treasure pleasure! You can't beat it for $2! Besides, where else are you gonna find some of these great stories? Certainly not on the new release wall, that's for sure!

American Gigolo by Timothy Harris © 1979
Synopsis: "I made love to women for money, some of them old enough to be my mother. But that isn't why I'd ended up in prison. The truth is very much stranger and a lot more embarrassing. I did something I'd always considered myself incapable of doing. Something a gigolo is never meant to do...the one thing which no one will believe possible of someone in my profession. I fell in love." That's the voice of Julian Cole, the arrogant, ambitious, but appealing "Beverly Hills Casanova"...a man whose own illusions about his life make him dangerously vulnerable to the rich, ruthless dolce vita world that uses him, bribes him, and eventually frames him for murder.
Comments: I love this movie (I have the German movie poster framed and hanging in my computer room), so when a friend of mine who lives 3 states away, told me that she ran across a copy at the local Goodwill, I nearly pooped my pants. Why, you may ask? Because I have never seen the movie tie-in version of this particular movie. Ever (and you know what a bibliophile I am). But I've always wanted it. Well, long story short, she was generous enough to send it my way (though I think my incessant whining may have had something to do with it too).

My first encounter with the novel was at my babysitter's house, back in the early 80's, when I stumbled across it in one of her Reader's Digest Condensed Books. It wasn't until years later that I actually saw the movie, but once I did, I instantly fell in love with it and it's star, Richard Gere. Needless to say I am still a big fan. ROWR!