nonfiction | Musings of the Monster Librarian

The Return of Frankenstein

I know I just wrote about Frankenstein, but there’s always more to share, and I just wanted to quickly share this with you. August 30 was Frankenstein Day, the birthday of Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. In honor of the day, Diane Colson over at The Hub has some suggested reading. This Dark Endeavor, the first book she lists(reviewed here— its sequel, Such Wicked Intent, is reviewed here as well) is scary as hell, and Angelmonster (reviewed here), which she also lists, is a truly amazing book.

It’s not what I would call YA-accessible, unless the young adult in question is absolutely devoted to knowing the backstory of the original novel, but since Colson listed several other books I don’t know if I would consider targeted to YA readers, I will suggest that those who are really interested in the players who were there the night Shelley came up with the story also check out The Monsters: Mary Shelley and the Curse of Frankenstein.

And a happy (belated) Frankenstein Day to you!

MonsterLibrarian.com Review of The Undead and Theology Published By Examiner.com

If you visit our site frequently, and I hope you do, you know that we just wrapped up a big review project on the Stoker nominees of 2013. In 2012, for the first time, we decided to review as many of the Stoker nominees as we could. Many of the writers and publishers of nominated books sent us review copies and our hardworking reviewers took on the challenge of getting as many reviewed as possible. This year we decided to do it again. Lisa Morton at the HWA notified nominees that we planned to review Stoker nominees, and we received review copies from many of the writers and publishers. Our final reviews for the Stoker 2013 project went up in June before the Stokers were awarded.

One of the Stoker nominees in the nonfiction category was The Undead and Theology, edited by Kim Paffenroth and John W. Morehead. This is an anthology of essays by academics on the topic indicated by the title, published by Pickwick Publications, an imprint of independent publisher Wipf and Stock. Having just written an essay for an anthology of essays by academics myself, I can tell you that it doesn’t pay much to write for one, and copies are expensive and not handed out to just anyone. So we were very pleased to receive a review copy of this book! Reviewer Colleen Wanglund read and reviewed The Undead and Theology for us, and recommended it for purchase by libraries.

I am pleased to say that Colleen’s review has now been picked up by Examiner.com, where hopefully an entirely new audience will be reached. Reviews matter, especially for niche academic titles, and the more people who know about a great book, and want to read it, the better. Take a moment and check out the review, and reviews for some of the other nonfiction titles we’ve done in the past. Best wishes to everyone involved!