We here at Dirge are, first and foremost, nerds. As such, most of us are big readers of every possible genre; we’re talking everything from Pulitzer Prize-winning nonfiction, to true crime, to half-orc monster lovin’, often next to each other in the same person’s stack! If you’re in need of some recommendations, look no further; we’ve got you covered.
Jinx Strange
I like to listen to audiobooks while I paint miniatures, and I’m currently listening to The Devils by Joe Abercrombie. I’m a huge fan of Joe, and Steven Pacey is a phenomenal voice actor and narrator, so it has been thoroughly enjoyable. The Devils is the first entry into a new series by Abercrombie. I love his expansive grimdark fantasy “First Law” setting, and this is a bit of a departure in that while it has deeply fantastic elements, the setting is more alternate historical fiction than high fantasy. I don’t normally go for that, but I read his YA Shattered Sea trilogy, which was also based in the real world but written as grimdark fantasy and I thoroughly delighted in (and recommend) that series as well.
So far, The Devils has been a wonderful ride. I don’t want to spoil anything, but an unlikely would-be empress is chased halfway across Europe in the company of papal-bound guardians in the form of an immortal knight, a patrician vampire, a stealthy elf (and possibly one of my favorite recent takes on elves), a haughty necromancer, and a forgetful and implacably horny Swedish werewolf.
Joe Abercrombie has a talent for crafting distinct and memorable characters (impressive, considering the sheer number we’ve been through), and Pacey expertly brings them to life. I am going to be sad when this ends, and desperate for the next installment. I know, because I’ve been doing this with his books for 15 years.
RA Pickup
I just finished revisiting one of my all-time favorites, A Scanner, Darkly by Philip K. Dick. Written almost as a eulogy to those he lost to the war on drugs, Scanner is an incredible look at what makes us who we are, what happens when we lose it, and how far we will go to hold on to some semblance of it. In true Dick fashion, it’s also filled with paranoia and critique of the government he didn’t trust and a substance abuse treatment system that he felt was more of a cycle than a solution. Those who know me know I find it hard to disagree on the latter points.
Since David Lynch passed early this year, I’ve mourned the loss while simultaneously being grateful for all the guidance he’s left behind. As a creative and meditator, Lynch had a pretty profound impact on how I do things in my day-to-day life. I’ve been reading Room To Dream, the combination biography/memoir he wrote with Kristine McKenna. I’ve been dropping in to visit and get some inspiration. I’ve been reminding myself that Lynch left us everything we could possibly ever need from him, and it’s up to us to make the world as weird and wonderful as we want it to be. It’s been fun and sweet, and sometimes sad. And, because it’s Lynch, weird. In short, absolutely perfect.
Matt O’Connell
In preparation for the inaugural edition of our new series, Hater Hagiographies, I dug out and re-read my dog-eared copy of Bobby the Brain: Wrestling’s Bad Boy Tells All. It’s as funny and insightful as you’re likely to find in a pro wrestling memoir, and you leave with a deeper understanding of one of the sport’s greatest misanthropes.
Of particular interest is coverage of Bobby’s adventures before the business became commodified and homogenized for national television—the era old school wrestlers call the “territory days.” Being a wrestler back then was more or less indistinguishable from being a carny, carving out a gruesome living from America’s best-ignored rural underbelly, and Heenan’s half-nostalgic grousing about that makes for a fascinating read.
Nicole Moore
I just finished Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng, by Kylie Lee Baker, which I can’t recommend enough. Yes, it’s a horror novel; yes, it’s disturbing in the classic horror variety (blood, death, murder), but the systemic racism and sexism were much more terrifying. I also recently finished Immaculate Conception by Ling Ling Huang, a weird-but-beautiful novel about toxic female friendships, toxic future tech, and what makes art, art, exactly? If you want some true crime shit that’ll break your heart, We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys by Erin Kimmerle will absolutely wreck you. It’s a great reminder that Florida has always been full of shitty, racist people! Culture Creep: Notes on the Pop Apocalypse by Alice Bolin was a great, thought-provoking essay collection that you’ll love if you’re a mid-to-late-30’s Millennial woman, or just interested in cult-like thinking and feminism in our culture at large.
I’m midway through Retreat by Krysten Ritter (I like it so far, but I’m not as obsessed with it as I was with her first book, Bonfire), just started Cults Like Us: Why Doomsday Thinking Drives America by Jane Borden and The Beautiful Ones by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, with a bunch more on deck. Yes, I’m one of those people who reads multiple books at a time, and will pick up and put down based on feels and what I want to get into in that moment. It’s called, “I have two advanced degrees in English and all they got me was an inability to focus on one book for too long unless it consumes me, and in that case, I will read it in as few sittings as possible.”
Valentina Daae
Oh lord, it’s my turn. Going to try and fail to keep this short, sorted by category.
Spooky:
I recently finished Starve Acre by Andrew Michael Hurley, something I had to devour after finishing the (incredible) horror film adaptation starring my celeb crush Morfydd Clark and fan-favorite Matt Smith. You know the deal: Couple lives alone on scary land and things go wrong; child is freaky. Some great emotional exploration of cases where loving someone isn’t enough to fix things.
It’s worth a read for fans of the folk horror genre, but I honestly found it to be one of those rare situations where the book was improved upon by the movie.
Belladonna by Adalyn Grace: I’ll occasionally indulge in YA if it’s superlatively compelling. To me, Belladonna reads like an (extra) gothic and aged-up retelling of The Secret Garden. Involves the personification of death, which I assume most of our Dirge readership is a sucker for.
Sexy:
Multiple friends have recommended A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness to me for years, so I had to finally bite the broomstick and listen to the audiobook. It was mostly fun and cool, with mild spice. The worldbuilding is nothing to write home about, but if you‘ve ever spent any time in pagan communities or been a licensed Vampire Enjoyer, you’ll probably like it.
I’m about halfway through Halfling: A Fantasy Monster Romance by S.E Wendel. Sweet half-orc + human romance, equal parts “Awwww” and “Oh heavens to Murgatroyd!” Involves the rescuing of a baby raccoon, tons of yearning, and some clunky racism allegories. Here I should note that it is unfortunately impossible for me to read the terms “quim” or “his spend” without wrinkling my nose. Anyways, I actually have to stop penning this entry now because we’ve just reached the “Oh no there’s only one bed in our room at the inn” trope.
Nonfiction:
Immensely appreciated The Hidden Lives of Tudor Women: A Social History by Elizabeth Norton. You’ll learn SO MUCH about all the different jobs and roles of women from the period, with myriad richly illuminated anecdotes. Depressingly, it’s one of those books where you’ll be like “Oh wow, so not a lot has changed, lol.”
The 5 Love Languages: The Secret to Love that Lasts by Gary Chapman. If Gary Chapman has no haters, I am dead. Decided to read this “classic” as supplementary research for a school paper and there were many points where I (mild individual) hollered and yowled at the author for being such a dull-witted philistine. Wah wah! Women don’t want sex they just want emotional connection! Men have to release sperm on a regular basis or the pent-up blueballery will make them cheat! There’s a lot of creepy victim blaming and that abominable archaic religious view that most people should stay together no matter what. Whatever you say, Gary.
In brilliant contrast, I am rolling around like a pig in mud within the pages of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. It is INCREDIBLY researched and anyone who loved the Little House books as a kid will eat it up. The author lays out basically everything juicy—with receipts—you never knew you wanted to know about the Ingalls/Wilder families, plus many others both directly and tangentially related to them.
Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones and His People by Tim Reiterman with John Jacobs. A thrilling read for cult-tale-fancying rubberneckers and lookie-loos of leftist infighting. In short, it’s a massively entertaining yet disturbing cringetale chock full of Jim’s sexual exploits and madman machinations. There is not a boring page, but please be aware of what you’re, uh, getting into when you read it. You are going to find some real How to Win Friends and Influence People for murdery torture guys enabled by everyone around them.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy, a must-read for anyone who had a severely dysfunctional childhood. Brace yourself for personal epiphanies.
