In case it isn’t obvious, I have a thing about graveyards. Maybe it’s being Irish-Catholic – it must be infused into my blood. It’s a rare family holiday that doesn’t involve a visit to the local cemetery. I think it’s the combination of gothic architecture with the sense of a social history collected. I have my own favourites (of course!) from Rock Cemetery in Nottingham to Pere Lachaise in Paris where the family spent an afternoon dodging the most unusual tour guide I have ever come across.
The clue is in the title, but with Neil Gaiman you always get more. What is great about Neil Gaiman’s stories is the way he balances the ordinary with the unusual, but what I love about his writing is that invariably I connect with the characters and they have an emotional heft. Bod Owens is a perfect example of that. (and what a clever name!) I challenge you to spend time in Bod’s world and not be affected by his story: it’s just not possible. You’ll find yourself desperately hoping Bod succeeds in achieving his dreams.
When a baby escapes a murderer intent on killing his entire family, who would have thought it would find safety and security in the local graveyard? Brought up by the resident ghosts, ghouls and spectres, Bod has an eccentric childhood learning about life from the dead. But for Bod there is also the danger of the murderer still looking for him - after all, he is the last remaining member of the family. A stunningly original novel deftly constructed over eight chapters, featuring every second year of Bod's life, from babyhood to adolescence. Will Bod survive to be a man?
Of course any list about books connected to graveyards is going to have to include the King of horror. And if that author happened to have a book that was rumoured to be so scary he didn’t think it should be published? Well, you’ve got me hooked right there!
I’m a huge Stephen King fan so it would be odd not to have one of his novels on my list, but Pet Sematary is a particular favourite from his early years. From the journey to the Sematary (wandering Wendigo, anyone?) to the very creepy output of that stony soil, for me this book is exactly what is great about horror fiction – an exploration into what it means to be alive… and dead.
Now a major motion picture! Stephen King’s #1 New York Times bestseller is a “wild, powerful, disturbing” (The Washington Post Book World) classic about evil that exists far beyond the grave—among King’s most iconic and frightening novels.
When Dr. Louis Creed takes a new job and moves his family to the idyllic rural town of Ludlow, Maine, this new beginning seems too good to be true. Despite Ludlow’s tranquility, an undercurrent of danger exists here. Those trucks on the road outside the Creed’s beautiful old home travel by just a little too quickly, for one thing…as is evidenced by the…
I loved BirdBox, but then I read Unbury Carol and discovered Josh Malerman had managed to peer directly into my brain and write a book just for me. I don’t know how he did it, and I don’t really want to know because it’s possibly more than a little freaky, but there you go.
This is not your typical horror novel. I’m not sure if it’s even horror, but who cares? It feels like a real olde-worlde adventure yarn where steampunk meets western and they have a scrap to decide who is best, and the only winner is the reader.
The New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box returns with a supernatural thriller of love, redemption, and murder.
NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NEWSWEEK
“This one haunts you for reasons you can’t quite put your finger on. . . . [Josh Malerman] defies categories and comparisons with other writers.”—Kirkus Reviews
Carol Evers is a woman with a dark secret. She has died many times . . . but her many deaths are not final: They are comas, a waking slumber indistinguishable from death, each lasting days.
I know what you’re thinking: is this really a graveyard? To be honest: Who knows?
But… there are things buried underground, so I’m including it because this is a great book. Sometimes you read something which has such a perfect idea at its core that all you can do is devour it with a curl of envy growing in your heart as you think to yourself “I really wish I’d come up with that.” The window in the ground is most definitely one of those books.
It is.. odd. But good odd. The sort of odd where you recognise the world being described and yet is it different enough from reality to make you question what else might be hidden out there.
"An immensely readable and original coming-of-age horror tale" - Duncan Ralston, author of Ghostland.
On the outskirts of town, hides a secret.
If you follow a path through the trees, read the rules (always twice) on the sign post, go up a hill and across a grassy clearing, that secret will reveal itself.
You see, for hundreds of years, this seemingly normal town has done its part, kept the balance.
But on this day, a rule will be broken.
You might have heard the rumors shared in whispers.
You may have been told about someone who’d seen it with their…
I have a bone to pick with you, Mr. Everington! What are you doing stealing my settings for your stories?
It just so happens Paupers’ Graves is set in the city of Nottingham, where I grew up, and uses as its main location Rock Cemetery which was on my route to and from school every day. It’s a fascinating place, not least because it’s not your run-of-the-mill array of graves in a green field. As the name suggests; Rock Cemetery is built around a great rock, creating multiple levels and layers. I had every intention of using it as the location for one of my stories but James Everington got there first!
In a Nottingham cemetery, hidden away from the grandiose tombs of the city’s rich, are the old paupers’ graves. Katherine and her team have been ordered to create an exhibit based around the lives of those unfortunates buried beneath. But the paupers represent part of the city’s history that Katherine prefers to avoid thinking about… as well as part of her own.
But the dead, having had nothing in life, are enraged that even the truth of how they lived is being taken from them. Buried up to twenty under one stone, they whisper in the dark. Maybe they can…
Six feet is not deep enough in this Mystery Thriller…
After twenty years in the ground, the dead briefly rise. At his father’s grave, this is Dave’s last opportunity to discover why a man would abandon his wife and young son. Against the protests of his mother and his girlfriend, Dave is determined to learn what happened all those years ago. Sometimes you have to risk everything, but the dead don’t give up their secrets so easily.
I’ve become passionate about telling parents how to raise happy, resilient, creative, confident, entrepreneurial children who are doing something that gives them joy. So many young people are unhappy; parents don’t understand how to help. They think their children should follow their path, but that no longer works for many. For the last 10 years, I’ve been speaking to parent groups; I was an Advisor to EQ Generation, an after-school program that gives children the skills to succeed; on the Advisory Board of MUSE School, preparing young people with passion-based learning; and on the Board of Spark the Journey, mentoring low-income high school students to achieve college and career success.
This book shakes longstanding assumptions of parenting.
Through 99 stories of people who are now changing the world, it shows how to raise creative, confident, resilient children who are filled with joy and purpose. Based on interviews with top entrepreneurs and their parents, it guides you to help your children identify their passion and figure out how they can spend their professional lives doing something they love.
Parents' well-intentioned efforts often boomerang. By ignoring their children’s skills and interests, parents can inadvertently create pressure and anxiety, thwarting their children's ability to excel and find happiness. Too often, following your heart…
Raising an Entrepreneur: How to Help Your Children Achieve Their Dreams - 99 Stories from Families Who Did
Learn how successful entrepreneurs were raised! Could your children start a company that disrupts existing industries? Or a non-profit that helps people around the world? Or follow their passion as an artist or activist? And most important, lead a life of joy and purpose, to be happy and fulfilled? Margot Machol Bisnow, mother of two thriving entrepreneurs, reveals how to raise creative, confident, resilient, fearless kids who achieve their dreams, through 99 stories of families who did it.
Read stories from 70 families who raised true game changers. See family photos of these thriving entrepreneurs, both when they were young…
