Trash vacation reading, Part II
Finished Elizabeth Kostova's 'The Historian.' Quickie Hub Blog verdict: Not bad. Reading it late at night, I was scared a couple times at the slightest noise in my vacation home, passing a key horror-story test for even the most casual of horror-story readers. ... The best part: The reactions of the Hub Blog niece and nephews. I tried to scare the you-know-what out of them by summarizing the book -- the blood-thirsty vampires, Dracula, the undead, the dangers lurking in the night for young ones preyed upon by the condemned of the underworld, etc. But they weren't buying it. I had forgotten they were raised a few years in Haiti -- home of werewolves, voodoo and other monstrous stuff no non-Haitian uncle can compete with in terms of scaring the wits out of little ones. But we thoroughly enjoyed discussing the relative merits of killing a vampire with a wooden stake or silver bullets, why some vampire-slaves of Dracula can tolerate the sun, the number of garlic cloves one should carry in pockets while walking alone in the woods, etc. ...  ¶ 5:57 AM