Review: House "Had Just The Right Amounts Of Both Creepiness And Comfort"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

Bellairsian Trick-and/or-Treating

This...someone thinking of The House with a Clock in its Walls as a Halloween costume...this got us wondering....

Has anyone ever dressed up a Bellairsian character for Halloween?  Lewis Barnavelt doesn’t exactly strike me as exciting attire (sorry, Lewis) so maybe you went dressed as something else.  How about the Robot with Killer Eyes, the Oil Lamp Demon, charmin’ Jarmyn Thanatos, or maybe even a Shuffly?

Or maybe you actually did dress up as an actual Italianate manor house and stuck a metronome in your mid-section.  Thoughts?

Dumpster Diving For Bellairs

I thought someone might find this of interest. Our library is starting to get rid of our audiobook on cassette collection. It seems our audiobooks on CD are rendering them obsolete. Our children's librarian was helping a 10-year-old child the other day find Harry Potter books on audio, and when she was informed all we had left on the shelves were cassette versions, the girl replied, "What's a cassette?"

Grimoire: Tracked by Terror

Brad Strickland’s latest novel, Grimoire: Tracked by Terror, is in bookstores now. Read the continuing adventures of the Free Folk and Jarvey Midion's quest to get out of that cursed book! Tracked by Terror follows Curse of the Midions, and will be followed by another tale to be released in 2008.

Time Capsule: 1997

It’s hard to believe it’s been ten years since we first heard the strange tale of Jarmyn Thanatos and his desire to live forever. Thanatos was the spellbinder as seen in The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder, Brad Strickland’s second “solo” book in the Johnny Dixon series, where Johnny’s friend Fergie finds the last book in the library and sets forth a strange chain of events revealing charmin’ Jarmyn's (as we've taken to calling him) sinister secret for getting younger as the decades pass.

Haverhill Home to Bellairs; Zombie

The Hammersmith Group released an anticipated and controversial master plan for the future of downtown Haverhill, Massachusetts, one of the oldest cities in the country.

Dies (or Deaths) are Cast by Dolls

Photographer Trix B has published 26 images to Flickr as part of her Tinycrumb Ghastlies series, a sordid retelling of the famous Gashlycrumb Tinies, where "C is for Candy ingested with razors".  Ouch.

Of Every Nation a Residence

The Autumn 2007 edition of the Chicago International House newsletter has a brief feature about John Bellairs in their Travel in Time: Stories from the International House Archives series. There isn’t a lot of new information covered here (though the I-House is celebrating its 75th anniversary) but it’s nice to see their inclusion of John:

Seeing Double: The Eyes of the Killer Robot

We knew the ayes had it but this has us seeing double:

• Best we can tell the name of the band is The Eyes of the Killer Robot (or so suggests the title at YouTube).
• N.J. Kailhofer also has written a short piece entitled The Eyes of the Killer Robot.

Book Alert: The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer

Brad Strickland has announced via his website the twelfth title in the Lewis Barnavelt series. The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer is to be published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 2008.

2007 Living History Portrayal Walk

Oakridge Cemetery, one of the oldest continuously operated cemeteries in Michigan, is home again this year to the annual Living History Portrayal Walk. This guided walking tour will feature actors portraying significant persons from Marshall's past at each of those individual's gravesites. This year’s famous Marshallnites include Nathan Benedict, William H. Brown, George Emery Church, Dulcenia Daily, Mary Edgerton, Augustus Hyde, and Thomas Sullivan. The event will take place rain or shine so participants are encouraged to bring flashlights, wear comfortable walking shoes, and carry an umbrella.

When: October 6, 2007
Time: 7:00 pm

For more information, please contact the Marshall Chamber of Commerce.

Review: Face "Cean Fantasy With A Very Light Touch"

Book review: The Face in the Frost

44th Annual Historic Home Tour

“The Marshall, Michigan Home Tour offers exquisite private homes and businesses for public viewing and enjoyment. The tour will feature eight vintage homes and will include six historic museums covering diverse specialties such as unusual architecture, antique home furnishings, Civil War memorabilia, and a restored antique post office. To close out the tour's seventeen structures will be one business from Marshall's well-maintained historic business district. Marshall's Home Tour was voted the Best Home Tour by the readers of AAA's Michigan Living magazine.”

When: September 8-9, 2007
Time: Saturday 9:00 to 5:00, Sunday 10:00 to 5:00

For more information, including cost, please contact the Marshall Chamber of Commerce or Marshall Historical Society.

Bibliofile: Luis Barnavelt I Potwór Dzikiego Strumienia

Longtime visitors to Bellairsia may recall how a number of years ago (c.2001-02) we found a handful of book cover images from the Lewis Barnavelt series when they were published in Poland:

Review: Fidgeta "A Slim Volume Of Inspired Foolishness"

Book review: Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies