{Sunday Post} — Act of Defiance, Micro Adventures, and You Like It Darker

Happy Memorial Day! 

Yep, I'm posting a late Sunday Post on a Monday. I was going to skip this week's post, but I have extra free time today; I'm writing it now. 

Song of the Week 

My Current Reads 

I'm nearly finished with Star Wars: The Living Ghost and should finish it tonight. Then I'm moving on to Argylle; I plan on reading it fast. These two loans are due June 6th. At the same time, I'm reading an old YA book, Friday the 13th: Mother's Day.

Stephen King is Back!

It should be no surprise to anyone that I picked up Stephen King's newest book, You Like It Darker. It's a short story collection; one of the stories, Rattlesnakes, is a sequel to King's 1981 novel Cujo. I'm a bit behind on King's recent releases; I might start reading You Like It Darker today and just read a story or two here and there. 

What's in the Mailbox?

I received a copy of the newest Jack Ryan novel, Tom Clancy's Act of Defiance, written by Andrews & Wilson (Brian Andrews and Jeffery Wilson). I believe "Act of the Defiance" is the first Jack Ryan story written by these authors. There's a submarine on the cover, and I love subs, so I can't wait to tread on this one.

What's New on the Bookshelf?

I'm skipping my weekly thrift store stop today because the store is closed for Memorial Day, and I probably won't go there again until next week, though you never know with me. However, I did buy quite a few books last week, all for a dollar. Yep, there was a $1 bag sale again. So I got everything for $1

Up first is a Doubleday jacket-less hardcover of Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. It has a copyright of 1938, but no edition is listed. Rebecca is one of my favorite books; I now have four or five copies. 

I got a paperback of Preston & Child's Cemetery Dance. I thought I already owned the book; apparently, I didn't. I must've read it from the library. Also, I got a paperback of The Killing Game by Iris Johansen.

While I'm not the biggest fan of Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, I got a July 1983 paperback edition—only because I liked the artwork on the cover. I got a 1980 tie-in edition paperback of Florence Engel Randall's The Watcher in the Woods. I've heard of it but never read it or seen either movie adaptation. Also, I grabbed an Archway paperback, The Greatest Monster in the World, by Daniel Cohen.

I found three Choose Your Own Adventure Paperbacks: The Mystery of the Chimney Rock (Special Book Fair Edition) by Edward Packard, The Abominable Snowman (Special Book Fair Edition) by R.A. Montgomery, and Mystery of the Sacred Stones by Louise Munro Foley.

From 1984 to 1985, Scholastic published a YA book series, Micro Adventures, created by Ruth Glick and Eileen Buckholtz, that combined adventure stories with computer programs. Each books have several short Basic type-in programs that can run on the IBM PC, PcJr., Apple II +, IIe, COMMODORE 64, VIC-20, ATARI 400/800, RADIO SHACK TRS-80 (Level 2 or greater), and RADIO SHACK COLOR COMPUTER. There were ten books published and four Magic Micro books. 

Guess what? I found nine books in the Micro Adventure series. The titles are Jungle Quest by Megan and H. William Stine, Million Dollar Gamble by Chassie L. West, and Time Trap by Jean Favors, Mindbenders by Ruth Glick and Eileen Buckholtz, Robot Race by David Anthony Kratt, Doom Stalker by Ruth Glick and Eileen Buckholtz, The Big Freeze by Jean M. Favors, Dead Ringer by Chassie L. West, and Spellbound by Megan Stine and H. William Stine.

I got five Goosebumps reprints with new covers released to tie in with the first Goosebumps movie. There's only one that I don't already own, Attack of the Graveyard Ghouls, first published in 1998 as part of the Goosebumps 2000 series. Unfortunately, the book had a few pages torn, and others were missing, which I realized later. I fixed the r pages with tape and will keep the book as a "placement" in my collection until I can find a better copy

The other books are One Day at Horrorland, The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena, Please Don't Feed the Vampire (Give Yourself Goosebumps), and Say Cheese and Die!

My favorite finds from this thrift trip are R.L. Stine's Fear Street: The Secret Bedroom and the novelization of Gremlins by George Gipe. Despite the cover damage, I was on a high when I came across the Secret Bedroom because I knew, for a fact, that I didn't have it in my Fear Street collection.

 

It's rare to find an 80s novelization in the wild, and Gremlins makes the fifth of my recent finds. Remember, I found The Terminator and three Knight Rider books a few weeks ago; I imagine Gremlins was part of the same donation. Oddly, I found Gremlins mixed in with the kid's books. The 1984 film is a horror film, not a kid's movie. Nevertheless, there were (and still are) plenty of Gizmo plushes marketed for kids. I still have the one from my childhood, though it's seen better days. 

Here's a fact: George Gipe also wrote the novelizations for Back to the Future and Explorers. Sadly, he died on September 6th, 1986, from a bee sting. Weirdly, my birthday is September 7th (five years earlier), and I'm also allergic to bees. 

I stopped by a different thrift store and got Max Brand's Smiling Charlie for fifty cents. At Dollar Tree, I bought Exile by James Swallow (this guy also writes Star Trek books) and The Mother Code by Carole Stivers.

New titles on my Kindle include Phasers on Stun! How Making (and Remaking) of Star Trek Changed the World by Ryan Britt, Nightmare Hall: The Silent Scream by Diane Hoh, Forever and a Day: A James Bond Novel by Anthony Horowitz, Supernatural: Bone Key by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Fire by Caroline B. Cooney, Brainchild by Andrew Neiderman, Immortals by Andrew Neiderman, Blood Spell by Janice Harrell, and The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories, Volume 4.

Other new titles on my Kindle are The Perfume by Caroline B. Cooney, The Vampire Promise: Evil Returns by Caroline B. Cooney, The Vampire Promise: Fatal Bargain by Caroline B. Cooney, Night School by Caroline B. Cooney, The Yearbook by Peter Lerangis, Driver's Dead by Peter Lerangis, The Dark Chronicles: The Calling by Barbara Steiner, Blindfolded by Diane by Hoh, The Photographer by Barbara Steiner, and The Photographer II: The Dark Room by Barbara Steiner.