Happy Wednesday, friends! Some odds and ends that have been piling up on my desk for you, today.
This week’s It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton is The Body Snatcher, by Robert Louis Stevenson. This is the story that I read, live, for Patreon and about 70 people who showed up, last month. I sincerely love this entire performance. Gabrielle helped me find some subtle layers that were obvious to me, right after she pointed them out, and I couldn’t be happier with the end result.
It’s a big ask, to come along for the entire performance of something that was written over a century ago, so it was more important to me than I thought it would be to nail it. I’m real proud of what we did. I hope you like it, too.
This episode comes with a pretty cool new sponsorship partner, our friends at Simon and Schuster Audio (who publish The Body, and put my narration up for Grammy consideration). To promote Other Worlds Than These, the final book in The Talisman trilogy from Stephen King and Peter Straub, they’re giving away a preview chapter of the audiobook to our listeners. It’s narrated by Patton Oswalt, who is one of the great voices today. I think it’s super cool, and I’m so excited to get a little bit closer to doing It’s Storytime full time.
Oh, speaking of that, do you know I have a partnership with Black Stone Publishing? They gave me some space to curate a collection of speculative fiction novels they publish. I have been a fan for years; they don’t use any DRM, ever, in their audio and ebooks, they support indie artists, and they publish some truly outstanding genre work. This month, I wanted to spotlight a mid-century classic that is a wonderful expression of the ideas being explored in genre fiction at the dawn of the atomic age. It’s David Starr, Space Ranger (I know, right?) from Isaac Asimov (I know, RIGHT?). I didn’t even know this existed until last year, but Asimov wanted to write his own son into some scifi that was inspired by Heinlein’s young adult books. It’s not going to be for everyone, but if you’re even a little curious or intrigued, it might be for you. And if it isn’t, there are some other wonderful titles in the collection for you to check out.
Did I ever write here about the summer reading program I did? I ended up finishing six books, reading about thirty short stories, and ended with a 129 day streak. I went to the library last week to see if I could collect any of my prizes.
“Hi, I did the summer reading program, and I wondered if there were any prizes left?” I showed the librarian my log sheet, like you do. She looked a little flustered.
“Oh… I think we are out of rewards,” she said, while she opened drawer after drawer and looked inside.
“I was hoping for, maybe, like … a scratch-and-sniff sticker? Or a bookmark?” I offered.
She smiled and opened one of the drawers she had just closed. She pulled a small basket out and showed me five rows of bookmarks. “How about a scratch-and-sniff bookmark?”
My eyes popped. “Oh my god that’s perfect!”
I saw it, a picture of chocolate chip cookies, a hazy circle on one end. I scratched, then I sniffed, then I was instantly transported to the Scholastic Book Fair in 1982.
“This is everything I ever wanted,” I said, joy welling in my heart. “Thank you.”
“You are very welcome,” she said, with a warm smile.
God, I love libraries and librarians.
Speaking of things I love and awkward, abrupt segues, I love love love ALL CAPS LOVE this little me plushie, which is only available until the end of the month. As I understand it, the business model for YouTooz is to take pre-orders and fill them, then retire the design. So this probably isn’t coming back. I just checked, and 177 have been ordered, which makes this kind of a cool limited edition thing. Anyway, I adore this little guy, and I want to make sure everyone else who may feel the same way has a chance to get one before they are gone. So now you know. Tell your friends.
The final book I scored in my summer reading program was Fabulous Bodies, by Chuck Tingle. It stuck with me, and I ended up writing a little bit of a review that I would like to share:
I am not into horror, really. Certainly not like I was when I was younger. The world is horror, you know? I’d prefer my reading to be about, well, not that.
But there are exceptions to all the rules, and this is a huge one. I loved this book. I wrote in my goodreads review that it’s gory, but it’s also clever and wry, sort of John Waters via Sam Rami, with just a touch of Rob Zombie. And the most surprising thing for me? It’s heartwarming. What? A heartwarming horror novel that’s funny? Okay, if you say so.
It’s fantastic. I gave it a rare 5 out of 5, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it since I put it back on the shelf.
I don’t have the English degree I want, so when I analyze a story, I’m coming at it from an actor’s perspective which I suspect has some overlap with what academics do. Still, I always feel like I have to qualify my examinations of the things I read, which I’m doing right now. Maybe I’m totally wrong, and maybe I’m projecting myself into the story, but upon reflection, I think it’s about generational trauma. It’s about parents who are so self-absorbed and such narcissists, they treat their children as nothing more than extensions of themselves, not caring at all how their child feels about it. It’s about one of those children, now an adult, doing her best to end the generational trauma.
It’s one of those books I wanted to recommend to a friend immediately upon finishing, but I don’t think I know anyone who would be able to handle the gory parts (they don’t define the book, and there’s so much more that isn’t gory, but I feel like it’s a fair warning that I have to give) so I’m hoping that maybe someone who is reading this — maybe you — are that horror reader.
Okay, that’s all for today. I have some family visiting, and we are going to have some fun together, as soon as I finish work, which is right … now.
Hi I’m Wil and I’m glad you’re here. I write this blog. I host It’s Storytime With Wil Wheaton, and the official companion podcast for Stuart Fails To Save The Universe with Felicia Day, both available wherever you get your podcasts. I am the New York Times bestselling author of Still Just A Geek. My narrations of Monsters of Ohio, by John Scalzi, and The Ship of Death, by Kyle Winkler, are now available wherever you get your audiobooks. If you’d like to get my posts delivered to your inbox, here’s the thingy:
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