The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

Jerad Walters’ Centipede Press has been producing fine, (mostly) expensive limited editions since 2001, with Stigmata: An Anthology of Writing and Art its first book. Oversized and gorgeously produced, the book made a splash in the field and was nominated for the World Fantasy Award. Since then, the press has published books of film criticism on Nosferatu, Carrie, The Exorcist, and Videodrome, reissues of classic novels such as King’s Salem’s Lot, Shelley’s Frankenstein, and Wolfe’s The Shadow of the Torturer, A Lovecraft Retrospective: Artists Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft and Knowing Darkness: Artists Inspired by Stephen King plus collections by Wilum Pugmire and Reggie Oliver.

Swallow: Foreign Bodies, Their Ingestion, Inspiration, and the Curious Doctor Who Extracted Them by Mary Cappello (The New Press) is a marvelous ode to Philadelphia’s Mutter Museum and particularly Chevalier Jackson’s cabinet housing the “foreign body” collection. The collection was created by Jackson (who died in 1958) and his colleagues who extracted non-surgically more than two thousand foreign objects from people’s airways and stomachs and then preserved them for the edification of the public. The categories are broken down into thirteen categories including hardware, pins and needles, toys, buttons, and surgical objects. The mind boggles. The book is lovingly and beautifully written — it’s about Jackson himself as much as his life’s work. The book is as riveting as any fiction and is for anyone interested in the uncanny.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer (HarperCollins) is a charming, sometimes creepy compendium of entries and stories about fictional artifacts and exhibits, with contributions by an array of talented writers and illustrators including Holly Black, Helen Oyeyemi, Alan Moore, Ted Chiang, J. K. Potter, Brian Evenson, John Coulthart, Ted Chiang, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and many others. This delightful book would make the perfect gift at any time of the year.

Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer (Pomegranate) is a memoir of the friendship between Gorey and Neumeyer told through their correspondence between 1968–1971. The two collaborated on a number of children’s books. The book is edited by Neumeyer, who also provides the introduction plus photos and reproductions of Gorey’s illustrated envelopes.

Film Noir: The Encyclopedia edited by Alain Silver, Elizabeth Ward, James Ursini, and Robert Porifio (Overlook Duckworth) is an update of a book originally published in the early 1980s. The first two-thirds of the book covers the classic period, the last third the “neo noir period” including such movies as Bladerunner, Chinatown, The Last Seduction, The Silence of the Lambs, and Sin City. Noir fans will enjoy thumbing through the entries.

Peter Pauper Press brought out The Art of War for Zombies: Ancient Secrets of World Domination Apocalypse Edition by Sun-Tzumbie is a cute little pocket guide with illustrations. Also, A Zombie’s Guide to the Holidays by Ruth Cullen, which is even smaller and is a perfect stocking stuffer for the littlest zombie fan in your life.

Spectrum 18: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art, edited by Cathy Fenner and Arnie Fenner (Underwood Books), covers the year 2010 and was juried by six artists and an editor. The book continues to be the showcase for the best in genre art — the sheer variety of style and tone and media and subject matter is impressive. Ralph McQuarrie was honored with the Grand Master Award. Arnie Fenner provides his usual thorough overview of the political and cultural year plus a necrology. A magnificent book to thumb through and enjoy. It’s for anyone interested in art of the fantastic, dark or light.

THE LITTLE GREEN GOD OF AGONY Stephen King

“I WAS IN AN ACCIDENT,” Newsome said.