New Podcast — Cemetery: Celebrate Life, Honor the Dead + Endnotes

Let's get eerie in here

[photo: Mark de Jong/Unsplash]

Hello, friends!

When we initially decided to include Cemetery as a theme for Season 6 of our podcast, I fully anticipated reading horror and thrillers, then mentally reminded myself to look for something non-scary for our gentler readers.

Whelp, the joke’s on me!

I DNFed a handful of spooky reads that just weren’t up to snuff. The books I finally landed on have plenty of atmosphere, but when taken together, they lean more toward the reflective than the frightening. Or maybe that’s just me and how I read them? Only you can say after you listen to the show and maybe read some of the titles Dave and I recommend.

Both of us felt some feelings while we discussed our books in the recording tent. Halloween week — with Día de los Muertos close on its heels — is an excellent time to remember there’s no light without the dark, and our precious time on this planet is short. And so very sweet.

Graveyards, cemeteries, ossuaries, and crypts — all places of reverence where the living can pay their respects to those who've crossed over before us.

But that wasn't always the case.

In the Middle Ages, graveyards were far more raucous, home to fairs, markets, and even grazing cattle. In the 19th century, some cemeteries were the place to see and be seen, possibly with a well-stocked picnic basket in tow.

In 1860, The Green-Wood Cemetery in New York rivaled Niagara Falls (!) as the most popular tourist attraction in the US.

In this episode, we take leisurely strolls through Pére Lachaise and Greyfriars Kirkyard, learn about the one-way train for the dearly departed, and visit a cheery Romanian cemetery. Then we share five books we love that explore these often peaceful, sometimes eerie 'museums of people,' including:

• a 19th-century classic mystery tale

• a how-to for death

• two beloved fantasy novels

• a Gothic thriller set in 1980s Barcelona

Listen on your favorite podcast app or on our website. We hope you enjoy the show!

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Endnotes: 25 October

[photo: Tom Pottiger/Unsplash]

This week, I stumbled across Margaret Atwood’s poem Update on Werewolves (from her 2021 book Dearly: New Poems). The poem begins with a description of the werewolves many of us know from creature features or a random Tuesday at the office — then it turns into something else entirely. It’s descriptive, darkly funny, and altogether unnerving, i.e., exactly what you want from a Halloween-adjacent poem.

Update on Werewolves by Margaret Atwood

In the old days, all werewolves were male.
They burst through their bluejean clothing
as well as their own split skins,
exposed themselves in parks,
howled at the moonshine.
Those things frat boys do.

Went too far with the pigtail yanking—
growled down into the pink and wriggling
females, who cried Wee wee
wee all the way to the bone.
Heck, it was only flirting,
plus a canid sense of fun:
See Jane run!

But now it’s different:
No longer gender specific.
Now it’s a global threat.
Long-legged women sprint through ravines
in furry warmups, a pack of kinky
models in sado-French Vogue getups
and airbrushed short-term memories,
bent on no-penalties rampage.

Look at their red-rimmed paws!
Look at their gnashing eyeballs!
Look at the backlit gauze
of their full-moon subversive halos!
Hairy all over, this belle dame,
and it’s not a sweater.

O freedom, freedom and power!
they sing as they lope over bridges,
bums to the wind, ripping out throats
on footpaths, pissing off brokers.

Tomorrow they’ll be back
in their middle-management black
and Jimmy Choos
with hours they can’t account for
and first dates’ blood on the stairs.
They’ll make some calls: Good-bye.
It isn’t you, it’s me. I can’t say why.
They’ll dream of sprouting tails
at sales meetings,
right in the audiovisual.
They’ll have addictive hangovers
and ruined nails.

For more wolfish delights, you might take a dip into the disturbing, deep waters of Angela Carter’s story The Company of Wolves from her collection of feminist fairy tale retellings The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories. There’s a maybe terrible-in-a-good-way movie of that story, too.

I also recommend the comedy-horror stylings of Rachel Harrison and her novel Such Sharp Teeth. It’s a rom-com that turns into a she-wolf story with smart things to say about body image and women’s rage. Rawr.

Must-click headline: This Beautiful Library Has a Dungeon.

The book you didn’t know you needed: Stevie Nicks demonstrating self-defense in high-heeled boots. ‘On this day of the shoot I was standing in my martial arts training uniform, wearing my Black Belt. Then Stevie appeared, her hair done to resemble the mane of a lion. She was psyched up for some serious photographing.’

Neat! A regular bloke in Ireland discovered a long-lost story by Dracula author Bram Stoker. The story will be published on 26 October. All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to the Charlotte Stoker Fund for research on the prevention of acquired deafness in vulnerable newborn babies. Learn more here — and buy it here.

Wanderlust tells you Everything you need to know about Día de los Muertos — plus festivals of the dead in Guatemala, China, and Japan.

What do you think about the new trend for floating breakfasts? ‘Through the sliding glass door of my jungle hotel room, I could see my breakfast had arrived. A plate of huevos rancheros were waiting in the pool. Not by — in.’

You need to see these witches on rollerskates, crushing a halfpipe.

Two museum exhibits to put on your radar: Wild Things: The Art of Maurice Sendak is at the Denver Art Museum until February 2025. It presents more than 450 of Sendak’s artworks alongside pieces by other artists that Sendak collected throughout his life. Beginning 27 January 2025 — International Holocaust Remembrance Day — Anne Frank: The Exhibition will open in New York City. The heart of the exhibit is a full-scale recreation of the Annex where Anne Frank, her parents and sister, and four other Jewish inhabitants spent two years hiding to evade Nazi capture.

Here’s a bookish podcast you might like: Dead Writers takes you inside the homes of famous American authors. ‘Riffing on literature, history, home décor, gardens, and ghosts,’ it’s hosted by literary critic Tess Chakkalakal and novelist Brock Clarke. (Thank you to friend-of-SSoP Deborah V for sharing this with us.)

Glamour UK rounds up the 25 best new books of October 2024, according to literary experts. ‘Cancel all plans, get under those blankets, light all the candles, and tuck into some brilliant bookish delights. You won’t regret it.’

You might want to add litRPG (literary role-playing game) to your bookish vocabulary. ‘What makes a book a LitRPG is how it is written. Game-like elements, such as player stats, are an essential part of the story. The characters in the book are usually aware of these elements… They’re adventures with the added element of levels, stat sheets, and other gaming components, giving the reader the sense they’re following along a game that is being played.’

We saw the play Nye starring Michael Sheen at The National Theatre in London a few months ago. No surprise: It was great! From 7 to 11 November, the play will stream for free on YouTube. Details here.

Beetlejuice, Halloweentown, Twilight, and more, here are 9 Halloween Movie Filming Locations You Can Visit.

This has nothing to do with books or travel, but this very cool punching bag needs to be seen.

We’re fans of the Brent and Michael Are Going Places newsletter — and now Michael has launched a new online space to share his gorgeous travel photography. He started with autumn in Prague. So dreamy!

More lovely eye candy: The paintings by Gretchen Scherer feature the grand homes and art galleries of the past. So colorful and brimming with stories.

We devoured the new series Rivals this week. The bonking and villains and treachery are irresistible, as are the English country houses where the parties never stop. Tattler takes us inside Chavenage House, the country manor known as The Priory in Rivals.

Wishing you a spooky-fun Halloween week.