Book 39: The Inhuman Condition by Clive Barker

This one is a collection of short stories. A couple were good like The Inhuman Condition and The Body Politic. Both of those had interesting main plot points. The first had a string of knots that when unraveled unleashed a problem. The second was all about people's hands rebelling against their bodies. However the last couple of stories in the book pretty much were perfect examples of my problems with Clive Barker's writing. He's too literary. Down, Satan! was very short which was good, but he's commenting on man and our ability to be evil and it's just too deep for my shallow mind. The same with the last story, The Age of Desire. It's all about a man who is experimented on and the drug he takes amps up his sexual desire beyond belief. Sort of an interesting hook, but there's a little too much introspection and thinking about it. I'm more of a Blockbuster kind of guy. Just show me what happens and hit the action points quickly. Philosophical I ain't.

Book 38: The Ruins by Scott Smith

This book was pretty awesome. I ripped through it quickly which says something since it seems to take forever for me to get through a book anymore. Four Americans go on vacation in Cancun and they end up in trouble when they go to an old ruins/mine in the jungle. It's pretty straight-forward horror, but the language and style that the author uses is pretty unique. I don't know how to describe it - simple, but descriptive maybe. The ending was also unexpected. I didn't really expect it to wrap up like that, but it was well done. There was a movie made in 2008 and 'll have to rent that eventually and see if it compares.

Book 37: The Barrens and Others by F Paul Wilson

14 short stories here with a couple being a play and a TV episode script. I enjoyed this book. There's only one Repairman Jack story in here, and it's pretty short and simple. A few other stories stood out. Batman's enemy, the Joker, is featured in a solid story. The Barrens, the main story, is modeled after a Lovecraft tale and it is probably the highlight of the book.

Book 36: By The Sword by F Paul Wilson

More Repairman Jack. It's slowly getting toward the big ending. Very slowly. The books are good, but they're getting pretty repetitive. I'll keep reading them though. I am looking forward to the updated version of Nightworld that will supposedly follow after all the Jack books are finished.