Watched and Read - August 17, 2025

 

Watched and read this past week:

Movies

Karate Kid: Legends. Enjoyable and fun. I just wished they let the story breathe a little bit.

The Life of Chuck. Nice adaptation of King’s novella. I like that Mike Flanagan continues to adapt King’s work for the screen. Both Doctor Sleep and Gerald’s Game are great interpretations of his books. Still can’t believe he pulled off Gerald’s Game!

Watched four by Jim Jarmusch. Stranger Than Paradise, Down By Law, Mystery Train, and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. All excellent films. Love RZA’s score for Ghost Dog. Mystery Train might be my favorite of Jarmusch’s. It was sad seeing Joe Strummer. Wish he was still with us.

Everything’s Going to Be Great: Nice coming of age story. Great performance by Allison Janey.

Psycho Beach Party: Fun, but I felt it was a little too long. Cool to see Amy Adams in one of her earlier films.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad. Still holds up and still hilarious!

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TV

Halfway through the sixth season of Little House on the Prairie. Big improvement from the fifth season. But the two-part episode, “May We Make Them Proud,” was devastating and perhaps too much. I think Mary has been through enough.

Finishing up the latest season of Bob’s Burgers. Need more Teddy episodes!

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Books

Todd’s McGowan’s Introduction to Jacques Lacan. Outstanding. See my post.

Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Excellent read. One of my favorite sci-fi films (1956 version). The 1956 version left out the section where they discuss space spores, which was one of my favorite parts of the novel.

Review - Todd McGowan's Introduction to Lacan

Todd McGowan's new book is an excellent read and important book for those who are interested in Lacan. Over the years, I have read a lot of Lacan, along with Zizek, McGowan, Copjec, etc, and this by far is one of the best introductory books with lots of great examples. 

 

I love McGowan’s interpretation of Kant and Hegel in contextualizing Lacan’s three stages. The connection between Kant’s sensibility, understanding, and reason nicely line up with Lacan’s imaginary, symbolic and the Real in the first stage of Lacan’s work. But Lacan’s middle period turns to Hegel’s dialectic with his introduction of objet a (object cause of desire). McGowan claims that objet a, which is linked to the Real, is the fundamental object and perhaps one of Lacan’s greatest contributions. 

 

 

An example is Lacan’s concept of the gaze (which should not be confused with the look). The gaze (as the visual drive) demonstrates how our unconscious desire distorts the visual plane, something we don’t recognize in the everyday, but something movies can make apparent. McGowan offers Spielberg’s Duel as a great example. Lacan's examples are paintings, such as Las Meninas (see image below). The painter is painting a couple who we think are in the mirror image, located in the far background. For Lacan, the canvas is too big to be the mirror image. The canvas embodies the gaze because it does not fit within the representational world of the painting. As McGowan explains, the canvas demonstrates a resistance toward representation. 

  

Another example is The Ambassadors (see my blog post). When we encounter the gaze, we realize how our desire distorts the visual plane. The gaze is objet a within the field of vision. Encountering the gaze exemplifies that our spectatorship is not from a transcendent standpoint but within the painting or movie itself. That's where we locate the dialectic component of Lacan's work on desire.

I agree with McGowan that Lacan is the philosopher of the subject. The subject is always a split subject, a subject that is never at home with itself because of the unconscious. Lastly, it was great to read how many of Lacan’s concepts changed throughout his three periods, particularly the Real and jouissance. Highly recommend!

Newsletter #3

The weather is getting hot, and I’m just about done teaching for the summer semester.

Zworsky’s Children

The final book in the Zworsky’s Children series will be sent off for copyediting this summer. I’ve changed the title to Last Stand—I wanted a title that made it clear this is the final book. Stuart Bache will be designing the cover, which I’ll share in September. Last Stand will be available in October.

Hitchcock Project
 

Still no update on my Vertigo article, but the Hitchcock project is really coming together. This spring, I wrote a rough draft on The Birds and apocalyptic cinema. I’m currently working on the book’s introduction, which is quite a task. I’m laying out my claim and the theory to support it, exploring the logic of fantasy and its relationship to genre. Hitchcock often felt imprisoned by the suspense genre, but my argument is that these limitations were actually productive. Psycho changed the horror genre! I’m thinking of calling the book The Limitless Alfred Hitchcock—but I’m not sure yet.

 

 

My Lovely Dark Summer
 

This is my new mystery and coming-of-age novel. I’ll be sending it off for copyediting in November and hope to have it available in early February 2026.

Charlie One

Charlie One is doing quite well in the UK—it was my most-read book on Kindle Unlimited in June. Thank you so much, UK readers!

 

 

Books Read and Reading 

I really enjoyed Stephen King’s new book, Never Flinch—King knows how to write villains. I also liked Todd McGowan’s The Fictional Christopher Nolan. I’ve read much of McGowan’s work, and this was by far the hardest—but I mean that in a good way. I enjoyed Grady Hendrix’s Witchcraft for Wayward Girls and loved Owen King’s short story “Letter Slot.” I’m currently reading Hendrix’s The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires.

Well, that’s it for me.

Enjoy the summer.

Keep reading.

Tom C.

www.tomconnellyfiction.com

Newsletter #2

Hope the year is going well for everyone.

Spring has been busy for me. I am working hard on a bunch of projects. My article on Vertigo is going through a revision process, which means it wasn’t rejected—at least not yet. The reviewers liked what I wrote but had a lot of suggestions. My revisions must be completed by next month. Hopefully I’ll know by the summer if its been accepted. 

 

I really enjoyed writing on Vertigo, so I wrote a rough essay on Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train. You probably know where I’m going with this. A book on Hitchcock. I’m thinking five films, focusing just on horror.

Zworsky’s Children Series. The third book, The Metachromes, is just about done, and I will be sending it to my copy editor this summer. Stuart Bache will be designing the cover. If everything goes as planned, the book will be available in late October. I’m excited to share the conclusion of the series.

Dark Escape. A short novel connected to the Zworsky universe. It focuses on a character from Rise of the Creepers. I’ll share more details about it next year. If you haven’t checked out Creepers, it is available to purchase.

My Lovely Dark Summer. My newest book is a young adult story written for teens and adults. I cannot wait to share this one. It is a mix of mystery, science fiction, and coming-of-age. If you like Charlie One and/or The Mansion, I think you’ll really dig it.

Audio books. Amazon sent me a notice that I could create audio books using their virtual voices. I would love to hire someone to narrate my books, but I can’t afford it right now. You can listen to Suburban Tales 1 & 2 and The Postcard. The price is super cheap. I haven’t gotten any feedback, but I think the virtual voices sound really good.

Flight Unknown is inching toward 100 ratings on Amazon. I’m very thankful for all the ratings and comments.

Well, that’s it for me. I’m looking forward to sharing more news as it comes along.

Keep reading.

Tom C.

www.tomconnellyfiction.com

 

Newsletter #1

 Welcome to my first newsletter

2024 Recap and Rise of the Creepers

2024 was a great year for me in terms of book sales and Kindle Unlimited reads, particularly Flight Unknown which really took off! I intensified my advertising last summer and received a lot of positive responses. I started advertising in other countries which helped me reach more readers. Thank you to everyone who left a review or rating on Amazon and Goodreads. It really helps! I also received a very nice review from Readers’ Favorite.

The big news is RISE OF THE CREEPERS, book two of the Zworsky’s Children series, will be available in February. Thank you to Lynda at Easy Reader Editing for the copy edits. And thank you to Stuart Bache for designing such a kick-ass cover!

The ebook is available for preorder. Paperback and hardcover will be available to purchase on February 18. I am very excited to share the second book with everyone.

New Books I’m Working on

The third and final book of the Zworsky’s Children series has been written, and I hope to have it available toward the end of the year. It’s called The Metachromes. There are other stories I wrote connected to the Zworsky universe. In the future, I hope to release them as well.

I am currently working on a mystery / sci-fi / coming of age story called A Lovely Dark Summer. Those of you who enjoyed Charlie One and/or The Mansion might like this one. I’m almost certain that I’ll release it in 2026.

Favorite Books I’ve Read in 2024

I listed some of the books I read last year. A lot of great reads. I also discovered some new authors such as Ronald Malfi and Keith Rosson.

Academic News

I wrote an article on Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo. I’m planning to send it to journals soon. This is the second article I’ve written on Hitchcock. My first one was on Rope which became a chapter in Cinema of Confinement. It’s hard to believe it’s been five years since I published Cinema of Confinement and Capturing Digital Media.

Academic books tend to be expensive. But both of my publishers, Northwestern University Press and Bloomsbury Academic, often run sales, sometimes with discount codes. I go under the name Thomas J. Connelly to separate my fiction writing from my non-fiction / academic writing.

I also peer-reviewed a new book coming out this year called The Contemporary Survival Space. It was the first time I got to contribute a book blurb.

Well, that’s it for me. I’m looking forward to sharing more news as it comes along.

Top Books of 2024

There were a lot of great reads this year, so many that I thought I list the books I really enjoyed. No particular ranking. A lot of them were horror books.

Not a novel, but this short story is really good. I've read almost everything by Hill and cannot wait for his next novel. Definitely give this one a read.

 

 

Chizmar's Chasing The Boogeyman was one of my favorite reads last year. His new book is very good. He writes great characters. Don't know why, but when I read his books, I think of the films of Richard Linklatter.

This was an incomplete book by Crichton which Patterson finished. A fast paced thriller. I also learned a lot about volcanoes, particularly lava tubes!

I really enjoyed Tremblay's new book. It was not what I expected. I'm not sure if I would even call it horror in the traditional sense, but I like the tone and feel of it. The Disappearance at Devil's Rock and Head Full of Ghost are also worth checking out.

I've read all of King's books, and I love his short stories. There are some great ones in this collection.

 

I read Fever House and The Devil By Name back to back. Devil By Name has a different feel from Fever House's noir vibe, but it's really good. Both are page tuners. Definitely worth checking out.

 

I think this is one of those books you either like it or you don't. I thought it was really cool and a lot of fun. I guess you could put this one in the fantasy territory. I think Koontz called it a spooky screwball comedy.

I've been reading of lot of Koontz lately and I love they way he creates his villains. And this book has some big baddies.

Very intense and dark read. The story reminded me of John Carpenter's The Fog. I'm looking forward to reading more by Malfi.

A great coming of age story. Carson nailed the 1990s. I felt like I was in a time machine. There were some very scary moments. And then there were times where I was laughing out loud. Probably one of the best books I read this year. Also check out The Chills by Carson.

 

Another one of my favorite reads of 2024. Very scary, and very engaging. A fast read. I enjoyed the themes explored in the book, particularly the loss of innocence. The format took  some time to get used to. But it's really effective in telling the story.
 

 

If you love horror and sci-fi movies, this is a must read. Nashawaty explores movies of the summer of 1982: Tron, The Thing, E.T., Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, Road Warrior, Blade Runner, Poltergeist and Conan The Barbarian. I love the way he structures the book. It reminded me of Peter Biskind's From Easy Rider to Raging Bull.

 

I got to see Alex Van Halen speak at LA Talks this past fall. Still can't believe Eddie Van Halen is no longer with us. Great read about Van Halen up to the 1984 record. Also check out Eruption - a book of interviews with Eddie Van Halen.

 

Ian Nathan has written a bunch of books for this series. A number of them I have read, such as Guillermo del Toro and Wes Anderson. His newest book on Spielberg is very good. There are some movies he only devotes a few pages too. Some of the stuff I already knew about Spielberg, but I really enjoyed the pictures and layout of the book. And great price!

 

Favorite Books on Cinema - Part 4

Cinema in the Digital Age was another book I discovered when writing my dissertation. 

 

 

Rombes's central claims is that we are haunted by the "specter of perfection" (2). His point is that imperfection is the human signature, and that there has been a tendency in current cinema to insert mistakes. His argument is similar to Manovich's take on photorealism. For Manovich, computer images are too good and need imperfections to meet our ideas of realism. 

As I mentioned in my previous post, Manovich's work on photorealism was significant in my book Capturing Digital Media. Nicholas Rombes's claim on flaws, mistakes and imperfections in cinema also greatly informed my research. I was specifically interested in how his idea performs in today's special effects. Rombes states, "Reality is today's special effects" (5). I thought of the long takes in Children of Men and Spielberg's War of the Worlds. Both films utilize digital effects to create a documentary like effect in their use of the long take.

 

Lastly, I love how Rombes's structures his book. His method is A-Z.  For example, the first chapter is "The Adorno Paradox," then it goes to "Against Method," and so on. Very cool book.