Come Along with Me

If you were thrilled by Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" but aren't familiar with her other stories, don't miss the chance to pick up this important collection edited by the author's husband. In addition to "The Lottery," it includes classics like "The Beautiful Stranger" (body snatcher theme with a twist), "The Summer People" (a tale of sinister villagers), "A Visit" (a lyrical ghost story), "The Rock" (where death is a short, shy gentleman), and "The Bus" (Jackson's most overtly ghoulish and frightening story of all). The unfinished novel Come Along with Me is mesmerizing, and Jackson's "Biography of a Story" is an utterly hilarious account of readers' reactions when "The Lottery" was first published in the New Yorker in 1948. As the New York Times said, "Everything this author ... has in it the dignity and plausibility of myth ... Shirley Jackson knew better than any writer since Hawthorne the value of haunted things."