Our inaugural book was the Woozle's pick and right out of the gate, she exposed me to an author and a genre (horror) that were new to me. Shir ley Jackson seems to have led an interesting but sad life, and one that challenges the widely-held " Father Knows Best " version of the 1950's. The stories subtly scrape away at the veneer of '50's mores to expose disturbing and creepy undercurrents. Some of the stories (for example, The Bus, and A Visit ) invoke the supernatural but some, like Island, and Louisa, Please Come Home, expose the horrific in human nature and the desperation in everyday life, which may, in the end, be scarier.