Howling Frog Books

 Goblin, by Josh Malerman Josh Malerman wrote Bird Box , which I think was made into a movie a few years back.  I've never read him before, or seen the movie.  The description of Goblin intrigued me, and I always love a good hedge maze (as on the cover), so I took it home for the summer. This is 'a novel in six novellas.'  There are six stories set in the town of Goblin, plus a prologue and epilogue that kind of tie the whole thing together.  Goblin is a strange town, and kind of apart from the rest of the world; it's situated next to woods that are legendarily spooky and inhabited by the Great Owls, it gets more rain than anywhere else in the world, and the police are the spookiest thing of all.  The original settlers all ran away, and it was years before anybody was foolhardy enough to try to settle it again.  The six stories all culminate in one dark and stormy night.... Richard has spent much of his life being Charles' friend; Charles needs him an...

 OK, Salzburg isn't in Germany at all; it's in Austria.  We zipped over the border to tour this amazingly scenic city.  I'm telling you, everywhere you turn there's an incredible view.  Salzburg is right in the mountains and there are several fortresses/walls/other buildings (many of the fortifications date from the Thirty Years' War, which I'm really going to have to read about) looming over you at all times, and quite a few buildings are backed by cliffs. But before we got to the city itself, we toured Hellbrunn, another palace just on the edge of town -- but a little different.  Hellbrunn was a day palace, a place to enjoy in summer and bring visitors to, but not to stay in.  It doesn't have a bedroom.  Hellbrunn was built by one Marcus Sittakus in the early 1600s, and Sittakus was the prince-archbishop of Salzburg.  Salzburg (and environs) was once an ecclesiastical principality in the Holy Roman Empire; the whole place belonged to the Church...