Using autumn decor in the Lindley home, the Hickory Reading Club met Oct. 10. Hostesses Billie Brand, Phyllis Cain and Bertie Lindley served a fiesta buffet, ending with decadent desserts.
Phyllis Cain’s devotional, based on a section of "Jesus Calling," emphasized the need to trust God’s guiding spirit and ability to defy evil and turn it into good.
Pam Waters’ program review of Shirley Jackson’s landmark psychological horror novel "The Haunting of Hill House" (1959) drew from both the novel and Ruth Franklin’s 2016 biography "Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life." Waters explored the Hill family's tragic history, set against a remote New England hillside, and described the eerie atmosphere created by the home’s dim, off-kilter interiors—an ominous backdrop for psychic research.
The main characters, Dr. Montague, Theo, Luke and Eleanor, are confronted by babbling voices, unseen hands gripping them in darkness, and mysterious writing and pounding on walls. Left unanswered is a key question: Was Eleanor, the narrator, tragically haunted, or was Hill House itself the source of the supernatural events?
Waters also discussed adaptations of the novel, including the 1963 film "The Haunting" and the 2018 Netflix series.
