Shelf Control #209: The Birds and Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier

Wednesday, the 21st of December (solstice day!), and time for Shelf Control once again! Shelf Control is a weekly feature hosted by Lisa at Bookshelf Fantasies, and celebrates the books waiting to be read on your TBR piles/mountains. To participate, all you do is pick a book from your TBR pile, and write a post about it–what its about, why you want to read it, when you got it, and such. If you participate, don’t forget to link back to Lisa’s page, and do also leave your links in the comments below as I’d love to check out your picks as well!

Today’s pick is a short story collection by an author I enjoy very much, and a book that I haven’t got to despite meaning to for a long time, The Birds and Other Stories (1952) by Daphne du Maurier. I’ve read five or six novels by du Maurier so far and have enjoyed most, even revisiting a couple for Ali’s Daphne du Maurier reading week the past two years. But it was only the year before last that I managed to pick up a sort story collection by her for the fist time (here), and I found I enjoyed these very much as well. It included a range of stories playing with readers’ minds and emotions, some of them being downright unnerving.

The Birds and Other Stories is a collection of six stories opening with the titular ‘The Birds’, best-known of the lot since it was the subject of the iconic Hitchcock film. I haven’t seen the film yet and all I know about it is that it is a horror classic, so lets see how I fare with it. Other stories include a mountain paradise which promises immortality but at a heavy price, a neglected wife who haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree, a photographer who steps into his subject’s life, a date which involves a walk in a cemetery, and a remedy when a jealous father finds three’s a crowd.

Although it seems from the description that this collection has more haunting stories than I can usually manage, I do like du Maurier’s stories and how she weaves in those twists the reader never sees coming; so in all likelihood I will be picking this one up soon. Perhaps for DDM Reading Week next year.

Have you read this collection or seen the Hitchcock film? How did you like it/them?

A Collectable Barbie inspired by The Birds via Pinterest

Cover image as always from Goodreads as is the book description.

Lisa’s pick this week is The Wild Silence (2020) by Raynor Winn, a memoir of the author and her husband’s time spent in nature in the Cornish hills, which has a healing effect on the author’s husband who is terminally ill.