"Die, Monster, Die!" directed by Daniel Haller

Movie, 1965

Curious mixture of horror tropes, from a spooky house, innocent virginal female lead, disabled and mad parents and mad scientist, to 60s' surreal and at times psychedelic science fiction feel. Karloff hams but is possibly upstaged by his insane and damaged wife, while the dashing young male lead both looks old enough to have been the heroine's father. Enjoyable hokum which never fully grabs attention but keeps rattling along at a decent pace and throws up plenty of oddities, including the odd genetically mutated giant tomato.  

"Stoner," by John Williams

Novel, 1965

A dreary, drearily-principled life story told in a conventional start to finish kind of way, about a solid but unremarkable University of Missouri academic. From such unpromising source material, Williams turns in an absolute page-turning gem, with which any disaffected 'average man' will surely empathise. A real achievement in which a tragic set of characters slide into old age and obscurity gain, if not heroic, then an almost mythical quality.

"A Suspension of Mercy", by Patricia Highsmith

Novel, 1965

Nail-biting suspense of little subtlety but huge impact, in which a net and circumstances draw ever tighter round a pretty unhinged, psychotic central protagonist. This is real page-turning stuff and a study in a few disintegrating personalities, where the readers' view is continually shifted around by some deceptively read-a-long writing skirting over some pretty seismic motivations and actions. This is a novel which is relentless and which at any point, could have jumped off in a number of different directions.