Strangely, I’ve been alternating Jemisin’s Inheritance trilogy with Pullman’s Golden Compass/Dark Materials… and it works. There is something interesting about how both deal with spirituality, the impact of the unknown on our lives, and dust… though Jemisin’s dust in Broken Kingdoms takes the form of charcoal, conte crayon, paint, and eventually dried blood. Still, there’s […]
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What a great book! I really enjoyed almost every turn and nuance. Christopher Moore has pulled together The Merchant of Venice and Othello into a compelling story of antisemitism, racism, revenge, economics, and dragons. Most important though, it’s really, really funny. This adaptation never loses its tone or its “authentic” voice and Moore’s interwoven Shakespearean […]
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This was the first audio book I tried out using Overdrive. My experience was mixed. The voiceover had a nice subtle Eastern European accent, but the read itself was oddly staggered as if English was a second language and the reader was struggling to come up with the right word. As such, the narrative had […]
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The great thing about anthologies is that they offer the reader a chance to discover a new author to explore more deeply… and Robots vs. Fairies achieves that. The big names may be the ones that grab your eye… Valente is here telling a wonderfully oddball story of a pro wrestling tournament match between histories […]
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One day as my friend and fellow author Henry Sienkiewicz were talking current events, philosophy, and how ideas rub against each other to form knew thoughts, he made a dash to his bookshelf and pulled out this book called the Medici Effect. He thought it would be an interesting fit. He was right. The Medici […]
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The Last Mayor’s Son is an oddly addictive read. It flows easily and is well paced with characters that are rich with emotion and subtext. The world building is interesting, especially beautiful is the interweaving of how the wood of the setting’s Treebound village is cured, treated, and used in all its form and function. […]
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The notion of a “Best Books” list annoys me. How is it possible to have read, reviewed, or be even aware of every book out there? On Goodreads, I reviewed forty-five books this year. That’s a lot of books! In addition, I’ve probably thumbed through a few dozen others for work, research, etc. Still, that […]
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Impeccably researched, Voor Elise has both the scope and intimacy you look for in good non fiction. It tells the story of an Austrian woman as she navigates poverty, war, and immigration during the early part of the 20th Century. Sienkiewicz recounts his family history in a way that embraces both the trees and the […]
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One of the first barriers in a book is how much exposition are you willing to wade through to get to the story. Every book takes a little bit of investment. It’s learning the author’s world, adapting to their writing rhythms, and getting through the set up. Fran Wilde’s first novel Updraft provided 20 pages […]
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I liked the second volume of Fairyland better than the first and I liked that one a lot. In Book 2, our main hero September has to clean up the mess that she was accidental catalyst to. She goes through a labyrinth of adventures and meets an absurd cadre of characters and creatures, but the […]
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