All our familiar storybook characters have had to leave their homelands because an evil creature known as the Adversary has destroyed them. They have all converged on New York. In order to fit into mainstream society, there are some pretty stringent rules in effect. Snow White is effectively in control but her right-hand “man” is […]
Daytripper by Fábio Moon: Book Review
5 Stars. I read the first chapter of Daytripper and was completely taken aback. I was in the mood for some graphic novels and I had just grabbed whatever looked promising at my local library. I had never heard of this book and I didn’t read the synopsis too closely but it still caught my eye. When […]
In Odd We Trust by Dean Koontz: Book Review
In the small town of Pico Mundo, an unassuming fry cook by the outlandish name of Odd Thomas has a special ability; he can see the dead. They can’t speak to him but they have their own ways of communicating. After the murder of a small boy, Odd sees his spirit wandering around. It’s obvious […]
Déjà Dead by Kathy Reichs: Book Review
It’s impossible (for me, anyway) to read a forensic mystery without comparing it to the Scarpetta novels. This one was awesome! I haven’t read a forensic science mystery this good since the early Scarpettas! These novels are the basis for the TV series, Bones. I’ve never watched that show, so I didn’t come into this […]
Memory & Dream by Charles de Lint: Book Review
Or, a love letter to Charles de Lint’s Newford books Izzy Copley is a college student majoring in art when she first meets world-famous artist Vincent Rushkin. She feels unworthy when he chooses to start teaching her his secrets. There’s a reason that he’s so secretive. He has a nasty temper and he frequently lashes […]
Naked Came the Leaf Peeper by Brian Lee Knopp: Book Review
4 Stars. Zany, unpredictable, and hilarious are probably the best words to describe this Western North Carolina tale. Written by 12 local authors, each getting a chapter, this seems to be a competition to see which one can throw the biggest curveball out for the next author to catch. They each did an […]
Uglies by Scott Westerfeld: Book Review
Tally lives in the future, in a world where, at the age of sixteen, everyone is made superhumanly pretty. The thinking is that by leveling the playing field, so to speak, racism, bullying, low self-esteem, and all the negative things that can be associated with personal appearance can be eliminated. But not everyone wants to […]
The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: Book Review
It seems like I run into references to Dorian Gray pretty frequently (Most recently in James Blunt’s song “Tears and Rain“). I decided to pick this up because I was tired of not understanding the references. The Picture of Dorian Gray begins with one of Dorian’s friends, a painter named Basil Hallward, just finishing his […]
The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks: Book Review
Azoth is an 11-year-old boy barely surviving in the streets of Cenaria City. He’s part of a brutal gang of children who will do anything in order to survive. But Azoth wants to do more than survive; he wants a way out of the Warrens and he sees an apprenticeship with master assassin Durzo Blint […]
Still Alice by Lisa Genova: Book Review
Dr. Alice Howland teaches psychology at Harvard. A brilliant researcher and professor, she has a field-changing body of work behind her and looks forward to many years of pursuing her passion. Then she starts noticing serious lapses in her memory. She finally gets scared when she goes out for a run and gets lost a […]
The Once and Future King by T.H. White: Book Review
This is the story of King Arthur, Guenever and Lancelot. I think we all know how that goes. I’ve been reading this off and on for the past six months. I would start to read it, lose interest, and pick up something more interesting. I finally decided that it was time to either give up […]