Primo Levi was a young Jewish man living in Turin, Italy when he was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. Due to a combination of luck and calculation, he survived. I truly, truly hate to give any Holocaust memoir less than five stars. They are all important and they should all be read. That said. Somehow […]
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones: Book Review
“In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your fortunes.” So begins Howl’s […]
Wild Orchid by Cameron Dokey: Book Review
3 Stars. This was a decent book, but I have a couple of complaints. I was excited to read a non-Western fairy tale re-telling. While I did enjoy the story, and I really liked Mulan herself, this book stayed a little too faithful to what I know of the legend from the Disney movie. I enjoy re-tellings that add an unusual twist to […]
Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen: Book Review
Twenty-three-year-old Jacob Jankowski has just lost his parents in a car crash. They had already lost everything in the Great Depression. In a devastating bout of grief, Jacob, a vet school student, walks out of his final exams at Cornell University. He ends up working for a circus as the vet. His boss, August, is […]
Jack of Kinrowan by Charles de Lint: Book Review
In Jack the Giant Killer, the first of two novels in this collection, Jacky Rowan has just realized that her life is not going where she wants it to go. She drifts along, refusing to take care of her life and just staying at home doing nothing. She decides to change her life after a […]
A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin: Book Review
Picking up where the first book left off, the Seven Kingdoms are in chaos. There are now three claimants to the Iron Throne and the North has declared something of a war of independence on the rest of the country. This book has almost everything. Treachery, loyalty, conspiracies, conspiracies within conspiracies, turncoats, power plays, twists, […]
The Sea of Monsters by Rick Riordan: Book Review
Something is wrong at Camp Half-Blood. Can Percy fix it? I loved the first in the series, and I really, really liked this one. But I would have preferred to have an original story within the framework of Greek mythology in the modern world rather than have a re-telling of The Odyssey, no matter how […]
Three To Get Deadly by Janet Evanovich: Book Review
In bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s latest escapade, she’s sent to bring in “Uncle Mo,” the local candy store owner who has to appear in court for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. Everybody in Trenton does it, Mo was just the one who got caught. But Uncle Mo doesn’t want to come in. And […]
Two for the Dough by Janet Evanovich: Book Review
Stephanie Plum is back and this time she’s trying to hunt down Kenny Mancuso. Kenny shot one of his best friends in the knee and then returned later to finish the job. With the help of Morelli, Ranger, and the ever-loveable Grandma Mazur, maybe Stephanie can catch Kenny before Kenny catches her. This book is […]
Stiff by Mary Roach: Book Review
Chalk this up to a win for the GoodReads friends. I would never have picked this up on my own. A book about cadavers? How morbid can you be? Not to mention the heebie-jeebies that would be sure to haunt me throughout the book. But so many people have read this and raved about it […]
Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières: Book Review
Pelagia is a beautiful 17-year-old girl living on the Greek island of Cephallonia when World War II breaks out. The Italians eventually occupy the island and that’s when she meets Captain Antonio Corelli, a man who joined the Army because he thought it would give him plenty of time to practice his mandolin. There were […]