Picking up exactly where Episode 1 left off, Episode 2 finds Takeo and Kaede en route to a marriage at Lord Iida’s stronghold. Takeo is still bent on revenge and Kaede is just trying to survive this brutal world of men. There’s still a lot of potential in this series, it’s just not getting places Continue Reading…
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer: Book Review
A successful WWII columnist, Juliet Ashton, has just published a collection of her popular wartime columns. But now she’s looking to write a “meatier” book, she just can’t find a topic she wants to live with throughout years of research. Then she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a native of Guernsey. He shares with Continue Reading…
The Sword of the Warrior by Lian Hearn: Book Review
Tomasu is out wandering the mountains where his village is located, as he has countless times before, but this time when he comes back, a warlord has destroyed it and apparently killed all the inhabitants. Tomasu makes his escape after embarrassing the warlord and earning his eternal enmity. A kind stranger on the trail Tomasu Continue Reading…
Letters From Home by Kristina McMorris: Book Review
Morgan McClain and his brother are shipping out to Europe in the last year of WWII. They spend their last night in the States at a USO dance where they meet Liz Stephens. Liz and Morgan immediately feel a connection, despite the fact that Liz is practically engaged to someone else. Complicated circumstances arise, as Continue Reading…
The Wish Giver by Bill Brittain: Book Review
When The Wish Giver comes to the Coven Tree church social, four townspeople exchange 50 cents each for one wish. They can’t even begin to dream how their wishes will affect their lives. I remember loving this book when I was in about fifth grade. I couldn’t remember a thing about the story but I Continue Reading…
Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell: Book Review
This sweeping epic portrays life during the Civil War and Reconstruction through the eyes of Scarlett O’Hara, a young Southern belle who has a stubborn streak a mile wide. She’s in love with the wrong man, marries the wrong men, and is irredeemably selfish, but she’s a survivor. Through it all, she steadfastly refuses the Continue Reading…
The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley: Book Review
Carrie McClelland is an author struggling with writer’s block. She heads for Scotland for some alone time to try to work through it. When she arrives, she is immediately attracted to Slains Castle and decides to use it in her book. In 1708, Sophia Paterson finds herself at Slains Castle as well. She finds herself Continue Reading…
Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran: Book Review
Marie Tussaud, or Grosholtz as she is named throughout most of the book, was in an ideal position to narrate a history of the French Revolution. A foreign-born commoner, she was neither part of the nobility nor of the starving peasants. She and her family owned, designed and operated the wax museum that has become Continue Reading…
So Brave, Young, and Handsome by Leif Enger: Book Review
Monte Becket is a postman in Minnesota in 1915. In his spare time, he wrote a swash-buckling adventure that somehow becomes something of a bestseller. No one is more surprised than Monte. As these things do, the success goes to Monte’s head and he quits his day job to become a fulltime author. And he Continue Reading…
Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore: Book Review
I have mostly been able to follow Christopher Moore into his craziness with success. He makes a joke and I laugh. It might be the weirdest thing ever (Humpback whales with “Bite Me” on their tails?), but I get it. But then there was Fool. And now there is Sacre Bleu. I got so tired Continue Reading…
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon: Book Review
Joe Kavalier is a Jew living in Prague just as the Nazis are taking control of the city in the late 1930’s. With the aid of his escape artist teacher, Joe smuggles himself out of the country and all the way to New York City. Joe is just what his cousin, Sam Clay, has been Continue Reading…