Charles Vess’s fantasy artwork has been collected in a beautiful volume. I love just about every piece of art in this book. The few that I don’t like are probably the few that are science fiction. I am not at all knowledgeable about art so I can’t write in any kind of meaningful way about Continue Reading…
Yunior has cheated one too many times. The smartass Dominican narrator of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is just not in a good place. In a series of short stories set around different events in his life, he reflects on how he has arrived at this point. This is so hard for me Continue Reading…
Vida Winter is called the Charles Dickens of her age. No one has ever been able to find out the story of her life. Any reporter who tries gets a beautiful story, but still, it’s only a story. But now Vida is old and sick and she must share her story with the world. She Continue Reading…
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…
Despereaux was born different. He’s super-small and his eyes opened right away. And as he grows older, he’s decidedly un-mousy in his behavior. In fact, he falls in love with Princess Pea. What will he do for her? I was drawn into this dreamy fairy tale from the first page. I can’t say that I Continue Reading…
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…
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 Continue Reading…
For those 2 people who don’t know, The Arabian Nights is sort of a collection of short stories told in Arabia (which seems to include India and parts of China) waaaaaay back in the day. The framework of the story is about a sultan who caught his wife cheating on him. After he has her Continue Reading…
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…
In this classic tale of growing up in the Jim Crow South, Scout Finch captures readers’ hearts as she plays her games and begins to lose her innocence as she watches the adults in her town. A trial that has been defined by race is making everyone show his or her true colors and it’s Continue Reading…
Nobody Owens is being raised in a graveyard. His “parents” are two ghosts. His guardian is a man who only comes out at night and who seems to be neither dead or alive. His real family was murdered and the murderer is still looking for Nobody. As long as he stays in the graveyard, he’s Continue Reading…