Seraphina by Rachel Hartman: Book Review

Seraphina is working at the royal court when a prince is murdered. Even though her country has been at peace with the dragons for decades, many people believe a dragon killed the prince. Tensions start rising in the city just as the dragon ruler is due for a state visit to celebrate the signing of […]

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Sweet Nothings by Janis Thomas: Book Review

Ruby McMillan’s husband announces out of the blue that he’s leaving one morning. She has her initial meltdown, of course, but then she starts getting on with her life. Walter has left their finances in a shambles and Ruby has to scramble to hold everything together as he sails off into the sunset with his […]

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I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak: Book Review

Ed Kennedy is an underage cab driver with no prospects. He’s the very picture of your average young man. But someone has chosen him to carry out some tasks that require him to be anything but average. I was incredibly nervous about reading this book after reading The Book Thief. That book immediately became my […]

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The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi: Book Review

Synopsis from GoodReads: Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen’s Calorie Man in Thailand. Undercover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok’s street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history’s lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko… Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. […]

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The Commitment by Dan Savage: Book Review

As the “gay marriage debate” was heating up back in oh, 2005, Dan Savage and his boyfriend (they dislike the word partner) were in the middle of their own debate. Should they or shouldn’t they? They’d been together ten years, they’d adopted a son together, neither had any intention of leaving the relationship, they fully […]

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Naked in Death by J. D. Robb: Book Review

Lieutenant Eve Dallas is assigned to lead a high-profile murder investigation into the death of a Senator’s granddaughter. But the granddaughter was a “licensed companion,” i.e. prostitute, and she was murdered in a pretty graphic way. Working mostly alone, Dallas must find the murderer before he kills again. I had such a love/hate relationship with […]

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The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery: Book Review

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery Book Cover

I hesitated over this book for a long time. I’d somewhere picked up the idea that it involves a lot of Philosophy, which I read as Big, Boring Thoughts That Have No Practical Application to Anyone’s Life. Is that bad? Probably. But I came across it in Will Schwalbe’s memoir, The End of Your Life Book Club and it piqued my…

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Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie: Book Review

Two young men, children of parents that the Communist government in China deems enemies of the state, are basically exiled to a remote mountain for “re-education.” Their parents’ “crimes” don’t even warrant the word; they’re basically just too educated for the government’s comfort. The teens find a harsh life waiting for them on the mountain. […]

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The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins: Book Review

Walter Hartright finds a woman, all in white, wandering down the road to London in the middle of the night. As they talk and walk, she mentions that her happiest times were spent at Limmeridge House as a child. By coincidence, Walter is leaving to become a drawing teacher at this house the very next […]

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The Child Thief by Brom: Book Review

In this very, very dark telling of Peter Pan, Peter is abused and unwelcome everywhere he wanders until he stumbles onto the island of Avalon. There, he finally carves out a home for himself, although not without a certain amount of danger. As conditions on the island deteriorate, Peter recruits children from the world of […]

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