POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR SHIVER AND LINGER!!! Now that Grace is a wolf, Sam finds himself at loose ends. He and Cole are rattling around Beck’s house and generally irritating each other. Mr. Culpeper is still determined to do something about the local wolf problem. Cole is determined to find a cure. The wolves’ lives are […]
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 […]
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente: Book Review
September is bored at home. Her dad is fighting a far-off war and her mom is working long shifts at the factory. When the Green Wind comes along and offers to take her to fairyland, she jumps at the chance. But all is not well in fairyland. Good Queen Mallow has disappeared and The Marquess […]
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 […]
The Wayside School Collection by Louis Sachar: Book Review
Wayside school is just a little different. The builder built the school sideways, so it’s 30 classrooms stacked on top of each other. Mrs. Jewls’s class is on the 30th floor. That makes for a long hike for her students. The students at Wayside are a little different as well. One boy has a literal […]
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 […]
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie: Book Review
Minerva Dobbs is a sensible girl. She’s an actuary, the man she’s dating is a sensible choice, and her clothes are sensible and “slimming.” But then there are her shoes. Her shoes hint at the real Min. Her shoes are fun, frivolous concoctions. One night, Min meets Calvin Morrissey in a bar. As she’s heading […]
Ava’s Man by Rick Bragg: Book Review
4 Stars. My uncle has been telling me for–oh, years now, that I just have to read Rick Bragg. I do take his recommendations seriously, but my to-read list is out of control and I’m just now getting to him. How I wish I had listened to my uncle earlier. I will not be waiting years to read more of Bragg’s work, that is for sure […]
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 […]
Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey: Book Review
4 Stars. This was not what I expected, but I’m not complaining. I expected more of a science-fictiony werewolf story and that’s not really what this is. The nonhuman? superhuman? other-than-human? side of Loup definitely defines a large part of her life, but it’s not really what drives […]