A magus trying to capture Death captures her younger brother, Dream, instead. He’s trapped like a goldfish in a bowl for 70 years, a time when the “sleepy sickness” took over the earth. Some people slept through a lifetime. But the Sandman has patience and he has time to plan his revenge. I haven’t read […]
I would say that Bound South is a group of connected short stories. There’s not really one plot that connects the chapters. Instead, I would say that the author uses these stories, told from the points of view of three different Southern ladies, to explore issues they each face and how hard it can be […]
Abdullah is the son of a carpet merchant in the city of Zanzib. His inheritance wasn’t much, but he’s getting by pretty well. The rest of his extended family picks on him, but it’s only once a month and he can take that. One day, a mysterious stranger shows up and sells him a magic […]
It’s the early 1490s in Spain and world-changing events are happening. The New Inquisition is getting established; Spain is trying to take Granada back from the Moors; and, well, we all know about Christopher Columbus in 1492. Huge stuff. By Fire, By Water focuses on one man’s role through all this. Luis de Santángel is […]
The Lies of Locke Lamora was a hugely fun tale of a group of con artists called The Gentlemen Bastards and their lives in Camorr, a fantasy version of Venice. I’m going to say right out that I actually struggled a little with this, and that says more about my attention span at the moment […]
“The Spaniard died in agony. That much was evident from the contortions of his once handsome face and limbs and the black foam caking his lips. A horrible death to be sure, one only possible from that most feared of weapons: ‘Poison.’”* What an opening to a page-turner of a book! Especially when the protagonist, […]
Based true events, The Blind Contessa’s New Machine tells the story of Carolina Fantoni and her friend, Turri. Carolina is a beautiful, somewhat solitary girl. She loves to spend time alone down at the little lake her father constructed for her mother. When she gets older, she attracts the attention of the local heartthrob, Pietro. […]
Journalist Mikael Blomqvist has just been found guilty of libel and sentenced to 90 days in jail and slapped with a huge fine. He needs to take a break from journalism for a while, so when a former industrial tycoon asks him to write a family history while investigating a 40-year-old mystery, Mikael takes him […]
Susannah Charleson sort of fell into search-and-rescue. After volunteering as an assistant for her local search-and-rescue team, she eventually received approval to train a dog of her own. After a prolonged nation-wide search, the Golden Retriever Puzzle landed in her lap. I’m not a huge non-fiction reader. Let’s take a peek at my GoodReads shelves, […]
Elizabeth Gilbert is an emotional train wreck. She’s going through a tortuous divorce and her on-again-off-again relationship with her new boyfriend is just killing her. She realizes that she needs a change in her life if she is going to save it. So she sets off on a year-long journey through Italy, India, and Indonesia […]
Mary “Jacky” Faber is an orphan in eighteenth-century London. She actually came from a good family, but when both her parents died of illness, there was nowhere for Jacky to go but the streets. Luckily, she made her way into one of the gangs of street orphans, groups of children who watch out for each […]