“All men dream,” Colonel Lawrence wrote, “but not equally. Those who dream by night wake in the day to find that it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.” (245) Mary Doria Russell is one of my favorite authors. The unique thing about her, though, is that I’m always surprised that I like her books. They are invariably genres or subjects I don’t have much interest in but […]
Another Day, Another Young-Adult Dystopian Trilogy
I really thought I would be taking a break from young-adult Dystopian trilogies. They seem to be all over the place these days, and after my disappointment in the last two books of the Divergent trilogy, I wasn’t craving any more. But then my book club decided we’d read the Legend (2011) trilogy by Marie Lu for March. I wasn’t too excited initially, but dutifully picked up the audio cd from the library (shorter waitlist). Not surprisingly, it didn’t take me long to get into […]
The Crazy Land of Scientology
After reading Jenna Miscavige Hill’s book about her life in Scientology, Beyond Belief, I was still hungry for more information. Hill’s memoir was a fascinating but personal story and I was interested in a broader look at Scientology. So, I picked up Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & the Prison of Belief (2013) by Lawrence Wright, after hearing some good things about it. Wright covers a lot of ground with this book, starting with L. Ron Hubbard, his life, his writings, and the beginnings of Scientology. […]
Sexy and Dangerous, kind of
I have a number of books waiting on my kindle that I got from the library and need to be read, so I was going to wait and get to Malin’s and Mrs. Julien’s recommendation: Something About You (2010) by Julie James a little later. But then I got sick, and the lure of some comfort reading along with my chicken noodle soup was irresistible. Having mentioned in a previous review that I am a fan of FBI agents–the hunky, protective type–in my romance novels, […]
It’s really all about the cat
It’s probably not surprising to anyone that I heard about To Say Nothing of the Dog [Or How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump At Last] (1998) by Connie Willis from another Cannoball review. Time travel and science fiction aren’t my go-to genres but the review was more than convincing enough for me to expand my normal boundaries. This was an impressive work: a mixture of romance, mystery, and science-fiction with the clever, lighthearted feeling of a P.G. Wodehouse novel. I enjoyed this book, but […]
Because FBI Agents are Inherently Sexy–In Books
I’ve been a little disappointed in the last couple of books I’ve read by Julie Garwood, but she’s still one of my go-to authors. I just can’t give her up quite yet, so I picked up her latest book, Hotshot (2013) as soon as I was able to get my hands on it. I’m such a sucker for the strong, protective type and this tends to be Garwood’s favorite heroes, which works out for both of us. In Hotshot, we have Finn MacBain, an Olympic […]