This the third or fourth book that I’ve managed to blaze through in a couple of days. I’m not sure if I’ve just been lucky with my book selection or I’ve got amazing commitment to Sparkle Motion/CBR8. It’s difficult to read this book and not draw comparisons to Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Aside from the similar titles, both feature a story told from the point of view of multiple narrators and at least one narrator is unreliable. In the case of Paula Hawkins’ The Girl […]
At least it wasn’t Piers Anthony’s Utopia
If you’ve read the book Going Clear or seen the HBO documentary of the same name, the coercive tactics and cult-like secrecy used by the Church of Scientology will come as no surprise to you. What makes Beyond Belief unique is the inside view of the actual structure of the Sea Org itself. Jenna Miscavige is the niece of David Miscavige, the spiritual and financial head of the church. Her parents left their comfortable life in their custom built dream home to join the […]
A promising, but not super thrilling beginning.
It’s hard to say too much about the first volume of Saga. Much of the book sets up the relationships between characters and starts what promises to be many larger plots in motion. So while it didn’t grab me by the face like many first volumes do, I’m definitely intrigued enough to continue the series. That’s part of the fun of graphic novels. You can follow along as long as you’d like and abandoned a series that seems to lose its mojo after awhile. […]
Someone read this and talk to me about it, now!
Twelve hours after finishing this book and turning it over in my head I’m still not sure if Marjorie Barrett was a) possessed by a demon. b) an incredibly bright but mentally ill young woman whose psychotic break was exacerbated by her father’s religious mania and her deteriorating family situation c)a convoluted combination of both. That conundrum is only a part makes A Head Full of Ghosts a complex and really amazing work of horror fiction that I managed to blaze through in less than […]
There’s Beauty in the Ordinary
This is one of those books, like Jane Eyre, that I wish I’d read when I was young and impressionable. It would have probably done me more good that Sweet Valley High and an endless stream of Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine and V.C. Andrews novels. Not that there’s anything wrong with those books, but a protagonist who isn’t always the prettiest or the most talented and who’s happy with a man who’s not always the most dashing or handsome would have been helpful during my […]
The Boobs that Launched a Thousand Ships (or just one really nice cathedral)
The historical fiction I enjoy the most manages to take significant events from the past and show their effects on the average person. It’s all well and good to say “the peasants suffered,” but it’s much more effective to actually hear from the peasants themselves. This book manages to both give voice to the everyman while still keeping the reader in the heart of the political intrigue going on during the period. The period, in this case, is 1135-1154 CE in England; a period known […]