This is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, with some Snow White mixed in. Since I read it on my Kindle, I didn’t realize before I started that this is actually a sort of graphic novel, or maybe an illustrated short story? I’m not sure what it looks like in actual book form. I had just assumed it was a regular novel, but it’s not even 75 pages long. The Sleeper and the Spindle is the story of a queen, who sets out with three dwarf […]
Lately it Occurs to Me. . .
Bear with me here as I use a long, silly story to start this post. I adored Freaks and Geeks as a teen, and one of my very favorite moments is in the last episode when the Deadheads notice Lindsay is carrying a copy of American Beauty around school. They’re super pumped for her to listen to it, and one of them says to her, “I wish I’d never heard it before, just so I could hear it again for the first time.” That line […]
Ring the Bells that Still Can Ring
The best thing about the Inspector Gamache mysteries is that the mysteries are secondary. There are two stars in these books: Inspector Gamache, and the town of Three Pines. Louise Penny has created a town that is almost magical in its perfection. This tiny town, situated around a lake, with three giant pines at one end, is picturesque, peaceful, and beguiling to read about. The description of the town bookstore made me seriously consider quitting my job and taking out a small business loan so […]
2017 Ruins Everything.
Slow Horses is not a bad book. If I’d read it a few years ago, I might’ve liked it enough to read the whole series. Alas, I read it in 2017 and my attempt to find some harmless escapist fiction was thwarted by a book that hit uncomfortably close to home. The “slow horses” referenced in the title are disgraced MI5 agents. Any agent who’s botched a mission is sent to Slough House to push papers around and monitor extremist websites. There are no ops […]
Pretty Forgettable
It’s so hard to review books that are just okay. I didn’t hate The Turner House, and I didn’t love it. It left very little impression on me at all. I feel like maybe I was missing something, because it’s certainly won a lot of awards. I just didn’t feel much connection to the plot or the characters. I had to force myself to finish it, because I knew if I didn’t there was no way I could squeeze out a review. The Turner House […]
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength.
Without You, There is No Us ranks right up there with the scariest books I’ve ever read. Suki Kim, a South Korean-American journalist, takes a job at a university in North Korea. The school is run by Christian missionaries hoping to crack into the “evangelical Christian Holy Grail. . .converting [North Korean] people would guarantee the missionaries a spot in heaven.” Suki’s not actually a missionary–she’s there to write an expose on North Korean culture. The result is Without You, There is No Us, a […]
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