Set in 1987, this novel is a period piece and the fact that it is one makes me feel super old. Carol Rifka Brunt captures the feel of the time well—not in the plethora of small pop culture details (and there are many)—but in the way the narrator, her family, and the people around them don’t fully understand AIDS or gay men. June Elbus has a special relationship with her uncle and godparent, Finn Weiss, who is a famous painter living in New York City. […]
Let Sleeping Kings Lie
I’m in a bit of a love/hate relationship with this series by Maggie Stiefvater. This is the third novel in what I understand will be a four-book series. I liked the first book, The Raven Boys, but slogged a bit through the second, The Dream Thieves—for reasons I can’t quite explain though I think it might have had to do with the absence of Blue’s point of view. This third installment was more engaging to me but also frustrating. So here’s a brief recap, as […]
River Gods and Scooby Gangs
Now that’s more like it. This fourth installment of the Peter Grant series set in London strikes a better balance between an overarching series plot, the search for a rogue wizard known only as The Faceless Man, and the more immediate story that begins with a car crash and soon involves a growing pile of bodies, a mysterious book, and a large housing project designed by a crazy and possible magic-practicing architect. Amidst this all, Peter and Lesley continue to be trained in magic by […]
What’s on Your IPod?
Spoiler Alert – If you want to be surprised by the ending of If I Stay, stop reading now. A sequel to the tearjerker, If I Stay, Gayle Forman’s novel, Where She Went, was my first official e-book, checked out of my local library. I’m not a Luddite, but I just couldn’t bear giving Amazon more of my money than it already gets so I’ve resisted the Kindle in all its forms. However, since I will sell my soul to Apple, I just downloaded Overdrive […]
Mind The Gap
In the third installment of Ben Aaronovitch’s series about magic, supernatural beings, and a special police squad in London, Aaronovitch does the Whedon/Buffy thing. There’s a “Monster of the month” plot for our hero, Peter Grant, involving a murdered American, unbreakable ceramics, a female FBI agent, and, as you might have guessed, the London Underground system. At the same time, Peter and his fellow officer and friend, Lesley, and his mentor, Inspector Nightingale, are trying to hunt down a rogue wizard known only as the […]
The Dark is Rising for Adults
When I was in 5th grade, my grandmother (who was a children’s librarian) gave me a copy of Susan Cooper’s book, The Dark is Rising. At that point, it was the second book in a soon to be five-book series, drawing heavily on Arthurian legend. In it, young Brit, Will Stanton, finds out on his eleventh birthday that he is the last of the Old Ones, a group of immortal beings dedicated to fighting for the Light against the powers of the Dark. It’s the […]
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