There are certain things a writer can focus on in their novel to ensure that I will at least give it a shot (if I know about the book), and in all likelihood, I will really dig it. One of them is using World War II as a backdrop. I find a lot of wars interesting but this one in particular fascinates me. The atrocities committed against humanity during this time period, and the willingness of so many people to just go along with them […]
Jazz Age Magic
Teri Brown’s Born of Illusion is the first of a new series centered on Anna Van Housen, a talented illusionist with legitimate extra-sensory powers. When we meet Anna and her mother, the famous medium Marguerite Van Housen, they have finally settled into a routine in New York of the 1920s. After a lifetime of moving from town to town with traveling circuses and dodging police, the Van Housena ladies finally have permanent billing at their own theater and their own apartment. Anna and her mother […]
Weekend in Snoozeville
Robyn Sisman’s Weekend in Paris is the story of young Englishwoman Molly Clearwater and her trials and tribulations working as an assistant to a (clichéd) chauvinistic asshole of a boss. In preparation for a weekend conference in Paris, the boss Malcolm makes it clear that not only does he have lewd expectations about his and Molly’s “business” trip, but also has no respect or appreciation for her intelligence and abilities. In a fit of pique, Molly quits her job but decides to take the weekend […]
Hyperbolic Hilarity
I’m really excited to announce that for the first time in I don’t know how long, I finished my book club’s selection well before our monthly meeting. Yes, the book in question is really just a collection of blog entries that are mostly illustrations, and I read it in two hours at the beach this weekend, but whatever. Yay me! Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh is a collection of entries from her blog of the same name. Allie is a wonderfully flawed young […]
Affairs by Moonlight Trilogy
I discovered Juliana Gray’s Affairs by Moonlight trilogy much like I have any other romance series – on Cannonball, after reading Mrs Julien’s reviews. I probably won’t have much to say that she hasn’t added herself but here goes. Since the books go together I’ll just review them all together here. A Lady Never Lies tells the story of Lady Alexandra Morley, a recently-widowed young woman with a lot less financial stability than people think, and Phineas Burke (aka Finn), a genius bastard (literally, his […]
Models, Vets, Trust Funds and Mysterious Deaths
Unless you’re blissfully out of touch with literary news, which is unlikely considering this blog is for readers, you’re well aware that The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith is actually written by JK Rowling. It’s why most of us have even heard of it, but from what I understand it was getting good reviews even before she was outed as the ‘man behind the curtain,’ so to speak. Since I knew who really wrote it when I picked it up, I admit I am incapable […]