Over the Plain Houses, Julia Franks’ debut novel, is a beautifully written tragedy about a dying love, the struggle between faith and doubt, and encroaching modernity. I believe it can be classified as “Southern Gothic.” Set in rural North Carolina 1939, the story includes many characteristics linked to that genre: decay, violence, the force and romance of nature, a thin line drawn between villains and victims, and even a hint of the supernatural. It is truly a haunting novel. This is the story of Irenie […]
Big skies, big animals, big threats
By the time I started reading Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, I had forgotten what it was about, and I’m glad I had because otherwise, I would have had my defensives up. I added it to my library queue after reading badkittyuno’s review last month. Cannonball Read: the system works. There’s not much I can add here. badkittyuno did a killer job summarizing the experience of the read, and the broad strokes of the story that Alexander Fuller tells. It’s a memoir of […]
I listen to the music with no fear…
This book has been on my shelf for years, but jumped up to the top of the heap with the unexpected passing of David Bowie at the start of this year. That period, musically speaking, has always been pretty interesting. It saw the birth of lots of musical movements. But it’s one I didn’t know a whole lot about aside from the explosion of awesome sounds that came from it. The book covers the early careers of Bowie, Pop and Reed starting in the […]
A Glass Castle is a Perfect Metaphor
I typically write my reviews in a timely fashion. In fact, I typically have a rule that I can’t start my next book until I write my review. It keeps me honest, up to date and together (because I always want to start the next book). Well, rules went out the window after reading this book. I have no idea what it is about it, but I was altered by The Glass Castle. I didn’t want to write about it, I didn’t want to stop thinking about […]
Bringing a little FNL back into my life is always a good thing.
A few years back, when I still had a toddler that took naps, I used to have enough time to watch one episode of Netflix TV (sometimes two, if it was a good sleep day) every morning. I’d fold laundry or do arm weights or something, so I felt like I was getting something of use done. And then I discovered Friday Night Lights. Once I found myself in the world of Mr. & Mrs. Coach, Matt Saracen and Landry, and Tim Riggins, that was […]
Never get involved in a land war in Asia
I will admit, I thought I might be out-smarting these books, with the formula all figured out, but this one, the third in the “Temeraire” series, totally took me on a ride. Delightful, surprising, and exciting. Well played, Novik. Black Powder War bothers with barely any passage of time after Throne of Jade. The company is still in China, preparing for travel back to England, when natural disaster and politics coincide and intervene, causing Laurence and Temeraire to take their scrappy crew of aviators overland […]
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