On April 20th I went to see the always highly entertaining John Scalzi at my local independent bookstore. While waiting for him to autograph several books, I was perusing the shelves as the line slowly wound through the store. When I got to the Fantasy “S” section, the spine of A Conjuring of Light, third book in the Shades of Magic series, smacked me in the eyeballs. A Conjuring of Light is the sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, which I reviewed last year. When I found AGoS it was […]
The novel we deserve
American War is the most timely and poignant novel I’ve read in years. Grim from the first chapter, this isn’t a novel that will make you cry, but it sure as hell will make you despair. Set in 2075, the America of this future has been torn apart by a second Civil War. Three Southern states have broken off from the Union in order to maintain the freedom to use fossil fuels, which have been banned by the Union due to the devastation they have wrought on the continent. […]
Enjoyable but underwhelming
I keep seeing The Perks of Being a Wallflower pop up whenever paging through Netflix and spread throughout my Goodreads newsfeed. People seem to love it so my expectations were high, but while I definitely enjoyed it while reading, looking back come the end left me feeling distinctly underwhelmed. A coming of age novel, our protagonist is 15 year old Charlie, telling his thoughts and feelings on attending high school to an unknown reader through a series of letters. Shy and very naive, even so […]
A Workout for Your Tear Ducts
This is a beautifully written YA novel that is appropriate for all ages and deals with a terrifying topic: the illness of a parent. The idea for A Monster Calls originated with writer Siobhan Dowd who died before she could write it. Author Patrick Ness was approached to create a story from Dowd’s notes, and he has produced a painfully honest and sad account of how a 13-year-old boy handles the illness of his mother. You will cry, but this story is so beautiful and […]
Separate But Equal Is Not Equal
Tayari Jones’ Silver Sparrow is an engrossing novel about sisters and secrecy. Set in 1980s Atlanta, its focus is on a dysfunctional and disintegrated family. Our first narrator, Dana Yarboro, writes from an adult perspective about her childhood and teenaged years as the secret daughter of one James Witherspoon. Our second narrator, Chaurisse Witherspoon, is James’ daughter by his legally recognized wife Laverne. Jones uses her prodigious writing talents to create sympathetic and complex but very human characters as well as an intricate and compelling […]
Beautiful tribute to Wonder Woman
For years my only knowledge of Jill Thompson was as the artist for the run of Sandman that is collected in Brief Lives, my favorite book of the series. In 2015 she was a special guest of San Diego Comic Con and we had the pleasure of attending her panel. Her panel was the first one of the day in that room and she was worried people wouldn’t come, so she brought doughnuts for those who did come. In person she is funny, sweet and a […]
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