Neal Stephenson’s writing process must be insane. This is my third book of his and I am continually astounded by the level of obsessive technical detail present for whichever field happens to be the critical science du jour in each book. Snow Crash took great liberties with neurolinguistics, but it was still clear that Stephenson had done his homework and there was a foundation of knowledge there. Jumping straight to his most recent novel, I found Seveneves stunning, not just because of, again, the amount […]
A Delightful Regency Fantasy Novel
Sorcerer to the Crown is a Best Book of 2015 from NPR. I found it on their Book Concierge, and the description of the book, set in Regency England with magic, sounded delightful. The book tells the story of Zacharias Wythe, the Royal Sorcerer of England, who came to the post when his adoptive father, Sir Stephen, died. He was a slave as a child, and his adoptive father rescued him and trained him to use magic. Zacharias faces opposition to his position from magic […]
Holiday Book Exchange! Thanks Badkittyuno!
First, I’d like to thank fellow Cannonballer Badkittyuno for sending this novel to me as part of the holiday exchange. I had mentioned that, to my shame, I had not read any of Isabel Allende’s novels and Badkittyuno sent one of her personal favorites, Island Beneath the Sea. And now it’s one of mine. This is a work of historical fiction set in late 18th century Haiti and Louisiana. The novel shows the effect of slavery and revolution on a group of people, slave and […]
Lives up to the hype and then some: Neapolitan Novels
I’m afraid I may never be able enjoy another book. These Neapolitan novels by Elena Ferrante are pure perfection and set way too high a bar for anything I may read from now on. I’m reviewing them as a set because I gobbled up all four in under three weeks and they are so cohesive. Although the books were released one by one, each September since 2012, it’s easy to imagine Elena Ferrante (a pseudonym) sitting down and writing all 2,000 or so pages in […]
Premise of US orphan history: awesome. Book: less awesome.
This was the first selection of the new year for my book club, chosen somewhat for length, something short to start off the year, and because there were book club questions in the back of the book. I have picked books to read for worse reasons, so away we went. Though fiction, this book is the fictionally telling of what to me was an unknown part of American history From 1854 to 1929, orphan children in New York were placed on trains by a group […]
Go into this great classic knowing as little as possible
This book! So good! I was pointed towards this book by the A Case for Books blog as one of her favorites of last year and I figured I’d give it a go. This novel is tiny, really it’s a short story, but it packs a huge punch. It kept me guessing the whole way through and I can’t stop thinking about it days later. It’s really, really worth seeking out (especially at that great price). I won’t say too much about the plot because […]
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