There are certain books that are always on our periphery. They live at the edges of our consciousness, going “Hey, read me sometime, will ya?” The ones we always think we should get around to, but there’s always something newer and edgier and shiny-er that’s grabbing our attention. For me, one of those books has always been The Handmaid’s Tale, which did dystopia before it was cool. The other night, I gave in and started a 30-day free trial of Kindle Unlimited, just to see if it […]
My skepticism comes first
Disclaimer: I received this ARC through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I believe many people are familiar with the meme (courtesy of South Park) that more or less goes: Step One ??? Profit! Well, the minds behind Consilience/Positron in this book have adopted that mantra as a lifestyle and business model. The proposal is this: crime is bad, and in a recession — particularly an extended one as has befallen the world — crime rises, and the jails become overpopulated and create an […]
Surprise, bitch. I bet you thought you’d seen the last of me.
To be honest, I’m still not totally sure what to make of this book. I really, really wanted to like it more than I actually did. It started out slow with glimmers of interesting plot threads, but ultimately The Robber Bride just kept stringing me along. Every time I started to get into the plot, the story would move in another direction. Atwood’s inspiration came from a Brothers Grimm tale in which a villainous man devours three women after luring them into his lair. In […]
A gorgeous short story collection
It seems that most, if not all, of my favorite contemporary authors are putting out books in the next year. I feel grateful, and also a little nervous that it’s going to be a drought for the next two years. Oh, who am I kidding? I have so much to read anyway. My sister alerted me to the release of Stone Mattress, and I immediately put myself on the library waitlist, hoping to get it when it was first released. Sure enough, luck was with […]
Lady Oracle
“I…dipped my finger into the saucer and wrote my initials in sugar-water on the windowsill. I waited to see my name spelled out for me in ants: a living legend.” Lady Oracle opens with the narrator Joan in Italy, after faking her own death back in Canada. The story then flashes back to the events leading up to this, including a difficult relationship with her mother, and relationships with three influential men: Paul, Arthur, and the self-fashioned Royal Porcupine. Joan has been writing historical romance […]
Moral Disorder: and Other Stories by Margaret Atwood
Oh look, it’s another Margaret Atwood book that I devoured and adored. I know, I know, you’re all amazed. “She wasn’t ready to settle down, she told her friends. That was one way of putting it. Another was would have been that she had not found anyone to settle down with. There had been several men in her life, but they hadn’t been convincing. They’d been somewhat like her table – quickly acquired, brightened up a little, but temporary. The time for that kind of […]