Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare
I will be honest with you here, and let you know that I barely remember this play. There were only a handful of Shakespeare’s plays that I made it out of school not having read, and this was one of them. I’ve been meaning to read it for years but never seemed to get around to it. Honestly, I wish I hadn’t read it, because at least there was a pleasing sense of mystery to it, with me wondering what it was about and only […]
Home Field Advantage by Dahlia Adler
Thanks to Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Wednesday Books for the ARC! It hasn’t affected the content of my review. I was slightly skeptical of this book going in, as I always am with YA these days, but I couldn’t resist the premise. I’m really glad I gave in to my impulse on this one, because this book was really cute, and surprisingly emotionally harrowing at the same time. The premise here is that Atherton’s star quarterback died in a drunk driving accident over the […]
Song of the Wanderer (The Unicorn Chronicles, #2) by Bruce Coville
I didn’t have the experience of reading this first as a kid, so my reactions are entirely coming from adult Ashley on this one. I mentioned this in a GR status update, but having initially read that first book back in 1994, it felt incredibly strange to finally be picking up the thread of the story again after 28 years. First, my main complaint on this one, and the reason it’s getting 3.5 stars (rounded up): I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing itself, […]
Into the Land of the Unicorns (The Unicorn Chronicles, #1) by Bruce Coville
Let’s step in to the Wayback Machine for this one. 1994! Bruce Coville was very in at the time, at least in my circles. You know, the ones featuring nine-year olds. We all coveted those books that implied our teachers were aliens, or whatever. But Coville didn’t just do wacky, humorous sff, he could also do straight epic fantasy. Enter this book, which I read approximately ten thousand times (though I settled on marking that as 10 in Goodreads). Twelve year old Cara is pulled […]
The Emperor's Soul by Brandon Sanderson
I almost don’t have anything to say about this, because it just is. I’m taking away my former 4.5 star rating, and this is now just a straight five. It is a perfect fantasy novella. This takes place in Sanderson’s Cosmere (a shared universe for all his adult fantasy), but can be read completely on its own, and would also be a good introduction to both Sanderson’s work, and to high fantasy in general. Our main character is Shai, a Forger, who has just been captured […]
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Even though Stephen Hawking did an impeccable and brilliant job dumbing down all this physics and quantum mechanics and SCIENCE, I am still not science-smart enough to fully understand most of it. Good try, though, and it was so readable! And it gave me several existential crises. Like, okay, if you are just jonesing for a panic attack, pick up this book and when he starts in on the origin of the universe, just let your mind go there, see if you can encompass the […]
