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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Girl With All The Gifts
I’ve been on a bit of “dystopian fiction” bender lately. I promise that I’m going to be changing gears next week, but before I do, I’m ending with a big BANG. This week’s pick is the just-published The Girl With All The Gifts. Let me start by saying that I was totally mistaken about what this book was all about. You might even say that I was tricked. I was led to believe that Melanie, the bright young girl that gets strapped in a wheelchair every morning (guns pointed at her all the while) in order to be wheeled off to class had some sort of dangerous but desired supernatural…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Close to the Broken Hearted
We’ve had some really lovely early summer weather, perfect for curling up on the screened porch with a glass of ice tea and a good book. This week’s recommendation is the soon-to-be-released novel Close to the Broken Hearted by Michael Hiebert. I really loved Close to the Broken Hearted. Michael Hiebert’s second book did not disappoint. Twenty-two year old Sylvie was deeply traumatized as a child when she saw her baby brother shot to death in her father’s arms. The man who killed him, Preacher Eli, was sent to jail for the crime…but he has just been released. She is now a single mother with a three-month old yet-unnamed baby girl,…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Paradigm
I’ll admit, when I hear “dystopian fiction” I let out a groan, as after the success of the Hunger Games, Divergent and the like, there has been a surge of books in the genre, and not all have hit the mark. Thankfully, Paradigm by Ceri A Lowe does. What makes Paradigm unique is that while other books address life in a postapocalyptic world, author Lowe entwined a tale of life during the end of the world as we know it, from the viewpoint of teenaged Alice Davenport, with 15-year-old Carter Warren’s story 87 years later. The book opens with the words “You have five minutes of this life left” and…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Summer Reads, Part 1
It’s May, the end of the school year beckons, as does a full summer ahead of us. A summer for which I am making plans (including an escape to the Outer Banks) for the family and lots of activities for the kids. Along with the fun, I need to make sure the kids keep up their good reading habits, and what better way than by modeling good reading habits myself? Fine. I never need an excuse to read. And in all honesty, I’m avoiding the impending end of my personal free time by escaping in a book or two – all of which will make great reads for y’all for…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Denise Grover Swank
I haven’t done a book review in a while, despite the fact that I’ve been binge reading for the past month Binge reading to the point where I’m writing a lot of posts in my head, but don’t get to put them on paper/in my laptop because my nose is stuck in a book. The dangerous thing about Kindles is that you can download the next book in a series you’ve discovered without leaving the sofa, thanks to Amazon and our local library which has amped up its e-book program. My reading tastes are pretty varied – mysteries, crime novels, chick lit, supernatural. I like a book with clever characters,…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Shadow of Night
I’ve just finished “Shadow of Night” by Deborah Harkness and already I’m impatient for the third book in the All Souls Trilogy to be released – I want to know what happens next with historian Diana and scientist (and vampire) Matthew. I’m impatient like that. Shadow of Night picks up right where “A Discovery of Witches” leaves off (and if you haven’t read the first book, stop right here and go read it – I don’t want to spoil anything for you) with Diana and Matthew ready to time walk elsewhere in history so that Diana can find a witch to teach her (she’s avoided using her powers and so…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday (on Thursday*): The Land Of Decoration
Grace McCleen’s “The Land of Decoration” was a compelling read – not one that was to be consumed in one sitting, but instead one that forced me to slow down and contemplate and absorb. It’s also one that is difficult to review without giving away too much of the story. McCleen was brought up in a Christian Fundamentalist sect herself, which lends an authenticity to the story and leaves you wondering how much was drawn from her own experiences. Hearing her speak at the Hay Festival last month, she confessed that the process of writing was physically challenging – it literally made her ill. The book resonates with such loneliness…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Port Mortuary and Red Mist
Let me preface these reviews with the statement that I am a long-time Patricia Cornwell fan. I read and re-read her Kay Scarpetta novels. Heck, I eschewed product samples (you know, the ones you get in the Sunday paper or in magazines or in the mail) for years after reading Unnatural Exposure for fear of product tampering. When I was supposed to be moving to Richmond, Virginia in the late ’90s, my mom was freaking out because all her knowledge of Richmond came from Kay Scarpetta novels. But somewhere along the line, the writing in the series changed as did the characters’ personalities, and…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: Angelmaker
I’ve just finished reading Nick Harkaway’s second novel, Angelmaker, and I don’t know how to begin to describe it. Let’s start by saying it was a fantastically entertaining read. Normally, I’m a bit hesitant when I see a book described as “absurdist” as quite often this is a misnomer, and what you actually get is something a bit surreal. This is not true for this book, albeit the cast of characters includes an octogenarian secret agent (retired), an evil dictator (who surely must be older than dirt), a serial killer, a community of Undertakers, a monastic society of former-creator/inventors-now-turned-evil-bodyguards (or something) called the “Ruskinites”, and a gnarly, near-toothless pug with…
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What I’m Reading Wednesday: The Summer Reading List
I may get around to reading 50 Shades of Grey (when I can borrow it from a friend), but honestly, I have TOO many good books lined up on both my Kindle app for my iPad and on my bookshelf (and coffee table…and nightstand) to spare the time on it. This is my (incomplete) summer reading list, and the 15 reasons why I’m (probably the ONLY person) not currently reading Fifty Shades of Grey: Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: an absurdist comedy about Joe Spork, a mild-mannered clockmaker (son of an infamous mobster), Edie, a retired octogenarian secret agent, and their race to save the world from a 1950’s doomsday device that…
