The middle grades Secret Series by Psuedonymous Bosch: The Name of This Book is Secret (2008); If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late (2009); This Book is Not Good for You (2010); This Isn’t What It Looks Like (2011); and You Have to Stop This (2012), in order. Illustrated by Gilbert Ford. Published by Little,…
The Total Money Makeover (2003, Thomas Nelson) and Complete Guide to Money (2011, Lampo Press), both by Dave Ramsey, the Financial Peace money guru. Let’s just do this up front: you either love the Dave Ramsey system or you hate it. You either jump in with both feet and hang on for dear life, or…
APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur or APE: How to Self-Publish, by Guy Kawasaki and Shawn Welch. I received an e-copy of this book, probably more than a year ago, for some sort of promotion. This book took me forever to read, for two reasons. First, it is an e-book, and I hardly ever pick up my…
The Fault In Our Stars, by John Green, published in 2012 by Penguin. I was simply seeing this book everywhere. Everyone seemed to love it. So I added it to the Best Books TBR (to be read) and put it out of my head. Until a friend posted on Facebook that her copy was looking…
The Ruby Redfort series by Lauren Child, 2011-2014. I read the first two of six total books. The first four are titled Look Into My Eyes, Take Your Last Breath, Catch Your Death, and Feel the Fear. The other two titles are not yet released, but will be in the next couple years. The reason…
Smile, Sisters, and Drama, by Raina Telgemeier. All three are Middle Grades graphic novels, the first two memoir and the last realistic fiction. They were published in 2010, 2012, and 2014 (not respectively). They have all been NY Times bestsellers and have won numerous awards. Smile For me, a sad part of reading a graphic…
Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. First published under the pen name Ellis Bell in 1847. Widely considered one of the best novels in the English language, it is Emily’s only novel; she died the following year at age thirty. I read it in conjunction with the other Bronte sisters’ novels. See previous reviews here: Jane…
This is the third Bronte book I have read of the seven total novels the three sisters produced. I still have two of Charlotte’s, one of Anne’s, and Emily’s only one, which is the very next book I am starting. This has been an entertaining ride, so far. Anne is the youngest of all of…
A Snicker of Magic, by Natalie Lloyd and published by Scholastic Press in 2014. I loved this book. Going in I had absolutely no expectations, but was very, very pleasantly surprised. I liked it from the first and all the way through the end. Between the combination of magic and word-loving, the prose was light…
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, by Jennifer Trafton and published in 2011 by Puffin Books. Illustrated by Brett Hellquist. So, this book has great reviews. On Amazon, it maintains five stars. On Goodreads, four. The truth is, I want to give it at least four stars, but I just don’t think I can.…
The Complete Sherlock Holmes, Volumes 1 and 2, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and compiled by Barnes & Noble Classics. The material was originally published between 1887-1927. This version, with an introduction by Kyle Freeman, appeared in 2003. For a collection of works, this one is tremendously steeped in history and widely adored. Therefore, to…
Shirley, by Charlotte Bronte. Published first in 1849 under the name Currer Bell, I picked up the 2006 version by Penguin Classics and later realized it was yellowed on the shelf for a reason: it is no longer in print. Not that my version is special, it’s just not available in its exact version. I…
Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys. Available from Norton, and first published in 1966. I read Wide Sargasso Sea, not just because it is considered a great book, but because I read Jane Eyre earlier this year and am currently reading through all the Bronte sisters’ writing. If you are not familiar with Wide Sargasso…
Sorry folks, I have been off sick. Pretty sure a fever (how appropriate!) north of 103 gets you off work, even if you work from home. But I don’t need my throat to work, so here I am. Back again. The following review is for Fever 1793, by Laurie Halse Anderson, published by Simon and…
Inevitably, when someone asks me a writer- or reader-question in real life, it is going to end up on the blog. This used to happen with my food blog. The thing is, if someone has taken the time and effort to ask a serious question, there are probably other people wondering the same thing. Plus,…
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell and published in the third edition by New World Publishing in 2008. The original was published in 1949 by Pantheon Books. Before I begin my review of this particular book, I want to answer a question for those of you who don’t know the answer. What…
The Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder series for kids, by Jo Nesbo. Currently, there are four books in the series. I read them in English translation by Aladdin Books, 2007-2012, illustrated by Mike Lowery. The series includes: Doctor Proctor’s Fart Powder Bubbles in the Bathtub (Doctor Proctor’s Time Traveling Bathtub) Who Cut the Cheese? (The End…
It’s not easy to find a good laugh. But I often find myself thinking, “I sure could use a good laugh.” Comedy is tough business, which is why most nights when I go looking to laugh all I end up with is crossed eyes from an optical illusion and an urban definition for the phrase…
Magnificent Principia (2013), by Colin Pask, as a way to read–without actually reading–Isaac Newton’s The Principia, or more correctly, Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica or Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, 1687 (last edition, 1726). Magnificent contains important chunks of Principia, although what percentage I am not at all clear on, and it digests those chunks for…
I have been having such a good time journaling, lately. Now, I have always been a journaler, which is not surprising, as a writer. I have also always been a doodler, which also isn’t surprising, as a visual artist. (I also love photography, which means, taken all together, that my family is going to have…
the starving artist 