I am in a book club that just throws a book at you at a club meeting, and it’s the book you’re meant to read for the next club. There is no preamble, no warning, no sneak peek. Sometimes this works for me, and sometimes it baffles me: should I read this book? I know…
I have been shoving a couple books down people’s throats in 2025, each one after I read it. One of them I’m about to introduce to you, and I can confidently say introduce because it’s not a widely known or distributed book (or author). But it should be. And he should be. At least for…
I am one of those people who likes seasons. And I don’t just mean winter, spring, summer, and autumn. I mean the seasons of life, the holiday seasons, etc. Which means that when Halloween is fast-approaching in the heart of harvest time, I am ordering spiced lattes, baking bone cookies, and streaming Wednesday. It also…
I have been told since the drop of Olga Tokarczuk’s Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead that I needed to read it. So, when The Empusium showed up on bookshelves this year with its cool cover and then winkled its way onto one of my book clubs’ lists, I jumped at the…
I was a little scared of The Honeys by Ryan La Sala because of the horror thing, even if it is YA. Honestly, many teens in my life can handle way more jump scares and gore than I can. Or they think they can and therefore watch and read it. But this book was full…
I read Bunny by Mona Awad because I was about to attend an event with the author. Out of the books available by the featured authors, Bunny was one that I already intended to read since many people over the past year had mentioned it, especially in conjunction with Yellowface (R. F. Kuang), another book…
In one of my book clubs, we watch a movie based on a book each year. Last year we watched All of Us Strangers. Because Taichi Yamada’s book of the same name was not on my radar, I did not read the book first. But I ended up watching the movie twice. (I thought I…
Do I need to give a synopsis for And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie? It’s a classic. Well, I will anyhow. Ten people across England get an alluring message from a Mr. and Mrs. Owen asking them to come to an isolated island off the coast of Devon. After they arrive, a disembodied…
I think Julie Chan is Dead by Liann Zhang—a debut author—has potential to be a hit this summer. (It is due for publication at the end of April). It is an easy read that goes down smooth while also being a roller coaster of an experience. Don’t come here for literary acrobatics, but for social…
I have fallen behind on book reviews over the (long) holiday season. I read Andrew Joseph White’s Hell Followed With Us in October. It’s a memorable book though, and I have notes as well as a book club discussion synopsis (provided by the leader—I was unable to go). I remember that this book was way…
I did find “Afterward” by Edith Wharton in a slim volume all by itself and read it that way, but it is really a short story, not a book or even novella. Ethan Frome is one of my favorite books, though I don’t think I have read much else of hers (like The House of…
When Among Crows entered my personal library when I attended a Halloween season reading event featuring a few authors of horror. I chose the book that looked less scary as my “with ticket” book. Or maybe I chose it because it was by the most famous author there, one that I recognized. But then I…
I thought the afterword to Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Jonathan Letham was rather clever. Among other things, he says, “Jackson is one of American fiction’s impossible presences, too material to be called a phantom …. too in-print to be ‘rediscovered,’ yet hidden in plain sight.” He goes on to…
It is spooky season, which is what T. Kingfisher called it at the Fright Night author event I attended in September. We’re going to be hearing more about that event later. But it is spooky season. If you are one of those readers who just plows ahead in October with their usual reading and ignores…
Baking and fantasy as written by T. Kingfisher? Of course! YA. Fairy tale-style. Funny. Charming. All that. But it is Kingfisher, so there are also dead bodies strewn along the story’s path, and some scary moments, just more funny, coming-of-age things than the bodies and scares. It gets wacky. It gets introspective. And it’s written…
“The studio was filled with the rich odour of roses, and when the light summer wind stirred amidst the trees of the garden, there came through the open door the heavy scent of lilac, or the more delicate perfume of the pink-flowering thorn.” -first line of The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilder, a…
Finally, a Neil Gaiman book that really agrees with me. Everyone else seems to admire his work so assiduously, but me… it either wasn’t my flavor (American Gods) or I thought it was not very good (The Ocean at the End of the Lane). While I had no idea what was coming to me with…
Here’s the thing: in the spirit of no spoilers, I fear the marketing and reviews of The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James are so cautious that they don’t adequately warn a reader what they are getting into. This is not a romance. This is not a light-hearted coming-of-age story. The blips out…
Goodness sakes. This is a tough book, of a sort. It is not just like Kimmel’s other books. It is highly academic, religiously explorative, and takes place in Indiana, yes, but it is pretty dark and trippy, falling down a sort of well into ancient Greece (think the dark side of mythology) while standing planted…
It is hard to walk away from a book and expect to just re-approach it later and talk about it. Things have changed, they always have. And my memory never was what it used to be. I have the blog for that. In fact, after a couple years of always writing slightly behind myself (except…
the starving artist 