Every summer Rose comes to the same house at a beach with her family. She has always loved being there but this year things have changed, her parents are always fighting and her relatonship with her best friend Windy is strained ( Read more... )

I like long, in-depth book reviews. I like reading them. I like writing them. I think they're helpful. That said, I don't have a lot to say about Cast in Ruin. I adore the Elantra series, and this book didn't disappoint. Also, at this point, if you're not reading the series, a review of the seventh book probably isn't going to entice you to pick it ( Read more... )

19. Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami

( cut for spoilers )

 #28.  Skim, Mariko Tamaki (writing) and Jillian Tamaki (art)
2008, Groundwood Books

Another book that I found through reviews on this comm.   (Thanks again to all of you: you keep leading me to wonderful books.)

I enjoyed the book for many of the same reasons others did, especially those mentioned by kyuuketsukirui, sanguinity and 
( Read more... )

10. Skim, by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki

Somehow, this book didn't resonate with me as much as it did with others here. I'm not sure why; it is beautifully done, and it seems like the kind of book that I would love. But it didn't quite do it for me.

11. Shortcomings, by Adrian Tomine ( Read more... )

23. Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki, SkimThis is a graphic novel about Skim, a Japanese-Canadian teenage girl dealing with her parents' divorce, her rough relationship with her best friend, the suicide of another student, learning about Wicca, and oh, yeah, falling in love with her female teacher ( Read more... )

This is the second book in Michelle Sagara’s (aka Michelle West) Chronicles of Elantra series. While the Sun Sword series she writes as Michelle West is epic fantasy focusing on women and with cultures based on a broad variety of cultures, Elantra is more urban fantasy in a high fantasy setting.

Our heroine, Kaylin, is a Hawk-the equivalent of a ( Read more... )

28. Marguerite Abouet, Aya.
29. Marguerite Abouet, Aya of Yop City.

These didn't really resonate with me, I'm sorry to say -- they've gotten excellent reviews before on this comm, and I'm sure they will again in the future.

( But just not my thing. )

1. Eye of Jade - A Mei Wang Mystery by Diane Wei Liang - First book of a mystery series, features strong Chinese female character who works as a private investigator in Beijing. Unfortunately, the mystery itself didn’t grab me, as I thought the ways in which the protagonist solved the mystery were filled with coincidences and her assistant ( Read more... )

This is book four in Michelle West's The Sun Sword fantasy epic.  My posts on the first three books, as well as the prequel duology, can be found under my author tag at my LJ here.

Sea of Sorrows kicks off pretty soon after the end of The Shining Court, with both Jewel and Diora having joined with the Voyani, a nomadic race seeking to cross the Sea ( Read more... )