Moth and Spark was just okay. I am surprised I tolerated it as well as I did and read it as quickly (just a day); I guess this means it was just engaging enough. I wonder if this is one of those books that suffers from the way it was billed and hyped. It's nominally fantasy, but the bulk of the plot is taken up with a romantic relationship between ( Read more... )

I didn't understand or appreciate The Game of Kings at first. Not even at first, really - for the first 150 pages or so. I stuck with it, and I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm glad I did ( Read more... )

The Dark Half is a fun, scary ride by Stephen King. It took me a little while to get into it - the main character is not completely likable, but that's on purpose. But it hurtles towards a crazy, wild ending, and that made it worthwhile ( Read more... )

This might be the third or fourth time I've read this...? This time, I listened to it as an audiobook. Nothing compares to David Sedaris as a performer, especially live. He adds a whole new dimension of humor to his writing, and in my opinion, this is his best book. There isn't a single weak essay in it.

Kraken was a quick and fascinating look at cephalopods. I've always found this group of animals interesting and this book managed to both hold me and teach me some new information. At first it felt a little factoid-y and seemed to lack an organizational structure, but as it got into the sections on sensory interaction and intelligence the author ( Read more... )

Charlatan relates the story of an appalling medical charlatan, John R. Brinkley, in the early 1900's. It was a time when the United States was overrun with such charlatans, but Brinkley out-conned them all. He was worth millions during the Great Depression. He stayed several steps ahead of the law and in the process, accidentally created modern ( Read more... )

Phantom was one of my favorite books when I was young. Unlike many nostalgic things, this one actually holds up well. Susan Kay takes that intriguing last chapter from the original Gaston Leroux novel and expands it into a sweeping novel told from several perspectives. Each section fills in a portion of Erik's life, explaining how he ended up ( Read more... )

I actually read Soul Music a few weeks ago and I forgot to write about it! It's a Discworld novel, and it is much like many others in that Pratchett uses Discworld to parody a modern phenomenon. This time, it's rock music, or "music with rocks in." But what really made me love it is that this is a Death novel, and not only that, it's the ( Read more... )

Crossed is a historical fiction novel by Nicole Galland set during the disastrous (but weren't they all?) Fourth Crusade. This book was everything I have come to expect and appreciate about Nicole Galland's work - impeccably thorough historical rendering, populated with well-written, intriguing characters, both real and imagined ( Read more... )

I listened to this as an audiobook. It's an old favorite that I probably haven't read since my late teens/early twenties. The reader took some getting used to; he has an odd accent and tone. But he did a great job with the character voices and I came to appreciate his skill ( Read more... )