I’ve spent the past five or so days studiously reading a book I kept trying to enjoy - it’s SF! with glowing blurbs by authors I respect! the opening chapter really hooked me! - but I’m halfway through and just ... no one is making me read this book, and there are a lot of books I’d rather be reading instead ( Read more... )

(Warning: run-on sentences ahead.)

The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin: While most Fantasy books are set in a vaguely Medieval European locale, with Knights and Castles and Forests and copious amounts of Stew (cf. 4th paragraph), Jemisin models the world of The Killing Moon after the empires of ancient Egypt, borrowing from that region's folklore, as ( Read more... )

(Eventually I will write up some more three sentence book reviews, which I always thought I'd continue and still haven't. But I read a lot - a lot - and I always have thoughts about what I'm reading. I'll work on writing some short reviews.)

If you are in the mood for some great urban fantasy, I highly recommend Jim C. Hines' latest, Libriomancer ( Read more... )

I've been promising myself I'd write a review of Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races for two weeks. Here we go.

The Scorpio Races is broadly about life on an island somewhere maybe north of Ireland. The island is famous for the faerie horses that come ashore every year, and which, if you're clever enough to catch one, make for some of the ( Read more... )

Boy, it's a good thing I'm not, you know, leaving the country in less than two weeks, because I'm sure not spending almost all my time in the library, or anything ( Read more... )

I just finished my second re-reading of Kristin Cashore's Fire, and it's hit me just as hard this time around as it did when I first read it three autumns ago ( Read more... )

I began Madeline L'Engle's A Ring of Endless Light yesterday; I'm reading it again for the first time in maybe twelve years. My chief impression/memory from the first reading is that it was a book I kept itching to get back to, whenever I was pulled away for family obligations. I remember I read it over a Thanksgiving break, a library copy, ( Read more... )

It is late at night, and I am in front of my computer: a dangerous place, at a dangerous hour.

I had a good day, really. I went to lunch with an old friend, out to Elk Creek; his treat, and my surprise. It was tasty, and fun ( Read more... )

I have just closed the cover of Mockingjay, the third and final installment to Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy.

I waited so long to read these books because I am always a little wary about very popular/trendy books (and films, and tv shows...). Sure it's popular now, but is it any good?

Case in point: Stephenie Meyer's Twilight "saga ( Read more... )

So, there have been a few good things to come out of this lack of Internet (and a social life) here at the farm. I have been reading a lot. A few weeks ago, I started writing mini-reviews of all the books I've read and finished since December. I decided to keep my reviews to three sentences, for the sake of brevity, but I recognize in some cases I ( Read more... )