Review: Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

For me, there are two indicators of a good book.  One is that as soon as I finish it, I want to go back and reread the first few chapters.  Two is that I find myself thinking about the book days after I’ve put it down. Oryx and Crake was that kind of book. The…

Review: The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

I first read Return of the Native when it was assigned in my high school English class.  I was a senior at the time and basically an emotional mess.  This book was a perfect fit. Reading it again, I wondered if it would read differently.  Then I was seventeen, full of emotional angst and a…

Review: Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

I read Fahrenheit 451 in two days this weekend.  There aren’t many books that make you see the world differently when you’re done, and for me this was one of them. The book tells the story of Montag, a fireman, in a near-future American town.  In this near future, books are illegal, the government controls…

Review: Middlemarch, Part 2

I finished Middlemarch at last, and while I’m a little bit happy to move on to a new book, Middlemarch is a book I’ll be thinking about for a long time!  It’s too big a novel for me to write any kind of comprehensive review, but here’s a summary and some brief thoughts (and see…

In the Middle of Middlemarch (Reading the Classics Part 1)

Reading about bloggers’ favorite books recently inspired me to pick up some classics I missed in college.  A lot of people mentioned Middlemarch as a favorite. I always meant to read something by George Eliot so this was long overdue, and I’m really enjoying it so far. A couple of months ago I wrote a…

Review: Just a Geek by Wil Wheaton

I bought this book for my husband, a big Star Trek fan.  But I’ll admit to buying it for myself too.  I’m not a Trekkie, but I loved Next Generation, and lately we’ve been watching Wheaton on The Guild, which is hilarious.  But Wheaton is also a blogger, and this book describes how he created…

Review: A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

I loved this book.  Each chapter is sort of its own story, told from a different character’s point of view, with characters intersecting throughout the book in various ways.  One review I read described it as a book of short stories, and for that reason I almost didn’t buy it.  But these aren’t short stories…

Review: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief

This week I finished two books – The Passage and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.   My review of The Passage is in progress, but let me just say I was relieved to have finished it – and that’s not a good sign.  I enjoyed Percy Jackson a lot more. I won’t do a full…

Review: Sabriel by Garth Nix

A friend recommended this as one of her favorite YA fantasy books, and I’m glad she did! This is a great book – interesting characters, a strong heroine, richly detailed writing, and an original story. The way this book is written felt OLD to me – old in the way of classic fantasy like Lord…

Review: The Devil’s Company by David Liss

The Devil’s Company continues the story of Benjamin Weaver, a Jew in early 1700’s England who used to be a pugilist and now makes his living as a “thief-taker” – in other words, he tracks people down.  In this story, Weaver is blackmailed into taking a case that requires him to infiltrate the East India…

Review: Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

This is Book 4 in the Kate Daniels series, and just as with the others each book in the series is stronger than the one before it.  This series may have surpassed my other favorite, Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson series. I don’t normally read a book in one or two days because I like to…

Review: Changeless by Gail Carriger

I greatly enjoyed the first book in this series, Soulless, primarily because of its unique voice and story. The world of fantasy these days seems to take itself much too seriously and this series was refreshing in its different view of the supernatural , its setting in the Victorian era, and its humorous voice. It…