Normally, if I don’t understand a book I’m not going to enjoy it. I also don’t like writing that’s weird for the sake of being weird. Slaughterhouse Five was different. It’s funny and strange and tragic and an easy read, all at the same time. Slaughterhouse Five is at first told from the point of…
Review: Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
It’s freezing outside and winter-cold-season inside. The only good thing I can say about that is I’ve had LOTS of time to read lately. This year’s ugly winter cold has meant slowing waaayyy down. And the thirty degree weather and my recently-repaired fireplace means I’m staying in every chance I get. So aside from the…
Review: The Invisible Bridge by Julie Orringer
This book, which was included in the New York Times list of 100 Notable Books of 2010, is Julie Orringer’s first novel, and as she describes in the credits, it is written as a tribute to her grandparents and great uncle and aunt. This book is a sweeping story that covers World War II from…
On the last night of Hanukkah…
As Hanukkah comes to a close, I want to wish everyone out there a happy end-of-Hanukkah and a very happy holiday season. It’s been a busy couple of weeks so I haven’t been blogging much. Last week my sister visited with her husband and my two nieces (ages three and five), which was great fun…
Can something be a “modern-day classic”?
This week’s Literary Blog Hop asks the question: when is a contemporary book a classic? And what modern book do I think will be a classic? I’m going to punt on this one and say the obvious – we just don’t know. A classic is a book that people are reading and finding relevant to…
Best Fiction of 2010
I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times of the year (except for the cold) and yesterday was a particularly nice day – I got to stay close to home, had dinner with my dad, talked to most of my family and my husband’s family, relaxed and watched…
Odds and Ends, and Harry Potter
Today I’m just posting some odds and ends as I work on my next review. Once I finish that one, I’ll actually be caught up, which I don’t think has happened since I started this blog. Kindle in the news: An interesting piece of Kindle news recently was Amazon’s announcement that Kindle will soon allow…
Literary Blog Hop: Literary Nonfiction
This week’s Literary Blog Hop, sponsored by the Blue Bookcase, asks: Can nonfiction be literary? Of course it can, but it’s harder to define. I don’t read much nonfiction but maybe this is the rough equivalent of calling a work of science fiction literary (as discussed in a recent post). In other words, we assume…
Review: Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld
In my last post, I recommended a book called Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. Westerfeld is one of my favorite YA writers. He’s written the Uglies and Midnighters series, and this latest series is set in 1914 in a steampunk version of World War I. Behemoth is book 2 of this series. In Leviathan, the first…
Veteran’s Day and Books about War
In honor of Veterans Day, for those of us in the U.S., Booking Through Thursday asks, do you read books about war? Fictional or historical? I can’t say war stories are a favorite genre, but many favorite books have been about war, both historical and fantastical — in fact, it’s hard to name a great…
The first Literary Blog Hop, and what it means to be literary
I’m excited that the Blue Bookcase started a “Literary Blog Hop” this week. Of course whether a blog is “literary” is a little bit subjective. I read a mix of books, as do most of us, some literary and some not. What makes a book literary? I think that’s a question many of us wrestle…
Thoughts on Kindle book pricing and the one-star protest
Kindle’s book pricing has been back in the media lately, only this time it’s actually the UK’s media. Kindle readers in the UK have been angered by a steep increase in publishers’ book pricing, which is a result of Amazon’s recent agreement with book publishers to allow them to set pricing for their books. Amazon’s…
The Book Stop 