I picked this book up from NetGalley because I thought it would be fun to try out some new romances, and I liked the title and especially the cover. With no expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed this fun romance that mashed up a bunch of romance tropes with witchcraft, shapeshifters, politics and sibling rivalry. Violet comes…
Here are three more science fiction and fantasy mini-reviews, brought to you by the 20 Books of Summer Challenge. Since it’s pretty difficult to review books that are part of series, I’m keeping these short. I recommend all three if you’re looking for good, but not too heavy, summer reads. Good Omens: The Nice and…
I’ve seen mixed reviews of this book, but I really liked it. Chang gives us a screwed-up family on a road trip, but she makes their story sympathetic, clever and at times funny. I’ve seen this book described as hilarious, and I can’t say it reached that level for me, but then I’m not Chinese so…
I was really saddened by Carrie Fisher’s death last month. It was so sudden, and she was only 60. And we had just seen her in Rogue One and Star Wars: A New Hope. I was especially sad for my husband, who grew up with the Star Wars movies. Having suffered through the last three,…
I loved everything about this book. You’ve probably heard of Jenny Lawson by now, but if you haven’t, she writes a blog as The Blogess and a couple of years ago published her first book, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened. Lawson’s writing is really unique; it’s humor combined with memoir, but that description doesn’t really…
Last year I said that every woman should read The Confidence Code by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman. I’m adding How to Be a Woman to that list. I’m coming late to the Caitlin Moran party, since I’ve read about her from many bloggers. She’s the author of Moranthology and most recently, How to Build…
For some reason, it took me a while to get into this book. You would think that a book where a kid falls over and dies in the first chapter (during a doughnut eating contest) would immediately draw you in. Of course you want to know what happened. And you want to know why you’ve suddenly…
I read a lot of fluffiness in the weeks before and after New Years, and I’m not apologizing for it. Steelheart, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, and this book were all fun reads that I thoroughly enjoyed. Now I’m geared up to settle down and read more serious things. Or maybe I…
This is definitely not the kind of book I usually pick up, but 1) it was lent to me by a good friend and 2) it’s by a blogger and 3) it’s laugh-out-loud funny. Jenny Lawson is The Blogess and this is her “Mostly True” memoir. After I tried and failed horribly to describe this…
Attachments is a book I wouldn’t have read (or probably even have heard of) if not for my blogging friend Alley over at What Red Read. When I asked for recommendations for good travel reads, she suggested this one. And it was perfect. It’s one of those “it’s not the type of book I normally…
This is Book Two in the Tiffany Aching series, a young adult series that’s part of the larger Discworld series. In the series, the world is actually a disc that rides on the backs of four elephants standing on the back of a turtle. The series currently has 39 books, but there are sub-series within…
My blogger-friend Alley at What Red Read often recommends Christopher Moore, with good reason. Moore writes a unique brand of what I’ll call supernatural humor, somewhat similar to Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett or A. Lee Martinez. A Dirty Job, like the books of Jasper Fforde, is pretty hard to describe adequately, but I’ll do my…
The Book Stop 