In Spinning Silver author Naomi Novak takes the components of the fairytale Rumpelstiltskin and separates them in the same way the heroine in that story had to separate the straw to weave into gold. From seemingly unimportant, innocuous bits of chaff, Novak spins an entire storyline and then brings it all together for mesmerizing reading. The kind that jumps between characters ... Read More...
The Staircase in the Woods
I’m not a huge horror fan, but I am easily influenced by a book’s cover and that was all it took to lead me into Chuck Wendig’s novel A Staircase in the Woods. Who could resist a cover like this? Or this premise: Five high school friends partying in the woods discover a staircase in a clearing. They dare Matthew, one of the five, to climb it and he does. And then he jumps off ... Read More...
The Seventh Veil of Salome
The Hollywood studio system reached its zenith in the 1950s. Young women and men were discovered, groomed, coached, and molded into some of the movie industry’s biggest stars. Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s new novel, The Seventh Veil of Salome uses the original Biblical tale as the underpinnings beneath the making of a big-budget picture based on Salome’s story to dramatic ... Read More...
August Reading Wrap-Up
August flew by, thanks to my first encounter with COVID. But I’m better now and while I didn’t get much reading or reviewing done, what I did read was diverse and interesting. Time to get back to regular review posting! As technology advances there is more and science fiction about scenarios that feel too close for comfort. In this case it’s Annie Bot, a novel ... Read More...
2022 Wrap-Up
I started 2023 strong with The Light Pirate, a book I found riveting, but before I go full bore into the year, I need to wrap up 2022 as I read a lot more books (180 to be exact) and never reviewed some of them. I’m also going to do something I’ve never done before: recommend a book without a real review, just a sentence or two. Basically, you take my word for it that this is a ... Read More...
