Given my love of books about books A Novel Obsession seemed an easy choice when I saw it at the library. Naomi is a 20-something aspiring writer. She lives in NYC and works in a bookstore, leaving her time to work on her first novel. Except, her life has been unremarkable, leaving her without the material she needs to create readable fiction or so she believes. When she gets a ... Read More...
August Reading Wrap-Up
Goodbye, August—the last month of summer and my first summer in Michigan has wrapped up. Much like this winter, the majority of the summer was reasonable. A few days when the heat and humidity filled my veins with lead, but not as bad as it good be. In an effort to stay in a positive lane (getting harder and harder to do), my reading this month was all about quality not ... Read More...
December Reading Wrap-Up
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you know I can get pretty cranky about my reading and that this year was a rough one for me. Both of which make this monthly recap a bit shocking: December was far and away one of the best month’s I’ve ever had for reading! Seriously, I’m a little bit giddy here. Out of the 17 books I read, 12 got 3.5 stars or higher. I ... Read More...
American Radical: Inside the World of an Undercover Muslim FBI Agent
Like some of the other non-fiction books I read last month (Educated, I’ll Be Gone in the Dark), American Radical by Tamer Elnoury reads like fiction. High-wire tension, thriller kind of reading. Tamer Elnoury (not his real name) is an undercover FBI agent. He was brought here from Egypt by his parents when he was a small boy. English is his first language and he speaks ... Read More...
Enchantress of Numbers
What kind of child might you get if you matched a world-famous poet known for his outrageous lifestyle and a genteel woman with a penchant for knowledge and restraint? If it was the early 1800s in England then you’d get Augusta Ada Byron, the only legitimate heir of Lord George Gordon Byron. Enchantress of Numbers is Jennifer Chiavarini’s new novel about Ada’s life—a ... Read More...
August Reading Wrap-Up
Good bye August and goodbye summer! I complain a fair bit, but here is one thing that I absolutely loved about this summer in Seattle. We only had maybe three days all told when it got above 90°. The majority of the summer was in the mid-70s with dry, sunny days and chilly nights. My kind of weather. I wish I could be as upbeat about my reading, but this year continues to be a ... Read More...
