We’ve all read novels by authors who have a way with words, know how to shape a sentence, generate tension…all the good stuff, right? But what about when that good stuff keeps going and going until what felt like a perfect balance turns into words and plot piling on unchecked? I’m left either annoyed or crushed under the weight of too much verbiage. It’s at that point ... Read More...
The Dreaded DNF: Summer Edition
What can I say? 2017 is halfway over and my reading has been bipolar all year. I might think it was me, but I know too many other readers who report the same thing—high highs and low lows. And then the blahs in-between. Sadly, either the books are getting worse or my patience is waning because I’m moving from blah to nah. Here are two books I gave up on this month. I'm hoping ... Read More...
Nonfiction November: Book Pairings
This week the Nonfiction November folks (Katie at Doing Dewey, Lory at Emerald City Book Review, Rachel at Hibernator’s Library, Julz at Julz Reads and Sarah at Sarah's Book Shelves) asked for reading pairings—book that complement each other in the way of other pairings like food and wine, clothes and accessories, chocolate and well…chocolate. Here are a few that came ... Read More...
The Golden Age: A Novel
Joan London’s The Golden Age is a quiet novel about a frightening time in the 1950s when, instead of fun and freedom, summer came to mean fear and isolation as pools were closed and children kept inside the house in the hopes of avoiding the dreaded polio. The Golden Age is a convalescent home in Australia where children who have been stricken with the disease are sent ... Read More...
It’s Not You, It’s Me: Mini-Reviews
First of all, how is it that summer is already over?! I know this wasn't the case in most of the country, but here in Seattle we never had sustained summer heat, just a few days here and there. It still feels as if summer lies ahead, even though September is chock full of big releases. Having said that, here are two It's Not You, It's Me books. They did not go ... Read More...
Wealthy Women: Mini-Reviews
It’s no secret I like sorbet reading—the kind of fiction that is light on the brain and cleanses my mental palate for the heavier novels that linger in my heart and mind after I’ve finished them. This could also be called chick-lit, but while I think that’s a fun term I know there are plenty of women that think it's offensive. Political correctness aside, what I’m ... Read More...
