If you don’t yet know about the LeVar Burton podcast, “LeVar Burton Reads” let me have the distinct pleasure of being the one to tell you about it. LeVar Burton, he of Reading Rainbow and Star Trek: TNG reads you short stories. AND IT IS THE BEST THING EVER. He is an amazing reading and storyteller and just brings a big ol’ story to my face. Each episode is 45 minutes to about an hour, and he reads you the story and at the end, […]
Precocious Mystery Fun Times – Thrice the Brinded Cat Hath Mew’d
This Alan Bradley series is one of my favorites to recommend to others. Light and fluffy I describe the protagonist as a young and plucky Jessica Fletcher, a la TV’s “Murder She Wrote.” At this point Flavia is a pre-teen and still using her smarts to solve murders in her village, and I find these books, and her, delightful. This is the 8th installment and it’s been over a year since I read the 7th. As murder mysteries go, they have become a little predictable, […]
Shoulder Shrug – Into the Water
I greatly enjoyed Paula Hawkins’ debut novel, “Girl on the Train.” I read it as an audiobook and found it compelling and interesting from beginning to end. A twisty thriller with unreliable narrators and shifting truths that kept you on your toes. I was thus excited to embark on her second novel, “Into the Water” but did not have the same experience and won’t be recommending this one to others. A sleepy English town is rocked by the “suicide” by water of one of its […]
Heckin’ Yes – The Power
Post-apocalyptic fiction is my my favorite genre. I am also on a kick of reading rocking female authors. Also, I love Margaret Atwood, and she mentored Alderman and has mentioned this book as one to read. Soooo, post-apocalyptic fiction with Margaret Atwood’s seal of approval should be a slam dunk for my tastes, and oh, it certainly was. In Alderman’s world, “the power” is a muscle across the collarbone of young women that allows them to send out electric shocks to animal, vegetable, or mineral. […]