Longbourn joins the very long tradition of auxiliary Jane Austen novels and deftly moves to the head of the class. It is one of the better ones out there and MILES ahead of the hated “Austen novel tittle and monster X” books. The book succeeds largely because Jo Baker doesn’t try to ape Austen’s style or plot, she simply tells a story around the narrative structure of Pride and Prejudice. It’s a fairly compelling book that details the lives of the servants to the Bennet family. […]
And this is why I like to give authors two or three books before I write them off
A few weeks ago I read a book by Sarah Beth Durst that almost turned me off of her completely as an author. However, I’d bought The Lost at the same time as that one and so felt obligated to read it. I’m glad I did. The Lost is a haunting novel about loss and finding what you need within yourself. Lauren decides to keep going straight one day instead of turning onto her work street and proceeds to drive into the desert. She’s running […]
Preachy Fairy Tale
Shadow of the Bear is a ‘retelling’ of the Grim Fairy Tale Snow White and Rose Red, the one where they have a bear suitor. You have to specify because there are a couple of Snow White/Rose Red fairy tales and I remember being confused about that when I was younger. I put retelling in quotes because the only real changes to the fairy tale is that it’s set in the modern era and all characters are human, otherwise nothing really changes. It’s this lack […]
Ancillary Thoughts
I love it when you read tons of awesome books on your vacation. The Imperial Radch books, which I read back-to-back, were a great vacation read. They’re thought provoking science fiction wrapped up in good fun space opera, and really that’s all I wanted. I’m going to do one big review for all three books because the things I want to say about the books are true for all three novels, and to be honest I’m not sure that I could really untangle the last two […]