I know Gwendolyn Brooks mostly from her poetry, like most of us, and that she wrote one novel and it was this one makes a lot of sense. This is not a traditional novel. It’s mainly impressionistic, meaning meditations of a various set of ideas and vignettes and moments in the life of her protagonist Maud Martha Brown. We begin at the beginning with Maud Martha growing up and experiencing the joys of childhood, confusions at how the world works, seeing a gorilla at the […]
The Past Continues to be a Foe in the Chamber of Secrets
Friends, I finally remembered what initially began the itch to reread Harry Potter. Our very own narfna, along with some cannonball and not cannonball friends, did a Medicinal Re-Read and I remember following along (thanks, Goodreads)! It’s been since 2013! Okay, as you were, let’s get to the actual reviewing. I have always thought book four, Goblet of Fire was my least favorite Potter, and that may still be true for the book versions (we’ll have to see when I get there in a few […]
Does a unique premise outweigh a flat story?
Of Fire and Stars is the sort of book I wanted to like more than I actually did. An Onion AV Club writer listed it as something she was reading and piqued my interest, as she noted that the story was a typical fantasy tale made more complex by its protagonist falling in love not with the prince she has been promised to in an arranged marriage, but his sister. The book treats the romance between Denna, the princess destined to marry Mare’s brother, and […]
Too much dry travel writing, not enough DRAGONS for my taste
3.5 stars Purported to be the first of Lady Isabella Trent’s journals, chronicling her life-long exploration of the world and its dragons, this book is a historical novel set in an alternate universe, where dragons obviously exist. I’m unsure of whether the time period in these books would be the Regency or more like Victorian times in our history, but the fictional country that our protagonist, Lady Isabella is from, is clearly modelled on historical England. We follow our heroine from childhood, where we learn […]