I’m a newbie to the Captain Marvel universe (if not the Marvel universe) but I had been intrigued by the description of Ms. Marvel—a Pakistani-American girl acquiring super powers and was curious to see how it played out. I was not disappointed. Kamala Khan is a typical American girl, living in Jersey City, reading superhero fan fic, and feeling the pull of two cultures—her immigrant parents with their high expectations and strict rules and the teenage world of boys and parties and what she sees as […]
If Henning Mankell were French
Back in 2007 when I first went on Goodreads, I remember putting a Fred Vargas novel, Wash This Blood Clean from My Hand, on my to-read list. I think it was a recommendation through Powell’s Daily Dose, an e-mail I still look forward to every day. Though the novel sounded great, I had a lot of trouble tracking it down through my local library so it ended up being buried under the massive number of to-read books that followed (887 at last look!). It was […]
The Big Thirst (Or, What’s with all the 5’s?)
Jo Nesbo is back in fine form in this installment of the Harry Hole series. Harry can’t convince his boss that Tom Waaler is the notorious arms dealer known as The Prince and in fact the termination papers have been sent to higher ups, awaiting approval. Not surprisingly, Harry goes off the wagon again in another self-destructive spiral. When Waaler gets wind of Harry’s investigation, he has the hubris to confront Harry directly and even offer him a job in his organization since his career is […]
Was the son of a preacher man
A good friend and I have become book pen pans: we read things, then mail them to each other. It pretty much rules. This book was one she sent to me, with the caveat that it was pretty sad. I struggled through it and put it down many times, but by the time I was done, it was like swallowing unpleasant medicine: good for you in the long run, though a bit hard to get down. This is a quiet novel about life and death […]