When I was a kid, we’d spend a week with each set of grandparents every summer. I’ve always been a voracious reader, but then I was ridiculous. I couldn’t possibly bring enough books with me for a one week stay, so I’d read whatever the grandparents had lying around. Fortunately for me, my mom’s parents were also readers and always had new books available. My grandfather had a penchant for Robert Ludlum and Larry McMurtry; my grandmother for books that are too “important” to go […]
Retelling the six swans fairytale
I did not know until after I finished this book that it was the retelling of a Grimm’s fairy tale, and I think not knowing enhanced what was already a beautiful and completely immersive reading experience. Sorcha is the seventh child, and only daughter, of the Lord of the Sevenwaters, and she enjoys a wild, free childhood in the mysterious forests surrounding her family’s keep. Unexpected visitors upset her idyllic life and set her on a long journey to places far away from her beloved […]
When Elizabethan London is more interesting than the witches and vampires who inhabit it
Part fantasy, part historical fiction, Shadow of Night is the second book in the All Soul’s trilogy (and you really need to have read A Discovery of Witches first to get what is going on). As a tale about witches and vampires, there isn’t a lot of action or back story on the whole witch/vampire/daemon culture. But this book was full of day to day details of life in 16th century Europe, which was a surprising highlight for me. Shadow begins where Discovery left off, […]
Sex, Drugs, and Manipulation by the Media
I had been reading Anne Helen Petersen’s columns on The Hairpin for years, with articles analyzing classic Hollywood lives with a great deal of wit and insight. When this book was published, I ordered it right away, read the first few chapters, and then just let it sit. It just wasn’t as compelling as I thought it was going to be. However, I went on a work trip this week and had to spend hours in layovers, so figured I would use my captive audience […]