“My biggest secret of all—the one I would rather die than tell, the one I wouldn’t even put in my diary—is that I really, truly, in my heart, want to be beautiful. I want to be beautiful so much—because it will keep my safe, and keep me lucky, and it’s too exhausting not to be.” This is my first CBR year and my first attempt at a book review, so be kind, and only throw the softest and freshest of vegetables my way. Fortunately, I made […]
Patience is a virtue. . . .
I’ve read most of the other “Diary” books by Ms. Grange – Henry Tilney, Edmund Bertram, Captain Wentworth. . . . She has a way of capturing the story behind the story that is fun to read without monkeying with the original. Here, we get to see the behind the scenes and into the thoughts of James Brandon, the Colonel of our dreams, if not (at least initially) Marianne Dashwood’s dreams. The book starts with the young Brandon coming home from school to Delaford, which […]
Chaos, Confusion, Twain and Tesla
The Five Fists of Science, by Matt Fraction (Art by Steven Sanders) is one of those books. I really wanted to like it, and it has a promising premise, but in the end it’s more a fun concept than a good story. Is it a graphic novelette? Yes. Is it steampunk? Sort of. Is it a superhero comic? Maybe? Lovecraftian? Yes, that. Is it an Alternate History with Famous Personages? Yes, also that. Plus, I think there was some influence from Godzilla and also possibly […]
Sisters Doin’ It For Themselves
Into the Forest was a late holiday gift, and I blazed through it in a day. It’s a very quick read and author Jean Hegland’s style is equal parts Margaret Atwood and Barbara Kingsolver, though she’s not quite as deft in her prose as either of those writers. There are also echoes of the back-to-the-land resourcefulness Katniss Everdeen displays in The Hunger Games, and the book is easily as addictive as the first book in that series. The book unfolds its exposition of a near-future […]