“[…]All he needed was a little faith.” “In humanity?” Ginger asked dryly. [Lacey] met his gaze directly. “Don’t be ridiculous. In the circus.” — Location 2587, Kindle Edition I haven’t stayed up until the wee hours of the morning to finish a book since I was in my 20s. A Circus of Brass and Bone, however, not only kept me up most of the night reading but also proves that not all circuses/carnivals in fiction are questionable at the least, creepy on average, and downright evil […]
Better than 50 Shades of Oh Creepy Stalker No
Somebody, somewhere, recommended Push the Button as an alternative for those who are interested in reading about 24/7 BDSM lifestyles, rather than 50 Shades of BDSM Doesn’t Work That Way (and also as a book with persons of color as the protagonists). I don’t remember who, now, but I am ever curious so I picked it up. I’m afraid I’m about to damn the book with faint praise: it wasn’t terrible. Certainly it was a quick read, and I liked Star/Nicole and David even if […]
The Promise of Intimacy, Denied
This isn’t the first time I’ve written a book review without finishing the book — but the last time was in the early 1980s when I read the first and then last chapters of Jane Eyre for English class. Plus one chapter in the middle I’d been assigned. The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the most Devastating Plague of All Time is *exactly* the sort of book that should have been up my alley. It promises to be a look at […]
Lots more Whacks
Lizzie Borden took an ax… Those of us familiar with Lizzie’s story (or just with the rhyme) believe we know what happened next. Cherie Priest, though, looked at the variety of facts available, asked herself the writer’s favorite question (“What if…?”), and came up with an almost entirely different story. Though father and (step-) mother still take their whacks.