Rules for Ruin by Mimi Matthews
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
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Friday, March 28, 2025
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Friday, March 14, 2025
Sunday, March 09, 2025
Review: Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure
Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure by Juliet B. Schor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Clear, lucid sociology showing how the personal is political.
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Review: Hench
Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Seanan McGuire quote on the cover: "Fast, furious, compelling, and angry as hell." my emphasis, because I was all "Yeah! That's what I'm looking for!"
Review copy
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Review: Brideshead Revisited
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Masterpiece Theater ran the Anthony Andrews/Jeremy Irons version I was in high school and I fell in love. Just like Charles Ryder, I fell in love with the whole charming family. I still am. And although I never took to calling a stuffed bear after a saint, I probably did feel rather vindicated in my ongoing affection for stuffies.
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Review: Sisters in Crime 4
Sisters in Crime 4 by Marilyn Wallace
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A good anthology enables me to sample new writers. I'll probably never go back and reread this, but I'd recommend it to anyone who was looking for women writing mysteries (as I would recommend the others in the series).
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Review: The Rules of Magic
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really want to read this for the witches square in Halloween Bingo, but it doesn't drop until October 10. I'm going to have to pick a backup, maybe, although that is still 21 days. Hmmm.I
***
Yay! An advance copy is coming my way! Time to start obsessively checking the mailbox.
***
October 26, 2017
My very pretty copy has arrived. So even though I have bags and sacks of books that I am currently reading, this one gets to break in line, because it is shiny, and I am shallow, and I've been waiting so long. It finally cooled off enough to turn the heat on. My All Hallows Read finally feels legit, and not just wishful thinking.
Advance copy donated 2025
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Review: The Rules of Magic
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really want to read this for the witches square in Halloween Bingo, but it doesn't drop until October 10. I'm going to have to pick a backup, maybe, although that is still 21 days. Hmmm.I
***
Yay! An advance copy is coming my way! Time to start obsessively checking the mailbox.
***
October 26, 2017
My very pretty copy has arrived. So even though I have bags and sacks of books that I am currently reading, this one gets to break in line, because it is shiny, and I am shallow, and I've been waiting so long. It finally cooled off enough to turn the heat on. My All Hallows Read finally feels legit, and not just wishful thinking.
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Review: The Drowning Tree
The Drowning Tree by Carol Goodman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Such a pretty cover, not that you can tell from the thumbnail, but trust me. I had this and the Mary Stewart 3-in-1 Merlin book on the coffee table at the same time. Same colors. One looks like some bizarre Jesus theory, the other looks brooding and mysterious. The girls and I all noticed.
Not just the cover is my cuppa. Something horrible happened twenty years ago, and now many of the same people are back in town and one of them ends up dead. More Laura Lippman than Barbara Vine, but very moody and atmospheric, and I love the bit about the artists, and the past resembling the present. With the mother and daughter pair it comes across as the Gilmore Girls in need of SSRIs. Plus there's a little insight into the making of stained glass, as well as the restoration thereof. Learning about an unusual job was always the coolest part of a Dick Francis.
Just a big old delicious pudding of impending doom.
Personal copy - loaned to Erin 06/21/17
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Review: Doctor Who: Plague of the Cybermen
Doctor Who: Plague of the Cybermen by Justin Richards
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Just the thing when none of the other books lying around are tempting. First, it's a Who fix, and the author managed to give it a good Matt Smith feel. Next it's set in a small town in Europe somewhere, sodden with rain, menaced by wolves, with a castle, so points for classic Gothic trappings. Then, it's steampunk Cybermen. It manages to hit that sweet spot for action without being too violent, with amusing dialogue, but seriousness of purpose.
I have suddenly discovered the delights of [whatever the word is for what is basically professionally-penned fan fiction?]. Now I know why the are 27 billion Star Trek and Star Wars books: it's fun to hang out in these universes.
Book Smugglers giveaway loot
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Review: The Princess Bride
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
When I find myself making conversation with a new acquaintance, one of my favorite gambits is "What's the last really good book you read?" The answer almost always leads to a really interesting conversation, because even if it's been years since someone read a good book, whatever comes to their mind is something that evokes strong opinions. It's a nice way to break the ice without prying, and people who can't come up with anything usually have any interesting explanation for why they haven't been reading much, or why they haven't been loving anything they've read, or why the can't think of anything even though they really enjoyed the hell out of the last few books they've read. Once the answer was unexpected, because I didn't know Endless Love was a book, and I hadn't heard of Scott Spencer, and I would never have expected a guy to pick anything with "love" in the title. I may have laughed in surprise at the time, which is bad of course, but I was a teenager speaking to someone really famous for the first time....anyway, my apologies to everyone on that.
Once the answer was "The Princess Bride," which was a film I really loved, and again, hadn't realized it was based on a novel, but I could imagine that it was awesome. Reader, it was not awesome. It was a lovely fantasy story broken up by the constant intrusion of the author and his (entirely fictional) framing story that was unpleasant and boring, and ugh. After I finished I put the book on the shelf and didn't touch it again except to put it in a box when I moved and then put it on a shelf. And then one day twenty-six years later my son mentions he'll be reading it for a class, and there it still was, dusty, but otherwise pristine.
And then after he read it we talked a bit and were largely in agreement, with the addition of "fat-shaming" to Goldman's sins. It left me thinking I should try reading it without reading all the framing bits to see what I thought. And it's a pretty good adventure/fantasy/comedy, really funny in some scenes (the scenes that are reproduced on screen verbatim).
I won't be reading more Goldman. In this book, the only two characters who aren't treated with disdain are the grandson and Stephen King. Everyone else is stupid or evil or hideous or shallow or vindictive, or some combination thereof. Now there's a possibility that Goldman the author deliberately created Goldman the character to be irascible for humorous effect. But there is also the possibility that Goldman the author may have just been horrible. And I'm pretty sure that reading anything else by him would clear up that little mystery for me. So I'm going to pass.
Personal copy
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Review: Equus
Equus by Peter Shaffer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
In the latter half of the 20th century, talk therapy was viewed as a kind of treatment for mental illness. Despite the fact that it isn't at all effective in treating psychosis, and is rarely effective in lessening symptoms of other mental illnesses, writers seized upon the idea of that dramatic breakthrough moment. In this play Shaffer asks what would make a young man do something so heinous as blinding horses, and decides that it's a fair cop, but society is to blame, because culture is trivial these days.
Yeah, in the 70s that passed for deep thought.
So, it's a stupid premise, but a great bit of drama.
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Review: Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books
Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in Books by Maureen Corrigan
My rating: 0 of 5 stars
Corrigan and I don't overlap much in our tastes. I don't think I've ever described a book as "luminous" including The History of Luminous Motion. That's rather more of a disincentive to me. So I'm going to give up and give it back to the library.
2020 June 06
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Saturday, March 08, 2025
Review: Jenny and the Cat Club: A Collection of Favorite Stories about Jenny Linsky
Jenny and the Cat Club: A Collection of Favorite Stories about Jenny Linsky by Esther Averill
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
These stories are so wonderfully unexpected, they're strange and charming and full of cats acting not quite like people but not quite like cats either.
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Friday, March 07, 2025
Saturday, March 01, 2025
Saturday, February 22, 2025
Review: The Amulet of Samarkand
The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I loved Bartimaeus, his snarky tone, his irascible nature. Nathaniel, like his master, was extremely well-drawn, and consequently, annoying as hell. Stroud kept me walking that tightrope of being sympathetic to him in his quest for revenge, and also made me want to shake the snot out of him and force feed him a clue or two.
Library copy
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Review: Everfair
Everfair by Nisi Shawl
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Everfair - Nisi Shawl It's an alternate history in which a genocide doesn't happen.
It's about a utopian society that isn't so cleverly set up as to avoid all problems, but in which people work to find different, practical, solutions.
It's steampunk that feels utterly plausible.
It's a book that acknowledges the tremendous breadth and depth of people and cultures throughout Africa, although it focuses on one nation.
It is a marvelous accomplishment in every sense of the word, and I'm sure it's going to be one of my top reads for the year, and probably every other reader's list, because it is a book that makes you go "ohhh" and "ahhh", that constantly delights and surprises, even though it is addressing many of the darkest aspects of colonialism.
It's a book that reminded me of how new and appealing are the many voices in scifi these days, and actually makes me feel optimistic about humanity.
Sweet, fancy Moses, it's just a great, sweeping Victorian "ills of society" novel, such as those of Charles Dickens, but with a light touch. It's just perfect.
Now goo, read it right away, unless you're devoting October to horror, in which case, okay, but then you have to start it on November first.
ARC provided by publisher via GoodReads
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Review: The Ink Drinker (A Stepping Stone Book
The Ink Drinker (A Stepping Stone Book by Eric Sanvoisin
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don't remember how or why I acquired this, but it is a strange little book.
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Review: Varjak Paw
Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Once again a matriarchal society has been transformed into a patriarchal one, largely inhabited by male characters, but still, it's about cats, so I had to love it. Plus I really love that cover with the golden eyes. And yes, I did google to see if the breed really existed.
***
Casting about for the next read-aloud after the Penderwicks, we struck on this. Glad I finished it last month. Also, very glad that the McKean illustrations aren't as disturbing as the ones he does for Gaimain's books.
***
It's a cat adventure, therefor good. But this second time through, I'm thinking about the cliche of special training, and the hero who is unusually adept even before the training.
Also, I'm wincing from the contempt for the hunting abilities of pets. I know a cat who doesn't have claws and still managed to kill a mouse by pushing a carton of sodas over on top of it. Pets can kill, too.
***
2008 September 16
Ah, the ending is even better when I'm reading aloud. I"m already looking forward to the sequel.
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Review: The House of Stairs
The House of Stairs by Barbara Vine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Not my favorite. I much prefer A Dark-Adapted Eye
Library copy
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Review: A Dark-Adapted Eye
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I can't remember if I read the book first, or watched the film first, and the two are now inseparable in my mind.
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Review: A Place of Execution
A Place of Execution by Val McDermid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
January 1, 2001
January 9, 2015
I'm sorry I didn't keep any comments from my original reading; I'd love to compare them. What I do know is that I liked the book even better, despite knowing the big twist. The greatest strength of the book is the earnest young detective doing his best to solve a heinous crime in 1963 without any preparation but his own sensitivity. Aces there. And although the book deals with repeated rape and sexual abuse of a minor, there is no titillation in it: all the reactions we see are from people horrified, shocked, and disgusted. Although grooming behavior wasn't identified as such then, that is how it is perceived.
Personal copy
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Friday, February 21, 2025
Monday, February 17, 2025
Review: A Simple Plan
A Simple Plan by Scott Smith
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
It's like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You know just how bad it's going to be, and then it gets even worse. Gripping.
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Review: If I Die in a Combat Zone Box Me Up And Ship Me Home
If I Die in a Combat Zone Box Me Up And Ship Me Home by Tim O'Brien
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is the kind of war book that feels like stories told to you by a new friend you're getting to know: they feel revealing, and raw, and painful but also a bit charming. The mix of just-a-regular-guy and the very skilled writer makes you think he's got it all exactly right, as if there could be only one perspective on such an experience. This and Herr's Dispatches are the two best memoirs I've read on Viet Nam.
I also recommend Going After Cacciato and The Things They Carried
Personal copy
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Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Sunday, February 09, 2025
Review: The Three Pigs
The Three Pigs by David Wiesner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Wiesner is amazing, and this is my favorite. The hyper-realism, the three-Dimensionality, makes the text so much more meaningful. Both kids have always loved these, and we none of us show any signs of getting tired of his work.
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Saturday, February 08, 2025
Review: The End of All Things
The End of All Things by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Aug 30, 2015
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Review: Earth Below, Sky Above
Earth Below, Sky Above by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I'm ambivalent. I really enjoyed the writing of this segment, just as I did all the others. But I'm really bummed that the story wasn't brought to some sort of conclusion. On the other hand, there will be another series...
I bought it.
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Review: The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads
The Gentle Art of Cracking Heads by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am both very eager to read next week's final installment, and somewhat saddened, because then it will be over.
I bought it.
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Review: A Problem of Proportion
A Problem of Proportion by John Scalzi
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
We're nearing the end, with more of the puzzle being revealed, and also, more of the characters.
Well done, and touching.
I bought it.
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Review: This Must Be the Place
This Must Be the Place by John Scalzi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A relatively calm, quiet interlude in which Hart Schmidt goes home for a harvest festival dinner with his family. No big adventure, no tricky plot, just good-natured family ribbing and some backstory. Well, okay, some thoughtful observations about class, presented in an amusing way.
As a whole, this is going to be great.
I bought it.
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