I promise I used to have an attention span. And then I had a baby. I had all these high hopes of doing tons of reading while nursing. But I’m not, thanks to the internet. The day my daughter was born I set my laptop on the radiator cover right next to my nursing glider, where I have full access to the world wide web over WiFi. Thanks to the Boppy & a well placed ottoman, I can nurse and browse the web at the…
My friendly neighborhood humor writer Jen LiMarzi has published her first novel, Making Dead Ends Meet. I had a chance to read the manuscript & I’m really proud of her!
Synopsis: An overview of the recent phenomenon of marriages that end before they reach the five-year mark. Review: I hate books that never tell you more than what you read in the title. I generally enjoy books like this, as I’m keenly interested in human behavior and social trends, but this book really didn’t do it for me. I never felt like Paul’s interviewees came alive, and as a result I wasn’t sucked into the drama of their lives. I gave up on it 2/3…
Synopsis: A young woman discovers her destiny among a cadre of psychic dragons, and hatches a radical plan to save her planet from a deadly threat using time travel. Review: I wish I had discovered Pern when I was in high school. Dragonflight, one of Anne McCaffrey’s books set in the dragon-strewn world, is perfect YA sci fi fantasy. Lessa is a fantastic heroine whose impulsive acts have big consequences, and the book doesn’t try to achieve too much. It’s difficult to talk about a…
Synopsis: Deanna’s lived under a dark cloud ever since her dad caught her having sex when she was just 13, and her dreams of getting out just might expire under the weight of his disapproval. Review: I’m a latecomer getting to Sara Zarr’s National Book Award Finalist novel Story of a Girl, though it’s been on my radar for quite some time. I’m so glad I finally carved out some time to read it. I’ve often criticized young adult literature for piling on the woe,…
Found this via It’s All About Books, and since movies are written by writers I think it works for a blog about reading. How many can you guess? Here are the rules: 1. Pick 10 of your favorite movies. 2. Go to IMDb (Internet Movie Database) and find a quote from each movie. 3. Post them here for everyone to guess (if you know them all, please don’t guess every one). 4. Strike it out when someone guesses correctly, and put who guessed it and…
Created by Dewey, picked up at Becky’s Book Reviews: 1. When you dislike a book, do you say so in your blog? Why or why not? Oh, yes–absolutely. I even have tags about it (see my tag list below). I do try to be fair, in that I like to analyze why I didn’t like a book, figure out what went wrong, instead of just ranting. I believe that I am able to discern when something just isn’t my taste versus when it’s not good,…
Synopsis: The concluding adventures of Gemma Doyle, proper Victorian debutante and keeper of the magic of a mystical world called the realms, which is threatened by intruders from the ominous Winterlands. Review: The Sweet Far Thing ends the trilogy that began with A Great and Terrible Beauty, followed by Rebel Angels. Gemma Doyle and her friends are boarding school girls in Victorian England. They should be focusing on their upcoming debuts, but instead their attentions are captured by a war brewing in the realms, the…
My pastor has four kids, all of whom are great readers. His second son in particular is a real book lover, and though he is 13 I feel like he is a kindred spirit to me, because we like a lot of the same books. So I posed him the question I raised in the latest Booking Through Thursday post–namely, would he read a book like Anne of Green Gables? His answer at first was, yes, of course, if it’s a good book, I’ll read…