Synopsis: A retelling of Sleeping Beauty, filled with magic and adventure. Review: I tried to read Spindle’s End when it first came out, and I gave up after about 50 pages. This time, I made it to the end, but it still left me cold. Robin McKinley’s writing is absolutely gorgeous, and I applaud the [...]

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Synopsis: A princess who can talk to animals sent to marry a foreign prince is replaced by her lady-in-waiting in a nefarious plot, and ends up caring for geese while she figures out a plan. Review: The Goose Girl was simply wonderful. Shannon Hale’s writing is poetic, subtle, and complex, and she really knows how [...]

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Synopsis: When his best friend Mac starts acting like a jerk after a fortune teller prophesies that he’ll be king of the Scottish games, budding investigator Horatio Wilkes thinks it’s just a bad mood, until Mac’s grandfather Duncan ends up dead. Review: Something Wicked is a clever, edgy young adult retelling of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, which [...]

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Synopsis: A retelling of the classic tale of Beauty and the Beast. Review: I suppose it’s because of all the babysitting I’ve done, but I just couldn’t shake the image of Belle in her big yellow dress as I read Robin McKinley’s Beauty. But setting that aside, I would have loved this when I was [...]

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Synopsis: Two novellas by Ray Bradbury. “Somewhere a Band is Playing” is a portrait of an unusually idyllic town, and “Leviathan ’99″ is a retelling of Moby-Dick set in outer space. Review: Now and Forever contains two gorgeous gems in one slim volume. I have loved Ray Bradbury since childhood, with The Illustrated Man being [...]

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Synopsis: The epic tale of Adam Trask, cuckolded husband to a whore and father of twin boys, one dark, one light. Review: I’m rather embarrassed to confess East of Eden is the first Steinbeck I have ever read. Big deal, you say–except I majored in American Studies in college with a focus on how literature [...]

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Synopsis: A shy 14-year-old Latin scholar finds a passage into Manhattan’s underworld, where, guided by an unhappy ghost named Euri, he hopes to find out how his mother died once and for all. Review: Greek mythology concerning the after life deftly mixes with New York City’s colorful history in The Night Tourist, a marvelous adventure [...]

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Synopsis: The trials and travails of a group of young New York City-based novelists. Review: Grub is a reworking of a 19th Century novel. I can’t speak to its success in that regard because I haven’t read the original, but I will say that author Elise Blackwell pulls off a rare bird: a satire brimming [...]

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Synopsis: Jane’s always found it easy to believe in God, but when she loses everything overnight she has to learn what’s really important. Share on Facebook

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