Tag Archives: 21st Century

Emma, Wild, Phantom Tollbooth, Under the Skin

American Literature, British Literature March 29, 2015 Superfast Reader

I keep getting fed up with books and not finishing them. What is wrong with me? Two recent give-ups were The Buried Giant and The Book of Strange New Things. The former I dropped because it just go so boring, and the latter I dropped because the Christian missionary main characters didn’t ring true for me and my brain got tired from arguing with the book. I didn’t quite finish Wild by Cheryl Strayed, which was this month’s pick for book club. I meant to…

Shadow Scale by Rachel Hartman

American Literature March 10, 2015 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: When Seraphina, the half-dragon musician, discovers that there are others like her, she tries to unify them to live in freedom from persecution, but another half-dragon with greater powers has plans of her own. Review: First of all, I want to applaud Shadow Scale for its deft handling of exposition in refreshing readers’ memories of the events of the first book, Seraphina. It managed to get me back up to speed without forcing characters to tell each other things they already know, or spending…

The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander

American Literature March 8, 2015 Superfast Reader 2 Comments

One of my favorite books growing up is now one of my 7 year old’s obsessions. We just finished reading The Book of Three out loud, and have already begun book two, The Black Cauldron. Reading the books aloud has me appreciating Lloyd Alexander’s gift for dialogue. The characters are so much fun to voice, especially Gurgi and Eilonwy. His prose is simple and elegant and never descends into trite clichÃ© or tired imagery. I’m teaching the book with our 4th/5th graders in our homeschool…

The Disappeared by Roger Scruton

British Literature March 5, 2015 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: In a community in Yorkshire, a disparate group of individuals are brought together when two women go missing and a third seems to be under threat from Arab sex traffickers. Review: I had a really mixed reaction to The Disappeared. On the one hand, I found a certain satisfying level of suspense and intricacy in the plotting. But on the other hand, I couldn’t forgive the numerous plot contrivances that made the overall story implausible and a bit frustrating. Knowing that Scruton is a…

The Forever Bridge by T. Greenwood

American Literature February 24, 2015 Superfast Reader

Synopsis: A midwife derailed by grief struggles to repair her relationship with her troubled daughter, and a pregnant homeless girl seeks shelter as Hurricane Irene relentlessly approaches. Review: T. Greenwood is one of my all-time favorite authors, and her books are notoriously hard to synopsize and review. The Forever Bridge is perhaps her most conventionally plotted book, with a strong sense of narrative suspense, but it’s still a novel that takes its time in the nuances of character and relationships. There are so many moments…

Two Books That Were Not Gone Girl

American Literature, British Literature February 22, 2015 Superfast Reader

America’s Test Kitchen Radio has this great feature where they test kitchen gadgets and tell you one that’s hot and one that’s not. So I’ve got two Gone Girl knockoffs, one that’s hot and one that I read anyway. You: A Novel has an irresistible premise, in which a stalker narrates his growing obsession with a troubled young woman. He addresses her using the 2nd person, but within the context of a first person narrative. Author Caroline Kepnes had to use a teeny bit of…

In the Kingdom of Ice, The Princess and Curdie, Luckiest Girl Alive

American Literature, Scottish Literature February 15, 2015 Superfast Reader

I don’t tend to read a lot of non-fiction, but I’ve always been a sucker for stories about people trying not to freeze to death. In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Journey of the USS Jeannette was not only a suspenseful, exciting story, but it was exceptionally researched and suffused with narrative excellence. In 1879, the USS Jeannette headed off to the North Pole, captained by the capable and ambitious George Washington De Long. Their goal was to reach the North Pole…

Katy Bowman, A Literary Polar Vortex

American Literature, British Literature February 8, 2015 Superfast Reader

This week, I finished a review copy of The Disappeared by Roger Scruton, and a full review will run on the publication date (March 5, 2015). I had a passing awareness of Scruton from another lifetime ago, when I was Managing Editor of the now-defunct webzine New Pantagruel (.com). More to come. Katy Bowman‘s Move Your DNA is more of a reference book than anything else, but the first half tackles the science of biomechanics in a comprehensive and surprisingly readable way. The second section…

Seraphina Sequel (Awesome!), The Princess and the Goblin

American Literature, Scottish Literature February 1, 2015 Superfast Reader

I basically spent all my reading time this week finishing up Shadow Scale, the sequel to Seraphina. I’ll have a full review on the release date in March, but I will spoil you for it by saying that it lived up to the full promise of the original–and then some! In read aloud land, we finished up The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, the Scottish writer whom CS Lewis admired so such. I was deeply moved by the story, which is fey in…

Seraphina Sequel! Station Eleven, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Praying Life

American Literature January 26, 2015 Superfast Reader

I just got my e-hands on an e-ARC for Shadow Scale, the sequel to Seraphina, and it’s not disappointing. Full review will be posted on the release date. I joined a book club but missed the first meeting because production widow. I was so bummed, because Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven was a great one for a discussion. I have long been fascinated by depictions of our world with the lights off, but usually they leave me with the megrims and a sense of…

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