Book review of Exit by Belinda Bauer My first completed book for Book Challenge by Erin 14! Exit is about a man who belongs to a dedicated group of people called Exiteers. (No, I’d never heard that term before.) Felix aka John lives alone, is seventy-two, and watches people die. An Exiteer is a volunteer who witnesses euthanasia and then clears the scene of all evidence—the most damning item being a canister of nitrous oxide. Who knew nitrous oxide could…
It’s time to announce my selections for Book Challenge by Erin 14.0! Book Challenge by Erin 14.0 is a reading challenge [you guessed that, right?] that runs from January through April. For more information and to join in the fun, check out Erin’s Facebook page. Here are the book categories and my selections: Freebie, read any book of your choice Book Woman of Troublesome Creek I’d never heard of the blue people of Appalachia. Sounds like a fascinating read. Plus,…
Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in running brooks, Sermons in stones and good in everything ~William Shakespeare I’m sitting here on election eve feeling jittery. I mean, jittery. Staying up all night…
Book review: What You Wish For by Katherine Center What You Wish For features feisty Sam Casey, librarian of a hand-crafted, progressive school and all-around awesome human. She lives on an idyllic island in a carriage house on the grounds of a historic mansion within walking distance of the school. Don’t you love books about beautiful libraries and cool librarians? I know I do. Sam has “adopted” the principal and his artist wife as her parents, which causes no end…
Ghosts of Harvard by Francesca Serritella When Cady hears disembodied voices, she fears she is suffering from the same paranoid schizophrenia that drove her brother, a Harvard student, to take his life. Who can blame her? Fear is a character in this novel. Fear of the unknown, fear of things that go bump in the night, fear that, in fact, the things you think go bump in the night are only going bump in your mind. Fear of fear. It…
You know this scene. You’re driving down the highway, and you pass a broken-down car, the unfortunate occupant staring at all the cars (like yours) passing by. When I drive by a broken-down car on the road, I always feel bad…like I wish I could suddenly acquire the knowledge to repair a shredded drive belt or could effortlessly change a flat time. Or find the source of a transmission fluid leak. But I can’t do any of those things. And…
Please See Us by Caitlin Mullen is a women-in-peril murder mystery written in a haunting, lyrical style. The book opens with a prologue in the voices of the dead silently calling Please See Us. But no one does. The dead are forgotten women, murdered by a sadist and abandoned in a Jersey City marsh between a dilapidated motel and bridge. Jersey City is a character…in fact, a metaphor for the deterioration of place and soul. Forces of fate and poverty…
‘Tis the season for ghosties and goblins and things that go bump in the night. Or, as in the case of Salem’s Lot by Stephen King, things that go bite in the night. If you’ve spent any time reading this blog, you know my heart belongs to the ghost set. However, I always participate in the Supernatural Fiction Readers Group read over at Goodreads (join us!), and this year the members voted for Salem’s Lot, a novel about a small…
So, it’s been a looooong time since I last posted. Sorry, Guys! (That is if you were waiting with baited breath.) How do you bait breath, anyhow? I’m guessing not with worms. I have been writing (working on my novel), just not posting. I’m also halfway finished with a book review of The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. It’s such a heavy book that I’ve felt a bit intimidated writing about it. So watch for that review in the…
Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend was, for me, a moving experience. On the surface, it’s a simple story–Budo, Max’s imaginary friend, details their life together. Budo advises Max on the ways of the elementary school world. Max is a smart child who resides somewhere on the autism spectrum and often cannot express himself or understand the motivations of others. That’s when he turns to Budo for help. I thought Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend would be a simple, albeit poignant,…
As some of you know, I have been working on a novel with a service dog for, like, forever. So when the publisher of Hero Dogs contacted me with an advanced reading copy of Hero Dogs, I was excited. After participating in the Oklahoma City bombing rescue effort, Wilma Melville was so moved that she devoted her life to developing a crack-shot team of search and rescue dogs. Her life’s work is the subject of the book Hero Dogs. Before…
So, 2019 has dawned, and that means it’s time for another Book Challenge by Erin! For any of you unfamiliar with Book Challenge by Erin, it’s a reading challenge in which you select books based on categories that change each round, twice a year. You can then go to the Facebook group and chat about what you’re reading. You can find out more and sign up here: https://bit.ly/2GZmDDn. (I can’t hyperlink at the moment; WordPress revamped its format, and now…
It was with pleasure that I read this insightful review of Sing, Unburied, Sing from Trish Reviews by the Book. Trish discusses Ward’s use of ghost to give a voice to the voiceless slaves of the South whose lives were brutally stolen from them. Trish also discusses the metaphor of journey in the novel. I recommend that you read her insightful blog post. In Jesmyn Ward’s novel, the unburied who yearn to be heard are the ghosts of the slaves…