Reviews of novels, movies and writing events.
Review: Five Days Left by Julie Lawson Timmer Publisher: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 341 pages Format: Print, 136 pages Source: Purchased Last month millions of viewers tuned in as terminally ill Brittany Maynard discussed her decision to end her life. Faced with debilitating symptoms, Maynard wanted to die with dignity while she still had the ability to act. Although it was all too real, it seemed the stuff of fiction. And so it is the stuff of fiction, in one of…
The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James Publisher: New American Library, 330 pages Format: paperback Source: Purchased I don’t know if it’s a coincidence, but many of the ghost novels I’ve been reading lately are set in the 1920’s. The decades that followed the Victorian and Edwardian eras into the Interwar years were filled with mayhem and bloodshed and mustard gas and influenza. If ever there was a time for hurt and bewildered ghosts to wander, this was…
Peril on the Screen: The Awakening Thanks to a recommendation by reader Joanna over at DanseNoir, I watched the ghost movie The Awakening. The Awakening features a story within a story, so there’s a mystery aspect as well as a supernatural one. As the movie opens, Florence Cathcart (Rebecca Hall) exposes a fraudulent seance followed by the dramatic arrests of the perpetrators. Britain is reeling from the momentous losses of World War I and the flu pandemic, and grieving…
Review: The Haunted House Publisher: Dover Publications Format: Print, 136 pages Source: Purchased The Haunted House is an anthology of connected stories, three of which Charles Dickens wrote, the others penned by writers of his time. The premise is that the narrator, for reasons of health (have you noticed how prominent discussions of health are in Victorian literature?) rents a country house for three months with his sister. They fall in love with the house and decide to invite their…
Book Review: Wings of Fire by Charles Todd Publisher: St. Martin’s Format: Print, 323 pages Source: White Elephant Sale at the Oakland Museum In Wings of Fire by Charles Todd, Ian Rutledge is a damaged Scotland Yard inspector, recently returned from the horrific conditions of World War I. He’s something of a pariah in the stuffy bureaucracy, suffering from a debilitating case of “shell shock.” I must confess I did not fully grasp how horrific World War I was until…
Heartless by Gail Carriger Heartless is the first novel I’m reviewing for the 2014 R.I.P. Challenge at Stainless Steel Droppings. image courtesy of Abigail Larson I made the acquaintance of the Parasol Protectorate series with the first book, Soulless. Alexia Tarabotti, a misunderstood misfit preternatural resides in an alternate, steam punk Victorian England replete with foppish vampires and rustic werewolves. (The werewolves are, after all, from the wilds of Scotland.) Soulless is a delight. Despite the smart beginning to the series, I…
Tour Schedule Life Interrupted by Kristen Kehoe Life Interrupted by Kristen Kehoe Book description: Rachel Reynolds isn’t running from her past, but she wouldn’t mind if it stopped chasing her, either. A senior in high school getting ready to graduate, Rachel is trying to look ahead toward her future, while forgetting the one night two years ago that set events in motion which altered the course of her entire life. Part of the future she’s looking for includes falling…
Hello everyone. Today we are interviewing Kristen Kehoe, author of the new novel Life Interrupted as she embarks on her blog tour. Be sure to check out the rest of the blog tour and sign up for the giveaway at the end of the post. Greetings, Kristen. It’s a pleasure to (virtually) meet you! I enjoyed reading Life Interrupted and am looking forward to our chat. Hello, and thank you for (virtually) having me. 1. We all know a cover…
The departed have arrived in Unholy Ghosts. Summary from Goodreads: The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes…
One of my fellow readers suggested that I pick up Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn). Tamsin is a time slip novel in which the melancholy eponymous ghost takes the reader back 300 years to a foiled rebellion that cost her the love of her life. Here’s the Goodreads blurb (because…well, yes, I’m feeling lazy): Arriving in the English countryside to live with her mother and new stepfather, Jenny has no interest in her surroundings, until she…
If you’re like me, you love to make connections when you read. (But maybe you’re not like me? Perish the thought!) I picture authors and their writing swirling around in a kind of collective maelstrom, bumping and expanding and spinning off in new directions. I drive my family a little crazy sometimes with my connection obsession…I mean, who knew the movie Clueless was Jane Austen’s Emma? Except different. Yep, that would be me. As I read A Soul’s Kiss…
Once Upon a Time Challenge: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson Reincarnation. It’s been around since the Iron Age. The Celts, Norse, Greeks, Indians all entertained beliefs in life after life. I wasn’t going to read this book. In fact, I probably would not have read it except that my book group chose it. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely adore Kate Atkinson’s writing. If you’ve never read her, I wholly recommend When Will There Be Good News? as your first…
The Wanderers by Cheryl Mahoney is the first book I read for the Once Upon a Time challenge. It was fun to wander trippingly through a novel by Cheryl from Tales of the Marvelous, one of the Once Upon a Time challenge participants. The Wanderers proved the perfect beginning for this challenge, and I put The Wanderers into the fairy tale category. The story opens in a magical land and features Jasper, an opportunistic fortune hunter, who puts himself in the right place at the…