Reviews

M.C. Higgins, the Great, by Virginia Hamilton

March 26, 2012

I didn’t know much about this Newbery Medal (and National Book Award) winner by Virginia Hamilton except that I’d never read it, so I jumped at the chance to get the ebook from Open Road via NetGalley. Here’s the blurb: Mayo Cornelius Higgins perches on top of a homemade forty-foot tower, considering two destinies. Behind [...]

Read the full post →

Sense and Sensibility vs. Persuasion

March 23, 2012

Versus is a feature in which two books face-off. Anything goes in the judging, but only one can be the winner. NOTE: As this is a discussion of books by Jane Austen, whose plots most everyone knows, there are some spoilers. I’d read Persuasion before. I liked it. But I was interested to see how [...]

Read the full post →

Shadow Tag, by Louise Erdrich

March 15, 2012

Did you know that it is officially Louise Erdrich month? Emily declared it so, and I jumped on the wagon. I had both Shadow Tag and The Plague of Doves on my shelves and, after a brief perusal of both, I started with Shadow Tag. Gil is a brilliant artist, and his wife, Irene America [...]

Read the full post →

Clair de Lune, by Jetta Carleton

March 13, 2012

Jetta Carleton is the author of a little-known but well-loved novel called The Moonflower Vine. It was, so far as anyone knew, her only book. After her death, her family looked for the manuscript she had been working on but assumed it was lost in a tornado. However, the manuscript was bequeathed to an old [...]

Read the full post →

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sacks

March 7, 2012

Okay dokey. This book is jumping the queue for reviews because I just need to have it out and done. One of my book clubs generally picks one nonfiction book to read a year, and this is it this year. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. TMWMHWFAH is essentially [...]

Read the full post →

A Wrinkle in Time; When You Reach Me; First Light

February 28, 2012

I recently was lucky enough to meet Rebecca Stead! I was so excited about this event that I engaged in extensive preparation beforehand. First, I read A Wrinkle in Time, as it’s mentioned throughout Stead’s Newbery-winning When You Reach Me. Then I reread When You Reach Me. And then I read Stead’s first book, First [...]

Read the full post →

I Am Not a Serial Killer, by Dan Wells

February 23, 2012

Dan Wells is a local author. And several of my blogging and IRL friends recommended this series. As an added bonus, every book in the series has already been published. With all of this encouragement, I delved in. John Wayne Cleaver is a sociopath. And a teenager. To keep him from indulging in his psychopathic [...]

Read the full post →

Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt

February 20, 2012

So, I finished this book the other day. And I’m still recovering from the punches in the gut. And yet, I’ve come away with the impression, nay conviction, that this was a beautiful book. Darn that Gary D. Schmidt. Oh yeah. This one won both a Newbery AND a Printz honor. Crazy. So, Turner Ernest [...]

Read the full post →

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →