I’m a day late with this post, but I have always been a procrastinator. As many of my friends know, I am a huge fan of LibraryThing.com, and as part of the Book Blog Roundup there, let me tell you a little about myself and this blog. First, me: I’m 42, so I should know the answer to Life, The… Read more
In the introduction to this book, Christopher Golden says of the author: Joe Hill is one stealthy bastard. Indeed he is. This is a nice assortment of stories – some obviously horror, some strange and disturbing, some rather sweet. The title piece read more like a love story than a ghost story. “Best New Horror” makes me think a bit… Read more
The World Without Us, by Alan WeismanThe Painter of Battles, by Arturo Perez-RevertePopulation: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time, by Michael PerryThe Terror, by Dan SimmonsThe Monkey’s Raincoat, by Robert Crais Read more
I read this book on a flight between Cleveland and Minneapolis, where I frequently travel on business. I had finished my previous book while waiting to board and opened this one while waiting to taxi – since the first scene takes place on an airplane, it seemed a good omen. Ruth Reichl spent 6 years as the restaurant critic for… Read more
A woman is found wandering along the side of the road, dazed and confused, after a hit and run accident. She tells the police officer at the scene that she is one of the “Bethany girls”, two sisters who disappeared from a shopping mall almost 30 years earlier. But that is virtually all she’ll tell them – she used to… Read more
Let me start off by saying this: I strongly, strongly recommend getting this as an audiobook. Unless you can read it with a variety of strong Irish accents in your head, pronounce the Celtic placenames and sing in Gaelic, you are really missing out. Gerry O’Brien does a fabulous job and his work really adds to the story. This is… Read more
I’ll admit that the deciding factor in buying this book was the photo of the author, Myla Goldberg, on the back cover. I took one look at her big glasses, chunky shoes and Pippi Longstocking tights and thought, “oh, I definitely want to read what she has to say!” And I was not disappointed. Eliza has never been the standout… Read more
Victorine, a young married woman with two children, leaves an unhappy marriage and escapes to Indochina with her childhood sweetheart. They build a life there in the hot, humid weather, exotic flowers and swirls of opium smoke. Then, after 10 years, she goes back to France, back to her husband. She starts out planning to finally end things with him… Read more
I feel like I’m breaking up with this book: Really, it’s not you. It’s me. This is probably a very nice book. There’s nothing wrong with the writing, and there were occasional turns of phrase and flashes of wit that I enjoyed. Randolph the Labrador Retriever was generally charming. (Although really – Proust? Come on. Why would such a nice… Read more