Over the past couple of weeks, I read two books in parallel. And the two books paralleled each other in surprising ways. Both were novels. Both were novels with weak storylines. Both storylines were weak because they existed mainly to hide the fact that each chapter was, in fact, a short story. This is where […]
Lately, I’ve been on a quest for a good escapist novel. I’d hoped that Outlander or Flatland might help, but they didn’t. I started a kids book about a boy who can’t swim who goes to another world and must potentially fight a dragon in the water. It was ok, and maybe I’ll go back […]
Physics and literature studies may not seem to have much in common, but an interesting aspect of both of them is how important perspective is. One of my favorite things to consider in literature is how a story might change depending on who’s narrating it, as well as how trustworthy or not a narrator might […]
Pay no attention to the 14,000 five-star reviews of this book: it’s nothing but a trashy romance novel! I made the mistake of trying to read Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon, because it came with so many strong recommendations. And 14,000 five-star reviews??? It turns out that, yes, 14,000 people can be wrong. It also turns […]
I always like a good murder mystery, and I especially love quirky characters. So Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries quickly became a Netflix favorite of mine. Imagine my joy when I discovered the TV series was based off of a series of books! Now, obviously, the disgruntled reader in me downloaded the book with some trepidation, […]
Teresa and George Littledale weren’t just two of the most accomplished adventurers of the late 1800s, Teresa was also one of the first (if not the first) European woman to ever embark on such extreme expeditions. So Through a Land of Extremes: The Littledales of Central Asia, by Elizabeth and Nicholas Clinch, should have been […]
What happens when the dystopic society created by an author doesn’t actually seem that bad? This was the question I found myself asking often as I read The Giver by Lois Lowry. The book started out brilliantly and the premise was fascinating. The main character, a 12-year-old boy, lives in a futuristic society in which […]
Having spent plenty of time in Idaho (too much time, perhaps???), I was naturally intrigued by a storyline about a man who ends up in a small Idaho town and can’t leave (I can relate too well). Sadly, I found Pines, the first book of the Wayward Pines series by Blake Crouch, to leave something […]
I haven’t read Edith Wharton before, but I’ve heard good things about her. I recently attempted her book, The House of Mirth. I’m not sure if I listened to a bad narrator, or if I just didn’t like the book, but I didn’t like the book. The book tells the story of a young woman’s […]
20 years after first being terrified beyond all reason by the movie, The Exorcist, it finally occurred to this book-lover, that, huh, maybe I should read the book. What a crazy notion. I mean, seriously, I’m someone who loves being scared, I love reading scary books, and I haven’t read The Exorcist??? Turns out that […]