Category: Reviews

Movie, TV, and book reviews

Where Wizards Stay Up Late [Reading Challenge 2018]

Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner and Matthew Lyon Simon and Schuster, 1996 [Challenge # 4: A book about a historical event that took place in your lifetime.] Of all the books I’ve read so far this year, Where Wizards Stay up Late, a history of the development of the Internet, was the …

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Fangirl [Review]

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell St. Martin’s Press, 2013 I had high hopes for Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl when I bought it, but because of disappointments with other YA books, I tempered my expectations. But it turns out I didn’t need to. I enjoyed Fangirl every bit as much as I’d hoped I would, and then some. …

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Twilight [Reading Challenge 2018]

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Little, Brown, and Company, 2005 [Challenge # 29: A book by someone everyone else seems to have read but you have not.] Well, well. What to say about Stephenie Myer’s YA vampire romance Twilight that hasn’t been said before? This book was bad. Execrably, horrifyingly, stultifyingly, bad. It was so dull …

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Children of Blood and Bone [Review]

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015 Tomi Adeyemi’s West African fantasy Children of Blood and Bone is one of the most talked-about YA releases of 2018, scoring the author a seven figure movie deal. Reviews have been gushing, but is it worth all the …

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Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda [Review]

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli Balzer + Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2015  Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda was one of the happiest books I’ve read this year. Recently released as a movie, it originally came out in 2015, earning a well-deserved place on YA must-read lists for its …

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Albert Nobbs
[Reading Challenge 2018]

Writer George Moore, by Edward Manet

Albert Nobbs by George Moore Waitingstar Publishing, New York, 2011 [Challenge # 38: A book made into a major motion picture] Finished Albert Nobbs, a book that kept me guessing until the end. I’ve wanted to read it for a while, since I’ve always liked books with gender bending, or obscurely gendered, protagonists. I did …

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Antiques Swap
[Reading Challenge 2018]

Antiques Swap, by Barbara ALlen

Antiques Swap by Barbara Allen Kensington Books, New York  2016 [Challenge # 48: A mystery] I never was much of a mystery reader. I did enjoy a good Nancy Drew back in the day, but post-grade school, I’ve been pretty meh on the genre. I’m not sure why. My mother was an avid fan, particularly …

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City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas [Reading Challenge 2018]

City of Fortune: How Venice Ruled the Seas by Roger Crowley Random House Trade Paperbacks, New York 2013 [Challenge # 3: A book taking place mostly or all on the water] I was a little concerned that City of Fortune, which was a history of the city of Venice between the 11th and 16th centuries, …

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The Worm Ouroboros
[Reading Challenge 2018]

The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison Ballantine Books, New York, 1967 [Challenge # 48: A high fantasy] The Worm Ouroboros is one of the great granddaddies of fantasy, sandwiched between Lord Dunsany, who was an influence, and J.R.R. Tolkien, who received its influence. As such, it’s a kind of a bridge, but one that …

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The Dinosaur Lords [Review]

The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán Tor Fantasy, New York, 2016 I bought this book for my cousin, thinking it was grimdark fantasy by the cover, perhaps set in some He-man barbarian milieu like Robert Adams’s Horseclans novels, but with dinos as the mounts. Before I sent to her, I thought I’d read it first. …

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