A Tale of Two Castles by Gail Carson Levine Harper Collins, 2011 The past year has seen a resurgence in cozy fantasy. In this subgenre the characters are genial, the stakes low. It’s slice-of-life, not slice-of-death, and centers on community and friendship. It’s been led by the runaway success of the self-published Legends & Lattes …
It’s time for another group review of Narnia fanfics! This time, the form is a buffet featuring authors on AoW who I haven’t written reviews on before. I had plenty of time to read, as I was sick with bronchitis during a heatwave (yeah, that’s fun) and couldn’t do much else. Gale and the Dragon, …
The White Album by Joan Didion Open Road Media, 2017 (Originally published by Simon & Schuster, 1979) [ #1 — 3rd Year, 23rd Letter: A book whose title begins with the letter W) ] When I first made up my reading list at the start of the year I hadn’t decided on a candidate for …
The Granta Book of India Edited by Ian Jack Granta Publications, 2004 [ #15: East meets West: A book taking place in Asia (Turkey to Japan, Siberia to Vietnam) ] The local Little Free Library has, again, provided me with a challenge book! This one, The Granta Book of India. I had a good experience …
The School of Whoredom by Pietro Aretino (Translated by Rose Maria Falvo, Alessandro Gallenzi and Rebecca Skipwith) Hesperus Press Ltd., 2003 [ #31 — No hablo: A book originally written in another language (either a translation or in the original if you’d like!)] The School for Whores, by Pietro Aretino, is not long, but boy …
Angels Losing Sleep, by Leah Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Ten years ago Livejournal had a short-lived Zepfic community, which in turn had replaced an earlier one that was short-lived; from the more recent one (active 2011-2014) I read this story. Zepfics have a rich range of real-life conflicts and tragedies to hang their …
I became aware of Led Zeppelin fanfic in the late 1990s when the web exploded with archive sites. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. I’d known of Star Trek fanfic for years, and Buffy, X-files, and Xena fanfic sites were all over the place. But Zep fanfic was a new thing, especially …
Led Zeppelin: The Biography by Bob Spitz Penguin Press, 2021 When the first Led Zeppelin biography, Hammer of the Gods, by Stephen Davis, was published in 1985, it caused a sensation. Riding on the coattails of the equally sensationalistic No One Here Gets Out Alive, the Jim Morrison autobiography published in 1980 that caused a …
1959 by Fred Kaplan John Wilwy & Sons, Inc., 2009 [ #14 — Article free in ’23: Read a book whose title doesn’t contain “a” “an” or “the.” ] 1959 by Fred Kaplan is a sociopolitical history book about various events of that year that “broke the barriers” and opened up new frontiers in …
Ties that Bind Stories of Love & Gratitude from the First Ten Years of Story Corps by Dave Isay Penguin Books, 2013 [ #27 — Bits and pieces: An anthology (poetry, short stories, whatever). ] Ties That Bind, edited by David Isay is a collection of personal anecdotes from people who participated in the …