Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix or “Why sometimes, maybe, you should tell children things instead of just staying quiet and hoping they don’t get involved” Perhaps I’m listening to these too close together but I’ve got a few bones to pick. First of all, Wizarding community, have you ever heard of a Diet Coke? A healthy percentage of the Hogwarts population are either Muggle born or have one Muggle parent. Are you telling me, everyone got together and decided they were just going […]
A Conjuring of Light – consumed at nearly light speed
On April 20th I went to see the always highly entertaining John Scalzi at my local independent bookstore. While waiting for him to autograph several books, I was perusing the shelves as the line slowly wound through the store. When I got to the Fantasy “S” section, the spine of A Conjuring of Light, third book in the Shades of Magic series, smacked me in the eyeballs. A Conjuring of Light is the sequel to A Gathering of Shadows, which I reviewed last year. When I found AGoS it was […]
Boulders, Heartstrings, and thoughts on The Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J. K. Rowling, narrated by Jim Dale
*Note: This review was completed in 2017 before the author’s views towards our trans siblings began to be widely known. My reading experience was what it was and these reviews will remain up, but it should be noted that I find her TERF values abhorrent, which have only become more clear over time, and her doubling down in Summer 2020 has made the decision to walk away from her as a creative force the only acceptable choice for me. I will no longer be supporting […]
Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know…When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
Okee dokee. I feel like this keeps happening to me. I thought this was the last book in the series, so I just kept reading from book one to book seven. I got to the end and was like “um, what?”. There are apparently at LEAST two books left. That is not really a problem, but I wouldn’t have just kept mowing through the series if I knew it wasn’t finished! Anyway, this book is called Family. Logically, I thought we’d learn more about Alice’s […]
We Slowly Drove – He Knew No Haste
The Vaginal Fantasy group over on Goodreads is doing a casual reread of their older books, and since I have no desire to read this month’s (for May) main and I’ve already read the alt I thought I’d read the re-read book instead. Grave Witch is that book and I liked it. I’m even interested enough to keep reading in the series. I mean, I have quibbles (of course) but overall it was a satisfying urban fantasy/paranormal romance read. Alex Craft is a grave witch, […]
Working 5 to 9
Once again, I’m reviewing a sequel book in a series without having covered the first book. Some of the review will be very lightly spoiler-ish. The central conceit of the series: Fred Fletcher lived a quiet, boring life as an accountant. He liked this life. Then he died. (Hot tip: nothing good can happen at your high school reunion.) Fred did what any of us would do after becoming a vampire: made his day job his night job. Only the clients look a lot different now than […]