When I Was a Pirate by Tom Silson
You can take When I Was a Pirate with you can take this book with a shot of rum and coke and say it is a true whale of a tail. Or you can believe that the grandfather has had some far out times in his life. I mean, does the grandfather in the story tell the truth? Was he a grand old pirate in his youth? (Tattoos seem to confirm this.) Or is he just diving deep into a bit of exaggeration? I would […]
Vampire Vacation by Laura Lavoie
Okay, I admit, Vampire Vacation is a little cheesy. But it is a fun and adorable cheesy! The idea of “trying something new” has been done before, but the twist is that this time Fang (a young, sassy vampire boy) wants his parents to try something new. Which is, not to take the same old family trip to Transylvania (even though the brochure promises it never gets old, Fang disagrees). Even with the several false starts in the attempts by Fang in Laura Lavoie’s picture […]
Brains! Not Just a Zombie Snack by Stacy McAnulty
Blood! Not Just a Vampire Drink by Stacy McAnulty
Good thing I am not a zombie, as it would have made me very hungry to see the delicious brain in all its glory on the pages of Brains! Not Just a Zombie Snack by Stacy McAnulty. Our zombie friend/chef is the nicest zombie you will ever meet, but you better not even let them smell your brain as it is a very important item for our survival (such as running away from zombies and telling us to get our thumb out of a vampire’s […]
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
Gravity’s Rainbow is a truly difficult book to read, mostly because of the complex language that often clips itself off at various times, paragraphs that go on and on, and a self-referential style that is both dense and ambiguous. To say that this book is significantly easier to read is a way of saying that the language is much more fluent, recognizable, and less dense. That’s not to say that this book is in fact easy to read because while the language is more accessible, […]
Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty
Beautiful by Stacy McAnulty was published around 2016. “Back in the day” when books for girl power were still somewhat new. Therefore, reading this gem now feels a little cliched. However, it is still relevant and a kick-butt tale. This dual aspect made me think I would love to see the reverse side of the story for boys. Have him “be tough” as he gently plays with a doll. Or “proper attire” and is in top hat and tails (of course, if he/they wish to have […]
A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
You can’t call a novel a quintessential Iris Murdoch novel because her novels often take one of a number of possible forms. Of the forms: a group of adults who fall in and out of love with each other and a lot of drinking, smoking, sending of letters, and philosophizing occurs. Here we begin with Martin Lynch-Gibbon who married to Antonia, friends with Palmer Anderson (her psychiatrist), brother to Alexander, and having an affair with Georgie. He thinks things are more or less going fine […]
