I picked this up on a whim at the library, I’m always looking for things I can read with my kids. (That’s my excuse for reading a lot of YA dystopias, though we all know I read them anyway!) Apparently this is a fairly known comic strip, though this was my first exposure. The characters are a multicultural cauldron of little girls, reacting with all the coolness and sarcasm so perfected by the average preteen. Perhaps were I more familiar with the strip I would […]
A work of Dickensian depth and breadth
This nearly 800-page novel is a revelation – it is one of the more complex literary works I’ve read in a long time and proved impossible to put down. The Goldfinch tells the story of precocious 13-year-old Theo Decker, who lives alone with his mother in New York City until their unplanned visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art on the day terrorists decide to blow the museum up. Theo’s mother dies in the disaster, but Theo survives and manages to extricate himself and return […]
True-Life Fiction About Who Pulls the Strings of Terrorism
An exciting thriller of terrorism, psychosis and high-level corruption in Italy, Hewson’s City of Fear is also a barely-veiled political expose of the infamous Gladio network that was created by the CIA’s Alan Dulles in the post-WWII period with the backing of the US and several European governments. The idea of the Gladio network was initially to have a clandestine “stay-behind” network of partisans in place should a Soviet takeover of Italy and Communist encroachment on the rest of Western Europe be attempted. However, the […]
“Perfection exacts a price, but it’s the imperfect who pay it”
Goodreads summary: “A man-made plague has swept the earth, but a small group survives, along with the green-eyed Crakers – a gentle species bio-engineered to replace humans. Toby, onetime member of the Gods Gardeners and expert in mushrooms and bees, is still in love with street-smart Zeb, who has an interesting past. The Crakers’ reluctant prophet, Snowman-the-Jimmy, is hallucinating; Amanda is in shock from a Painballer attack; and Ivory Bill yearns for the provocative Swift Fox, who is flirting with Zeb. Meanwhile, giant Pigoons and […]
Beautiful Stranger: Going Home with Moon Palace
I picked up Moon Palace on a whim while perusing a sale rack outside the door at Half-Price Books. Bookstores…. one of the few places where it’s still a good idea to go home with a stranger. In this case, an excellent idea. It’s hard for me to summarize the plot because this was such a great read, and I don’t want to spoil any discoveries along the way. Moon Palace is the memoir of Marco Stanley Fogg – known as “M.S.” or simply “Fogg.” […]
The Faults in this Book
The Fault in Our Stars is the story of Hazel Grace Lancaster, a 17-year-old girl with terminal thyroid cancer, and her boyfriend, Augustus Waters. It’s a smart book without a lot of beef in the storyline. Read full review here.