epistolary

Like an early draft of your favorite suffragettes in romance, with letters

My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway

August 23, 2017 by faintingviolet 2 Comments

This week in the Romance readers back channel one of the many tropes that drives us nuts came up: “this whole manufactured conflict of a couple hundred pages could have been solved by a SINGLE DAMN CONVERSATION.” (h/t kdm). In some ways, that describes the entirety of My Dearest Enemy by Connie Brockway. At the very core of Romance novels, there is often a single fundamental misunderstanding, and in this one it’s the placing of the two main characters as antagonists to each other by an outside, dead, force. The book is based around the relationship between Lillian Bede and […]

8/23/2017 faintingviolet's CBR9 Review No:47 |

This is how you do young adult fiction.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

October 14, 2016 by narfna 2 Comments

Dammit, I knew I should have written this review when I first finished the book, but I decided to push it off because it seemed too hard to try and sum up all my feeeeelings, but joke’s on me, now it’s even harder! Sherman Alexie has been one of my favorite writers since I was in college and one of my English comp teachers made us watch Smoke Signals, which is based off Alexie’s short story, “This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” and for which he also wrote the screenplay. I thought the film was hilarious (and sad) and […]

10/14/2016 narfna's CBR8 Review No:130 |

Terrible half-baked review of a really good book.

Sleeping Giants (Themis Files, #1) by Sylvain Neuvel

August 1, 2016 by narfna Leave a Comment

I think I’ve really done this book an injustice by waiting so long to review it. (Thanks a lot, Mansfield Park!) I remember being ridiculously entertained by it, and reading it at a pretty fast pace, even for me. But I’ve forgotten most of why I found it so entertaining in the two and a half months since finishing it. This is one of those sci-fi books just waiting to break into the mainstream, because it’s written in a way that will appeal to people who aren’t usually sci-fi fans. (Not sure it has the hook necessary to do, so, though, […]

8/1/2016 narfna's CBR8 Review No:94 |

Books, Books, and More Books

84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff

May 31, 2015 by yesknopemaybe Leave a Comment

I kept seeing this book pop up on bookish friend’s lists and recommendations. It’s very, very short so I decided to give it a go. It was a lovely little book, but I’m not sure it deserves the level of fawning and adulation I’ve heard some people give it. Still, at 97 pages, you don’t have much to lose by trying it. The book documents the decades long love affair between an American woman (Helene Hanff) and a British bookshop (Marks & Co.). The story of their friendship is told through letters. Helene is witty and brash while the bookshop […]

5/31/2015 yesknopemaybe's CBR7 Review No:18 |

I really wish she hadn’t kept addressing her letters to “Daddy”

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster

April 5, 2015 by Malin 2 Comments

3.5 stars Jerusha “Judy” Abbott is a Canadian orphan, who at 17 is still living in the orphanage, mainly because they are using her as free help. She is frequently told that she needs to keep her strong opinions and overactive imagination to herself, or nothing will come of her. She dreams of becoming a famous author and when a wealthy benefactor of the orphanage offers to send her to college on a scholarship, she is closer to achieving said dream. She doesn’t know who he is, having only seen his shadow as he left the matron’s office, but she […]

4/5/2015 Malin's CBR7 Review No:35 |

Finding your way out of the books and into the real world

Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

April 5, 2015 by Malin 1 Comment

Disclaimer! I got this from NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. Samantha Moore has spent most of her life in foster care. Having tried to hold down a job on her own, she reluctantly accepts a scholarship offered by an anonymous benefactor, to Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. The scholarship will only be available as long as she completes her degree, and writes about her progress to the foundation, care of the CEO, who hides behind the name Mr. Knightley. Samantha has always had trouble relating to people in the real world, hiding away in […]

4/5/2015 Malin's CBR7 Review No:34 |

This is what happens when you get overly ambitious about your science projects

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

November 8, 2014 by Malin 2 Comments

I refuse to spoilertag anything in this review, because people, this book is nearly 200 years old. You’ve had ample time to read this book, if anything in my review spoils it for you, on your own head be it. Captain Robert Walton writes letters to his sister Margaret, recounting his journey to the North Pole in a quest for scientific fame. He writes of the strange and charismatic man they rescue in the wilderness, a Victor Frankenstein. Through Walton’s letters, we also get Frankenstein’s tale of terrible hubris, as well as the story within the story of the creature […]

11/8/2014 Malin's CBR6 Review No:112 |

I know I’m late, but I really did like it when I finally got round to reading it

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

September 7, 2014 by Malin Leave a Comment

Because I read this book a month ago, and the plot is somewhat convoluted, I am resorting to the plot summary from Goodreads to help me explain what the book is about: Bernadette Fox is notorious. To her Microsoft-guru husband, she’s a fiercely opinionated partner; to fellow private-school mothers in Seattle, she’s a disgrace, to design mavens, she’s a revolutionary architect, and to 15-year-old Bee, she’s a best friend, and simply, Mom. Then Bernadette disappears. It began when Bee aced her report card and claimed her promised reward: a family trip to Antarctica. But Bernadette’s intensifying allergy to Seattle – […]

9/7/2014 Malin's CBR6 Review No:92 |

KimMiE" on Book Club Discussion Post: Any Sherlock RetellingHi Mark, I really liked those, too! Although I have to say they are really up my street; I'm not going to pretend they are...
Mark Goldberg on Book Club Discussion Post: Any Sherlock RetellingKimMiE, although the stand out for you was House of Silk, & I will be picking that up at some point, are the books co-written...
Mark Goldberg on Book Club Discussion Post: Any Sherlock Retelling1. I recently re-read “Shadows Over Baker Street” a short story collection that places Holmes in a Lovecraftian universe. Why did I read this. Because...
faintingviolet on Book Club Discussion Post: Any Sherlock Retelling5. I think it depends on the end goal how much an author needs to pull from the original to tell a good remix. There...
KimMiE" on The World’s Worst Writer’s RetreatNice title. 🙂

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