Steeple by John Allison
Steeple is a perky journey that John Allison takes us on to find Satan and the good works they do. No, it is a journey that Allison takes us on to find a DILF (or a Priest I would like to friend on Facebook). No, it is a journey of a new Church of England minister, named Billie, who used to dabble in things as a teen, has her car blown up on her way to her new assignment, and who offers her thumb to […]
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
I didn’t know Susanna Clarke had a new novel until I spotted it on a trip to my favorite local bookstore. So many of us read and loved Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, with its elaborate plot, beautifully crafted characters, and Dickensian story-telling, I wondered how her new novel, so slim, would compare. Piranesi is as different from Jonathan Strange as it is equally wonderful. Piranesi lives in a house with many rooms, great halls, long corridors, and labyrinths. The lower level provides him with […]
The Factory Witches of Lowell by C.S. Malerich
When I first saw this title pop up on Tor’s Instagram, I clicked “want to read” on goodreads as quickly as humanly possible. Working girls forming a union? Witchcraft is involved? A real-life New England mill city? Sisters doing it for themselves? Hell yeah, sign me up! There are Mill Girls woven into the tapestry of my family history, and I am a child and life-long resident of New England. My husband was living steps from the mills of Lowell when we met, and we […]
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones
…but the journey was worth it. This book is brutal. If you are sensitive at all to suffering- be it human, animal, generational, cultural- turn away now and do not look back. Four Blackfeet men engage in a bit of last-minute less-than-legal Elk hunting the weekend before Thanksgiving. What happens that day never really leaves them, but what they left behind comes rocketing back into their lives 10 years later. The 10 years since that day have not been easy; the men are plagued by […]
Storm Front by (The Dresden Files #1)
Let me get this out of the way. For the life of me, I struggle to identify the difference between science fiction and fantasy. I think wizards/vampires lands us firmly in the fantasy camp, but I’m not certain. I feel better having confessed this. That out of the way, let me give a thanks to the CBR community. I was looking for a new audio book to sink into and went searching through posts on the CBR facebook page and found a post from someone […]
Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee
Séance Tea Party is a tale of not wanting to grow older. Of course, this theme has been done before. However, Reimena Yee’s graphic novel is a fun way to re-introduce this idea. Lora is a “late bloomer” and when she is having a séance tea party, she gets a surprise: a girl shows up. And just because she is a ghost does not stop the two of them from becoming fast friends. The trials of growing up are done in sweet, traditional graphic novel […]
