Review: Normal People by Sally Rooney

Sally Rooney’s novels have away of finding me right when I need them most, and they always hurt my feelings.  There’s not much I can say about Normal People that other reviewers haven’t already said, so I’ll be brief. I liked Conversations With Friends quite a lot when I read it this time last year,

Book Review: Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeyemi

I often wonder if I’m in danger of becoming a fairy-tale villain. I don’t like little children. I’m greedy, I’m selfish, and I occasionally think about cursing people into small amphibians or enchanted sleeps. Like Boy, the main character in Helen Oyeyemi’s new novel, I spend an awful lot of my time looking in mirrors.

Book Review: The Winter People by Jennifer McMahon

Characters: *** (3 stars) Character Development: *** (3 stars) Plot: *** (3 stars) Writing: **** (4 stars) Overall: ***1/2 (3 1/2 stars) I read The Winter People a week ago, but was holding off on a review until I could let the story settle in my mind.  In the meantime, I actually got to meet Jennifer McMahon

Book Review: The Accursed by Joyce Carol Oates

    Characters: **** (4 stars) Character Development: **** (4 stars) Plot: *** (3 stars) Writing: **** (4 stars) Overall: *** 1/2 (3 1/2 stars)   This is the sort of big, clever, historical, dry book I really like. But, as a fairly obvious warning: it’s big, clever, historical, and dry. It won’t be the

Safety Tips For Last-Minute Holiday Shoppers: Independent Bookshops

Have you left your gift-getting merriment until the last days before Christmas? Has your usually ungenerous spirit been inspired by songs of holiday cheer and familial pressure to scramble around looking for the perfect gift? Have you decided that everyone’s getting books this year because, screw it, they can just go read quietly for an

Book Review : The Quick by Lauren Owen (coming out June, 2014)

Star Ratings: Characters: ***** (5 stars) Character Development: **** (4 stars) Plot: *** (3 stars) Writing: *** (3 stars) Overall: *** (3 stars) (Let it be hereby stated that I read an advanced reader’s edition of The Quick, which may still be waiting on final edits.) When a friend and colleague of mine at the bookshop

Book Review: Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Star Ratings Characters: ***** (5 stars) Character Development: ***** (5 stars) Plot: **** (4 stars) Writing: **** (4 stars) Overall: ****1/2 (4 1/2 stars) Age recommendation: 10+ In all his years as an apprentice historian, Tom Natsworthy has never doubted the moral supremacy of Municipal Darwinism; that is, mobilized cities and towns hunting each other

High School Books Part III: The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler

Star Ratings Characters: ***** (5 stars) Character Development: **** (4 stars) Plot: **** (4 stars) Writing: ***** (5 stars) Overall: ***** (5 stars) Age recommendation: 16+ The Basic Eight was definitely my favorite of the three high school books I read last week.  In fact, I think it might be my favorite novel set in a high

High School Books Part I: The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

I started my new job on Tuesday, at one of my favorite bookstores in the state, so Monday marked the end of my last ever summer vacation.  I’m feeling a little nostalgic for the comfort of knowing that every September school would start again and the real world would disappear for a while, and maybe

Review of The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks

Star Ratings Characters: 5 stars Character Development: 4 stars Plot: 3 stars Writing: 4 stars Overall: 4 stars Age recommendation: 16 and up It took me two nights to read The Wasp Factory, not because it was particularly long – it’s actually quite a short novel – but because it’s one extremely tense and disturbing