Doubt: A History
Sunday, February 28th, 2010The only thing such doubters really need, that believers have, is a sense that people like themselves have always been around, that they are part of a grand history.
In Doubt: A History, Jennifer Michael Hecht sets out to provide just such a historical context for religious doubters of all stripes. She seeks to trace [...]
The Robber Bride
Saturday, February 6th, 2010From the outside, Tony, Charis, and Roz appear to be old college friends who reunite for the occasional ladies’ luncheon. In reality, they’re a survivors’ support group: they are wounded veterans of the interminable War of the Sexes, tattered survivors of a thermonuclear device named Zenia. They cling to one another as veterans of any [...]
The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010Flavia de Luce is a brilliant 11-year-old with a talent for annoying her older sisters and a gift for chemistry (the latter frequently put into service of the former.) She lives a rather circumscribed life at Buckshaw, the stately house that is the ancestral home of the de Luce family. Her father is a recluse [...]
RIP Challenge Results
Sunday, November 8th, 2009Blood Price–Tanya Huff
I watched the entire run of “Blood Ties”, the television show based on Tanya Huff’s Vicki Nelson novels. (Note: I freely admit that I have abysmal standards when it comes to vampire TV shows: if it’s got fangs, I’m probably there.) I enjoyed “Blood Ties” for what it was, and liked the basic [...]
Teagarden Mysteries
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009One of the best things about vacationing at Ramona’s house is how much reading I get done. She’s always got a book or two set aside for me to read while I’m there, and we spend long stretches comfortably settled in with our cups of tea, reading our separate books together. I know some people [...]
Input, Output
Monday, December 22nd, 2008I’ve been motivated much more by knitting than by reading lately–perhaps it’s the winter nesting instinct, perhaps it’s just that I’ve been using lunch hours for knitting with a co-worker. I finished Neal Stephenson’s Anathem back in November, and found I had little to say about it once it was over. I enjoyed [...]
The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
Sunday, October 26th, 2008Last year I finally made my way through The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand. I actually wrote the majority of this post shortly after reading it, and then sat on it for months and months and months. I always feel reluctant to talk about Rand, because she is one of those figures that evokes a strong [...]
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008SPOILER ALERT: This book is impossible to discuss without revealing a few key details from the book. I don’t reveal the particulars at any point, but I do discuss things that are not fully made clear until much later in the story. If you are the type of person who likes to be surprised by [...]
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Thursday, August 14th, 2008The Road by Cormac McCarthy is by far one of the most arresting novels I have ever read. On the surface, it is a dystopian novel about a very bleak future and the dark underbelly of survival in a true post-apocalyptic environment. But at its heart, it is the story of a man trying to [...]
Moon Tiger
Saturday, August 2nd, 2008I’ve had an interesting relationship with Penelope Lively’s Moon Tiger. Some time ago, Ramona sent me a copy and asked me to read it. She was reading it herself, on the recommendation of a friend, and having a hard time getting into it. “I feel like I must be missing something, the [...]
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