Review of “To Be Sung Underwater” by Tom McNeal

This thoughtful and poignant novel sneaks quietly into your affections until, at the end, you feel awed by the artistic merit of the author, and by his portrayal of endless love and longing coupled with boundless betrayal and grief. I was just knocked out by this book, although it was one in which I didn’t [...]

Review of Skinny by Diana Spechler

This fictional account of twenty-six-year-old Gray Lachmann’s summer as a counselor at a “fat camp” provides a harrowing look at the torments of weight issues. Gray, while only fifteen pounds overweight, herself has an eating disorder, having struggled most of her life with obsessive eating, obsessive dieting, and/or obsessive exercising. She thinks a lot about [...]

Review of “Dead Reckoning” by Charlaine Harris

O Hamlet, what a falling-off was there” Hamlet Prince of Denmark (Ghost at I, v) This book is not Charlaine Harris at her best. It was not only inferior to other books in the Sookie Stackhouse series, but I would go so far as to say that none of the characters “behaved” like they have [...]

Diversify Your Reading Challenge

Zetta Elliott, one of my favorite authors and bloggers, cites an article on her blog noting that: …studies have consistently found that minority-race characters are underrepresented in fiction for children and young adults, and that existing portrayals of minority characters are often riddled with stereotypes or otherwise negative images.” The source for this quote is [...]

Does This Review Make Me Look Blurby? Review of “Fallen” by Karin Slaughter

I feel so trite, so blurby, but I just have to say: I think this is her best one yet! Could be the successor to Stieg Larsson! Don’t you hate when you’re following a series and the author and the characters sort of wind down after a while? Not here: Slaughter cranks them up, and [...]

Review of “Bumped” by Megan McCafferty

If you are one of those who is turned off by slang in YA dystopias, avoid this one like the plague! Slang can supplement (and presumably enhance an understanding of) world-building, as it does with the Uglies Series by Scott Westerfeld and the Maze Runner Trilogy by James Dashner. But sometimes, as in this book, [...]

Review of “Blood Red Road” by Moira Young

This is the first volume of a new post-apocalyptic trilogy called Dustlands that takes elements of Hunger Games, Knife of Never Letting Go, The Scorch Trials, a little bit of Dune, and others, and felicitously combines them in a riveting book I raced right through. Well, let me be honest: I loved this book! Is [...]

Review of “Every Secret Thing” by Laura Lippman

Hah! You thought you were done seeing reviews of Laura Lippman books on this blog! But Every Secret Thing is a standalone mystery that is not part of the Tess Monaghan detective series. This dark story from Lippman was inspired by a real crime in which two ten-year-old boys killed a three-year-old boy. In Every [...]

Review of “If I Stay” and “Where She Went” by Gayle Forman

Why both books in one review? Reason One: Like many sequels, Where She Went is totally spoilery for If I Stay, so it seems unwise to review them separately. What I will do is start with If I Stay, and then I will include a big warning before posting the review for Where She Went. [...]

Review of “The Redeemer” by Jo Nesbo

This is the sixth book featuring detective Harry Hole, and the fourth translated into English. In sequence, it comes in between The Devil’s Star and The Snowman, but I read those two books before this one. Nesbo is so attractive (as a writer, of course, I meant to clarify, what else could I mean?) that [...]