Source: Libby

Watership Down by Richard Adams

Watership Down is one of those books that was required reading in high school, and thus has a bit of stigma attached to it for that reason alone. I’ve been thinking about rereading it for a time – for me, this was Freshman English in 2003, half my lifetime ago! I didn’t remember much about it other than a lot of discussions about allegory and metaphors, and Richard Adam’s supposed conversations about politics and society within the rabbit communities. All that made me chuckle, because re-reading it, it opened with a note from Adams about how Watership Down came about, and […]

Posted December 13, 2019 in Reviews // 2 Comments //

Antigoddess by Kendare Blake

I had a lot of hopes for this book, especially with the way it started out. I really liked the atmosphere at the beginning, and I remember feeling similarly about Anna Dressed in Blood at the beginning as well, but like her other novel, Antigoddess is a lot of conversation and cheesy love story, and less excellent aesthetics. The beginning, like I said, is great. We start in a desert with Athena and Hermes, searching for Demeter. We know that the gods are dying, each in their own way. It’s creative and the atmosphere is spot on. It’s slow moving, […]

Posted December 12, 2019 in Reviews // 2 Comments //

Half Bad by Sally Green

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Half Bad and Sally Green’s writing in general, but if I’m being perfectly honest, this novel was a bit of a struggle for me. The world she was building, and Nathan’s story itself – all that was fine and lovely and well built and fascinating. It’s not the story I struggle with, but the speed of the story. The format of this story is steady, but slow. It started well, in the. Idle of Nathan’s captivity, but then we go full stop and rewind to Nathan’s early childhood and work our […]

Posted December 10, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson

So, this book is fun and quirky and has a lot of diversity and fun characters. It’s even a bit memorable in its way, so I’d have to say that… generally? I liked it! There are a lot of good talking points in The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden. First of all, there is the voice it’s told in: the voice has that dry, fun wit that I relate to a lot of British science fiction writers. I really like that voice, because it catches me by surprise and makes me laugh with its subtlety and pointing out […]

Posted December 4, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

I’d be lying if I said The House of the Scorpion didn’t completely hold my attention. While the pacing in this book was a bit slow and meandering, I quickly became interested in what happened to the various characters. I immediately loved Maria for all her spirit and care and her character arc made so much sense to me – I felt like it moved flawlessly. But it wasn’t just Maria. Matt, the main character, was interesting enough within the confines of his existential crisis. The side characters were all interesting in one way or another and I really appreciated the […]

Posted November 28, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //

The Accidental Empress by Allison Pataki

I know very little of Empress Elizabeth of Austria, and one of my goals in adding The Accidental Empress to my TBR was to expand my historical fiction reading out of the Tudor Court. I am so glad I did – I have mixed luck with historical fiction because of the way it is written and I don’t often find many authors I enjoy. I’m happy to say I will be adding Allison Pataki to my list of wonderful historical fiction authors, alongside Philippa Gregory and Anita Diamant. One of the first things I do with non-fiction is cross-check facts. Historical fiction […]

Posted November 27, 2019 in Reviews // 0 Comments //