I have made it a goal with most of my reviews to keep from rehashing the plot of the books I read.  It’s easy enough to get a summary from a hundred different sources online – what makes THIS blog MY blog are the opinions I share, and the perspective I provide.  Having said that, [...]

Ok, well, I liked this book.  Can you just picture my knit brow and pursed lips as I write that summation, my hesitation oozing forth?  It’s just that I really wanted to LOVE this book, because the writing is beautiful and the author comes with such rich acclaim.  But I felt I was kept at [...]

Here’s a note before I begin – I’m writing this review as if you’ve read the books. Because I have come to realize that people read these books, and then search all over to find OTHER people who have read the books. It’s a fan obsession unlike anything else! So if you have NOT read [...]

By and large, I’m a fan of Maguire.  I appreciate how he has made a career out of turning well-known stories on their collective heads.  He continues that run – to an extent – with his “Toothfairies:  the True Story” fable, What-the-Dickens. The book cover gives us the story’s setting:  it’s a wild, stormy night.  [...]

This book has all the makings of a classic Coen Brothers screenplay:  “the drama of a Greek tragedy, flashes of howling humor, over the top Uber-violence, quirkiness with a capital ‘Q’ and a depressing point of view about the society in which we all live.”  (quoted from a critic’s review of a Coen Brothers’ movie)  Sam [...]

I can sum up my experience reading Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road by comparing it to reading an entire text in Edward Script ITC: Very Lovely, but Sometimes Difficult to Decipher. Chabon’s language winds and wends in so many different directions; I found it both beautiful and headache-inducing. The novel is about two unlikely [...]

Martin Grace is bound to London on a business trip when he meets Cornelia Brown, manager at a trendy coffee spot in Philadelphia.  “Come with me,” he asks her after some brief, witty repartee.  “My mother wouldn’t like it,” Cornelia coyly answers the total stranger.  End of story?  I suppose in real life it might [...]

I recently ate dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant in San Francisco.  Highly recommended by local residents, the place had a simple charm that was at the same time both inviting and slightly foreign. I ordered the roasted chicken with potatoes, and marveled at how delicious the food was. There was no fancy sauce over [...]

The back jacket of this book features kudos from the author of Leven Thumps and the Gateway to Foo, a young adult fantasy novel in the same genre as Fablehaven. I have read, but have not posted reviews of, The Gateway to Foo, or its sequel, Leven Thumps and the Whispered Secret, because it seemed [...]

It’s hard to believe that I’ve lived a complete life without reading a book by Mitch Albom. I’ve managed to value my loved ones, contemplate the nature of life and death, and cry at sappy Hallmark moments, all without ever reading the likes of Tuesdays with Morrie or The Five People You Meet in Heaven. [...]