The Master and Margarita is biting satire beautifully written. The Devil and his entourage turn Soviet Moscow upside down and inside out. Lives are ruined, lives are saved. Two women throw off their clothes and discover their power. Jesus is tried and crucified. There is a theatrical spectacular and a grand ball. Shots are fired. […]
After I finished A Storm of Swords, I felt traumatized and brutalized. I felt like I needed something gentler for my next read, so I picked up Candace Millard’s River of Doubt, Theodore Roosevelt’s Darkest Journey. Because the best palate cleanser for fictional brutality is historical brutality. Oh, it’s a different kind of brutality, less […]
This is a first book, and first books can be rough. I’m not sure yet how I feel about Darynda Jones’ Charley Davidson series. Charley is a grim reaper who lives in Albuquerque and works as a PI. She can see and talk to dead people. She is the portal to Heaven and the dead […]
The older I get, the less often I am surprised. I’ve learned to enjoy a well told story, even if I have a good idea where it’s going. There aren’t any major surprises, the guy you think is going to be a bad guy is a bad guy, the twists are pretty predictable, and the […]
I love listening to audio books on long drives (and during presidential primary season) and I tend to do a lot of long drives in the Summer. This year I finally got back to A Song of Ice and Fire. And now I remember why I took a break. Don’t get me wrong, I have […]
On the 4th of July, after the fireworks, I came across Drunk History: Washington, D.C., three stories from DC’s history, all told by drunk young men. The episode told the stories of Deep Throat – the Watergate informant, the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and when Elvis decided he wanted a DEA badge and asked Nixon […]
I read romance novels obsessively for more than 20 years. I’m not entirely sure why, but I suddenly lost interest. A few days ago I was in a grocery store and saw the new Eloisa James, and thought, “hey, I liked her. Let’s try another one.” This review is not appropriate for children or people […]
In A Conspiracy of Kings, the forth and possibly final book in the Attolia series, we return to Sophos, the missing heir of the King of Sounis. Most of the book is told from Sophos’ POV as he is relating it to another character. We learn early in the book that he has rescued […]
I loved the first two books of this series, The Thief and The Queen of Attolia. I took a break from the series in an attempt to experience the beauty of delayed gratification. Whatever! I loved The King of Attolia, too. We already know from the first two books that Eugenides, former Thief of Eddis, […]
This is a hard book for me to review. There are a lot of things I like about the book, but it desperately needed a lot more editing. There is a good original story in here, but it’s in a mess of a book. The characters have kernels of greatness, but are too often cartoonish. […]
Cannonball Read V 