In her young adult novel, Haunting Violet, Alyxandra Harvey takes us on a journey to Britain in the latter half of the nineteenth century. It is a world full of rules and rigid roles, but one where a fascination with the supernatural is common. Young Violet Willoughby’s mother is a “Spiritualist Medium”, and enlists her […]

For fans of Jane Austen, like me, the publication of Death Comes to Pemberley was cause for a little celebration. The author, P.D. James, was born in Oxford in 1920, and is an accomplished and well respected writer. In her 92-year-old hands, I felt that this sequel to the classic Pride and Prejudice would be […]

This part is a ramble/rant, but bear with me. Okay, so this may or may not be clear to you already, but just in case you missed it, or are new to my reviews, let me just lay this out for you: I am picky. When I like things, I LOVE them, and when I […]

Evelyn Waugh was a British author best known for such novels as Brideshead Revisited and A Handful of Dust. He died in 1966, so he’s not exactly new news. Also, his books are on a bunch of “100 Best Novels of Blahblahblah” type lists. But I recently read Decline and Fall, Mr. Evelyn Waugh’s first […]

When I picked up this wonderfully researched and evocative novel, my knowledge of Ethiopia was woefully limited. Within a few pages, Abraham Verghese drew me in to a world of struggle and fear, love and compassion. Largely set in a mission hospital in Addis Ababa, the book tells the story of Marion and Shiva Price […]

 

….Aaaaaand we’re back. Remember, Kill Shakespeare is a comic book series about two factions of Shakespeare characters trying to save or kill the god/wizard Will Shakespeare. In this corner, we have The Heroes (trying to save Will): Hamlet, Juliet, Othello, Falstaff, and co. In this corner, we have The Villains (trying to kill Bill and […]

If you watch NBC’s The Office, you already know Mindy Kaling. Or to be more specific, you know her on-screen counterpart: Kelly Kapur. And maybe you think that Mindy is actually Kelly, and therefore assume that Mindy is obsessed with weight loss, boys, and shopping. But you’d be wrong. Mindy is obsessed with weight loss, […]

 

I read Matched, the first in the trilogy that includes Crossed, in a sort of breathless blur. Left yearning as I was after finishing The Hunger Games, Matched seemed like its heir apparent. But Crossed actually makes me think retrospectively less of Matched, while still admitting that I’m definitely going to read the third installment […]