I know, I know.  Most people are forced to read this book in school.  Somehow I never had to.  So I read it now.  Animal Farm by George Orwell was written (I assume) as political commentary.  And yes, I got that.  In the end, there was no distinguishable difference between pigs and humans.  What caught... Continue Reading →

The Memory Game by Nicci French took me a little while to settle into.  It's set in England, and has a very English feel, so it felt very foreign to me at first.  Once I was acclimated, however, the story took over.  The story centers around a middle-aged woman discovering the long buried body of her... Continue Reading →

I just finished The Oracle: The lost secrets and hidden message of ancient Delphi by William J Broad.  This is a nonfiction work that is less about what the oracle did and said and more about how modern times have viewed the oracle.  I don't have much interest in geology, slightly more in archaeology.  Yet... Continue Reading →

I read another Sandra Brown novel.  This time it was the first in a trilogy:  Texas! Lucky. This is one of the early novels that Brown published under her own name.  It's really a cross-over novel between her really early work (pure romance) and her newest work (suspense).  In this novel, the focus is still definitely on the... Continue Reading →

I read Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice over the weekend.  Much like Interview with the Vampire, this story is set up with the main character telling his story to another person who is recording/ writing it down.  I really don't like this set-up.  In theory, having an observer who hears the story and then relays it... Continue Reading →

SPOILER ALERT:  I'M GOING TO GIVE AWAY THE ENDING!  I finished the follow-up to The Rosary Girls:  The Skin Gods by Richard Montanari.  I read this novel because I was mad at the previous novel for inserting a totally ridiculous twist at the end of the novel.  I wanted to see if Montanari redeemed himself by... Continue Reading →

I read Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson over the weekend.  The first thing I noticed was the difference in the characters she focused on in this story.  Normally, Anderson's main characters are your average, everyday, middle-class teenagers.  In this story, she focuses on a high school in South Philly. Here, teenagers have all the usual teenage troubles.  Friendship, love,... Continue Reading →

I'm reading another Karen Rose novel,  Don't Tell.  This is one of her earlier novels, and I can tell.  The characters aren't quite as rich, the plot not quite as neat, as her recent books.  This story has me thinking about identity.  Is it something you are born with, dictated by your genes and upbringing?  Is... Continue Reading →

You know the saying: "Can't always get what you want."  That should have been the title of The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford.  Originally, Ford had titled this book "The Saddest Story," but he was told to change the title.  Personally, I think the original title was much more fitting.An excerpt: "Well, it is all... Continue Reading →

I have a hard time writing dialogue, and often feel like my characters are a little flat.  But, I'm starting to feel better about that.  I keep reading novels that have bigger issues than mine that managed to get published anyway!  I finished another book, Silence the Whispers by Cait London.  Again, the plot was... Continue Reading →