First, this book is almost exactly the length of a flight from Seattle to Minneapolis. Second, if you are looking for a book that tells you how Felicia Day met Wil Wheaton and Joss Whedon, this is not it. Joss wrote the intro, and he is mentioned once in the book. Wil is also referenced once, in the chapter on Gamergate, and only in that he called Felicia to tell her to disable comments on a post. That post is also only the second time her recurring role on Supernatural is mentioned. To be clear, this is not a book about any relationships. Her relationship with her brother, is barely…

Back when I wrote my review of The First Law Trilogy by Joe Abercrombie, I said this: Books don’t necessarily have to have happy endings for me to like them. If a book can make me think, if it can leave me in tears, those are good things. But I’ll be honest, I do like my stories with a little bit of hope at the end. I read for enjoyment. I don’t read horror for a reason- I don’t enjoy it. If you are not going to give me a happy ending, or at least a moment of hope (Children of Men is one of my favorite movies ever, though…

The Martian is soon to be a major motion picture starring Matt Damon. I know this not only because the cover the book tells me so, but because I saw commercials for the movie this weekend during football. Not that this matters much to me, I will not see the movie until it is available on HBO or Netflix or something similar, because we pretty much never see movies in the theater. However, this is not a movie review (which would be really hard as the movie is not out yet) but a book review. And the book is out. And the book is good. And I would totally recommend…

I thought the hardest part about writing a review of a book that has been famous as long as The Handmaid’s Tale has been would be the fact that most people who want to read this book already have, or at least, already know they want to read it. That, and anything there really is to be said about the book has already been said, and probably by more talented critics than myself. But that is not true. The hardest part about writing a review of The Handmaid’s Tale, a book first published in 1986, is how relevant it still is, almost 30 years later. And sadly, that comment is…

When I was searching for books to read, I came across this great review of Wonder by R J Palacio from my friend Jana at JanaSays. Jana and I do not always share the same taste in books, but I trust her opinion enough that if she says everyone should read a book, I should probably read it. And when it comes to Wonder, I have to say, I agree with her. Wonder is the story of August, and his first year in “regular” school, after being home schooled kindergarten through 4th grade. Oh, and Auggie, as he is known, happens to have a facial deformity. He is not disabled,…

On some levels, I am still processing Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves, despite the fact that I finished it almost a week ago, and have read another book and a half (granted much shorter books than Seveneves) since then. I think this is because I have, in essence, two different reactions. Reaction one is the simplest. Stephenson remains a wonderful story teller. And the story of the survival of humans after a disaster that should have destroyed the entire species is one fitting to the scope of his talents. (Readme, on the other hand, while a very long book, felt like too small a story, no matter how great the characters were.)…

Not long ago, I was looking for something to read. Everything I knew I wanted was not yet available from my library. I had lots of holds, but nothing to actually read. So I started combing lists of books from my friends and searching for random “what to read” posts. Somewhere in there, I came across Among Others by Jo Walton. Among Others won the 2011 Nebula and the 2012 Hugo awards for best novel, so I almost certainly came across it in a best of SciFi/Fantasy list. And I can see how you could make an argument that Among Others is an urban fantasy. There are fantastical elements to…

(Originally posted on February 28, 2013) The Immortals is the second series by Tamora Pierce that I have completed. Just as with the Song of the Lioness books, these books are targeted at tweens and young teens. The protagonist, Daine, is an inspiring young woman who we get to watch from 12 to 16 years of age. She is intelligent, capable, kind, brave and loyal- pretty much everything we want girls of this age to aspire to be. It doesn’t mean she does not make mistakes or have her flaws. It means she learns from them. This series is particularly good for kids who love animals.