Angst and romance
That headline may be a little misleading. The angst isn’t necessarily in the romance, it’s more about the romance. People who claim to be expert (or at least, er, Adept) at readers’ advisory need to be well-rounded enough… Read More
Dark deeds
I am a big fan of the books of Sharon J. Bolton. A mystery-reading friend turned me on to her and (being a little obsessive in my reading methodology) I decided to start with her debut, Sacrifice, written… Read More
Reacher
Past Tense is Jack Reacher book #23, by Lee Child. I read a bunch of the books in this series in long-running binges, and then got tired of them and went away for a while. But after reading… Read More
Autism in fiction
A few years back, I read the book The Rosie Project, by Graeme Simsion. At the time, I didn’t have what you would call a significant reaction to the book; it was more along the lines of “charming,… Read More
Cross-genre delight
One thing you learn when becoming a readers’ advisor is, you can’t be a book snob. Some people pride themselves on only reading “worthy” or “classic” or “literary” fiction. Others believe that while mainstream fiction is legitimate, anything… Read More
Superheroes / Antiheroes
If Marvel movies about superheroes and evil geniuses haven’t yet palled for you, there is a young adult novel you might want to try: Brandon Sanderson’s Steelheart. It doesn’t feel like a book written for teenagers, but more like… Read More
K is for Kinsey
I have recently been making my way through the books of Sue Grafton, beginning with A is for Alibi. I had never read any of Grafton’s books because, by the time she appeared on my radar, she had… Read More
An epic saga revisited
As I was driving along the other day, I found myself behind someone whose car had a personalized license plate that read “STREEL.” This is a place-name (and something more) in a large and dramatic story I haven’t thought… Read More
Louise Penny
I was emailing with a former co-worker from the library the other day. She shares my love of a good mystery, and we were doing the usual “Have you read…” conversation, wherein I discovered that she had not… Read More
