The Shape of Mercy (2008) Susan Meissner
I received The Shape of Mercy to review, and when I read the first couple chapters I had a sinking feeling–I don’t typically like books about young women finding themselves. But I knew I’d be getting a sub story about a young Puritan girl who was a victim of [...]

The Last Witchfinder (2006) James Morrow
I picked up The Last Witchfinder when I came across a four for the price of three book sale. It looked interesting, and was set in the late 1600s early 1700s, so it’s a time period I find interesting, so I picked it up.
Jennet Stearne’s father is a [...]

Bloody Jack (2002) L.A. Meyer

After Mary Faber loses her family to the plague, she becomes one of the many orphans roaming the streets of London, part of a gang that keeps her safe. And with that she’s mostly comfortable and happy until the leader of her gang is killed. After that she decides that she’s [...]

Purity of the Blood (1997) Arturo Perez-Reverte
Translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

Purity of the Blood is the second Captain Alatriste book. Inigo continues the story of Captain Alatriste, who remains in Madrid, still talking of returning to war, but still looking after Inigo, and still taking commissions to make ends meet. This time he is asked [...]

The Red Tent (1997) Anita Diamant

A co-worker who also loves to read loaned me this book. She said she enjoyed it, and thought I might as well. Of course my problem was that my “to read” list is pretty much ridiculous, so I had to force myself to put aside some of the lighter reading [...]

Master and Commander (1970) Patrick O’Brian

This book ended up taking me several months to read. I started it sometime during the winter, would read a couple of pages or chapters, then I’d pick up another book and forget about this one for awhile.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. I did.
However, it’s not an [...]

Zorro (2005) Isabel Allende
translated by Margaret Sayers Peden

As I’ve mentioned before, I love swashbuckling adventures, and as swashbuckling adventurers go, Zorro is one of my favorites.
Last summer, when “The Legend of Zorro” was out, I saw this book, but assumed it was related to the movie, and didn’t pick it up.
My mistake.
Isabel Allende tells [...]

More on books I’ve started to read, and just couldn’t get into. Typically, if I abandon a book, it’s within the first fifty or so pages.
Again, feel free to tell me if I should continue on, because the book gets better. There are several books that I’ve had a hard time getting into, but [...]

Captain Alatriste (1996) Arturo Perez-Reverte
translated by Margaret Sayers Peden
My mistake came in reading this after reading Steven Brust. Following one swashbuckling adventure with another is bound to lead to comparisons, and as there are few whose writing I love more than Steven Brust, anything else is going to come across as weak by comparison.
Which is [...]

The Queen of the South (2002) Arturo Pérez-Reverte
Translated by Andrew Hurley
If you’d like to know the power of Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s writing, pick up this book, read a few pages, then put the book down and try to forget the story.
A couple of months ago I picked up a book, thought it looked interesting, but [...]

Cryptonomicon (2000) Neal Stephenson
It’s been awhile since I’d read Cryptonomicon, although it came out more recently than I remembered. For some reason I thought it came out in 1997. Memory is funny like that.
It is a hard book to categorize. It’s part history, part fiction, part mystery, and very technical. As I read almost no [...]

The Mark of Zorro (1919) Johnston McCulley
I had a Zorro book as a kid. I have no idea where it came from–I’m sure my mom didn’t buy it for me. It may have been left at the house by the previous occupants, like the James Bond books I eventually read and loved. It was an [...]

Lion of Ireland (1981) Morgan Llywelyn

Lion of Ireland recounts the story of Brian Boru, one of the greatest kings of Ireland. He sought to unite all the small kingdoms and dispose of the petty rivalries that allowed the Norsemen to repeatedly plunder Irish cities.
This was an interesting book–I love historical novels and fantasies, and Morgan [...]