Fairest Vol 1: Wide Awake (2012) Bill Willingham, Phil Jimenez, Andy Lanning, Matthew Sturges, Shawn McManus If you know me at all, you know that I love Fables. However, I have not loved the spin-off comics. I straight-up dislike Jack of Fables, nor did I like Cinderella (though Cinderella was not written by Bill Willingham.) […]
Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade (2007) Diana Gabaldon I am really enjoying this series, and REALLY like Lord John. Lord John’s mother is getting remarried. Hal and John choose to meet with General Sir George Stanley, so Hal can make sure he’ll be acceptable for their mother, at which time they also […]
Bubba Ho-Tep (2012) Joe R. Lansdale Amusing, and well done, but not particularly my cup of tea. Published by Gere Donovan Press
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011 (2011) edited by Mary Roach and Tim Folger I’ll admit I bought this because 1) it was on sale and 2) because it was edited by Mary Roach. I have no idea is Mary Roach is a good editor or not on her own, but I love […]
And Only to Deceive (2005) Tasha Alexander I read And Only to Deceive back in 2007 and found it a disappointment–I wanted a straight up mystery, but instead god a romance with elements of mystery. So how did I feel upon a re-read? I still very much liked the arc of Lady Emily discovering who […]
Lady of Devices (2011) Shelley Adina I really liked the idea of this story, but the execution just didn’t work for me. Claire Trevelyan is a young lady, ready to graduate from school and be presented to Society. Her mother wants her to find a husband, but Claire wants to go to University, where she […]
Lord John and the Private Matter (2003) Diana Gabaldon I read a Lord John short story by Diana Gabaldon in the anthology Down These Strange Streets, and if you know anything about my reading preference, you should be impressed when I tell you it was a zombie story, and I still wanted to search out […]
Fables: Werewolves of the Heartland (2012) Bill Willingham, Craig Hamilton, Jim Fern, Ray Snyder, Mark Farmer I love Fables. Werewolves of the Heartland is a Bigby Wolf stand-alone story. Bigby is out searching for a new home for Fables, now that New York (city and state) are no longer safe. They found records in Bluebeard’s […]
Garrett Investigates (2012) Elizabeth Bear Five short Abby Irene short stories, covering most of her career, from 1897 to 1941. The first story, “The Tricks of London” has her investigating the return of Spring-Heeled Jack. Although the story set from the point-of-view of the Detective Sergeant Sean Cuan, we get to see Abby Irene early […]
Black Thorn, White Rose: A Modern Book of Adult Fairytales (1994) edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling There were several of these collections in the 90s–and I had the first two if I remember correctly. These are fairy tales retold–some with a change in the point of view, some retold in a modern setting, […]
The Very Best of Charles de Lint (2010) Charles de Lint I love Charles de Lint. I believe I have all of his mass published story anthologies, and several of the smaller press novellas, so I’d read most of the stories in this collection. Doesn’t matter. I can read his stories time and again, and […]
Simply Sensational Cookies (2012) Nancy Baggett So, maybe I have a problem. This is the fourth cookbook–dessert cookbook (and third cookie book)–I’ve finished in a week. But I love baking. What can I say? And I’m always looking for just that perfect cookie. I have two other of Nancy Baggett’s dessert cookbooks, so when this […]
Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts (2012) Alice Medrich As I’ve noted before, I am very fond of Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies, so along with Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies I also picked up Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts. There are a lot of recipes I want to try here, though I have made only one […]
Rose’s Christmas Cookies (1998) Rose Levy Beranbaum You can tell it’s getting colder–I’m starting to obsess over baking books and looking and possible Christmas cookies. (NOTE: This is the ONLY Christmas thing I am interested in. I don’t want to hear Christmas music or see decorations until AFTER Thanksgiving.) I very much liked the pictures, […]
The Heavenly Fox (2011) Richard Parks A fox who reaches the age of fifty gains the ability to transform into a human woman. A fox who reaches the age of one hundred can transform into either a beautiful young girl or a handsome young man at will and can sense the world around them to […]
The Fierce Reads Anthology: A Tor.Com Original (2012) stories by Jennifer Bosworth, Marissa Meyer, Anna Banks, Emmy Laybourne, Leigh Bardugo This is an anthology of five YA stories by five YA authors with books out right now. Which means it’s free. The first story is Anna Banks’ “Legacy Lost.” Grom of Syrena and Nalia of […]
Brave Companions: Portraits In History (1992) David McCullough This collection of essays move forward in American history, as David McCullough writes about everyone from Harriet Beecher Stowe to Emily Roebling to the city of Washington D.C. Perhaps oddly, it is the last essay (the one that reads like a graduation speech) that I liked the […]
Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies (2010) Alice Medrich I love Alice Medrich’s Cookies and Brownies so much that the pages fell out of my original copy. So how could I resist a new–and LARGER!–cookie book? So what do we have? ~340 pages of recipes with plenty of notes and pictures and options and alternatives […]
Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron (2012) edited by Jonathan Strahan This is a lovely YA anthology, with some amazing stories by some of my favorite authors. I didn’t love all the stories, but none of them were bad. The theme is young witches coming of age, but the stories are far greater than […]
Between the Dark and the Daylight: And 27 More of the Best Crime and Mystery Stories of the Year (2009) edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg I generally love mystery anthologies, but I had a hard time with this one. First and foremost, the collection is full of unreliable narrators. I have absolutely […]
Moonlight & Mechanicals (2012) Cindy Spencer Pape I think the reason I’m enjoying the stories so much is because they’re only novellas so they’re not full price. I can justify a couple bucks for a whimsical short story/novella. That’s not to say these are bad stories, because they aren’t. I very much like the world-building, […]
The Far West (2012) Patricia C. Wrede This is the conclusion to the Frontier Magic Series, that started with Thirteenth Child. Eff is a thirteenth child, a fact which plagued her when she was younger, because her aunts and uncles and cousins believed that she was unluckly. The fact that her twin is a seventh […]