Book Reviews, Young Adult

Slam ~Nick Hornby

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Slam ~Nick Hornby

–published 2007
–G.P. Putnam’s Sons
–309 pages

I ‘met’ Nick Hornby last year, and spent a considerably short amount of time delving into the his thoughts about books that he read (The Pollysyllabic Spree, Housekeeping vs. the Dirt and Shakespeare Wrote For Money…click each title for review), and I read about half of his thoughts on soccer (Fever Pitch) but had not tried his fiction. My friend Jeff listened to this on audio awhile back and told me how entertaining, and horrifying, it was and when I ran across it in the library the other day I decided it was high time I gave it a try.

Jeff was dead on. It is entertaining. Highly entertaining. And if you are a parent, or plan to be a parent, it is horrifying. Very horrifying.

Continue reading Slam ~Nick Hornby →

Book Reviews, Fantasy, Short Stories

The Ivory and the Horn ~Charles de Lint

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The Ivory and the Horn ~Charles de Lint

–published 1995
–Tor Books
–318 pages
–4.5/5 stars

If there is one thing that Charles de Lint does well (and trust me, there is more than one), it is to write short stories that work well in and of themselves yet carry the additional weight of being masterfully woven into the tapestry of a shared universe. In the sense of Charles de Lint’s work, this universe is the fictional North American city of Newford.

This collection of short stories, with a cover image by the incredible Terri Windling (which fits the spirit of de Lint’s stories so very well), is another gem, and has added to my esteem for his writing ability and this world that he has created.

This review is a bit of a departure from my normal structure in that I read this as a joint-read with Kailana and we are co-reviewing it. We decided to do this by asking each other a set of questions about the book. What follows are my answers to Kailana’s questions. Click here to go to her site to read her thoughts on the questions I posed to her.

Continue reading The Ivory and the Horn ~Charles de Lint →

Book Reviews, Fantasy, Poetry

A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects ~Catherynne M. Valente

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A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects ~Catherynne M. Valente

–published 2008
–Norilana Books
–163 pages

The cover of this book, an art piece done by Connie Toebe, has intrigued me since I first laid eyes on it on the Endicott Studio website. April being National Poetry Month, and the first month of this year’s Once Upon a Time Challenge, it seemed like the ideal time to explore the treasures that this wonderful image promised.

I certainly do not pretend to be anything other than a mere dabbler in the genre of poetry, and despite my fascination for old folklore and fairy tales I am no where near being familiar with much of what exists in that realm. Given those facts I have to admit that I found Valente’s book to be quite the challenge, albeit in the very best sense.

Continue reading A Guide to Folktales in Fragile Dialects ~Catherynne M. Valente →

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Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader ~Anne Fadiman

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(Divine Diptych collaboration between Elle Moss and Marico Fayre)

It has been almost a year to the day since I first discovered the work of Anne Fadiman via this slim volume of book-related essays, a recommendation in one of Nick Hornby’s excellent Believer Magazine essay collections. Given my predilection for cyclical reading, it perhaps shouldn’t be surprising that, without consciously doing so, I found myself desiring to read this again during this time of year.

Having closed the page on the same library-borrowed copy of the book, I found myself thinking a great deal about why I am so drawn to Fadiman’s thoughts on the pleasures of being a book lover. It certainly is not because we agree on everything, because we do not, nor is it because of a shared intelligence, because I humbly consider Anne Fadiman in an entirely different intellectual stratosphere than the one that I occupy. I believe it is because Anne Fadiman makes me want to be a better reader. Not in the sense of reading better books, but in the sense of encouraging me to be more cognizant of all the many pleasures of being a bibliophile and to savor those pleasures.

Reading her essays also makes me long for many more bookshelves in my modest home.

Continue reading Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader ~Anne Fadiman →

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Once Upon a Blog Post

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(Once Upon a Time, image by Anne-Julie Aubry)

Hello All! As sad as it is to admit it, it has been a week since my last post!

And I’ve missed you!

It has been a week of spring yard work, collecting a wicked case of poison ivy (the gift that keeps on giving), and being really busy at work—-a good kind of busy though, nothing to complain about.

Other than my romance with a bottle of Caladryl, I have been eyeball deep into Seth Godin’s new book, Linchpin, and more than any other book EVER I can barely resist underlining and writing all over it! I’ve resisted thus far, but there is a lot of book yet to read! Who is Seth Godin? Among other things, I will be posting about that soon as I have read two of his smaller books that I can’t wait to tell you about.

And, the next time you see the above image, it will be attached to a giveaway of some of Anne-Julie Aubry’s newest creations, all very fitting for the Once Upon a Time Challenge.

I wish everyone the very best of weekends and will bombard you with posts very soon! April is just about over, get some poetry in before it is too late! 🙂

Eclectic Musings of a Renaissance Geek