Books
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Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen
For my birthday a few months ago, my sister got me this book. Both her and I have very similar literary tastes so when she got me this book I was very excited to start reading it–I totally trust her literary judgement, since she is a librarian she knows all the good books/authors :). She had heard lots of good things about it and said she thought it was part of a series but wasn’t sure. She knew the author had written other historic works such as Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV which I saw featured on Goodreads around the same time. Karleen Koen has written four books, Dark Angles,…
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Review: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Well it’s taken me a few months but I have finally finished Great Expectations! Yes I know I started it like months ago and have been slowly trying to finish it up between the move and other books I’ve been reading. I started reading Great Expectations by Charles Dickens for the Gothic Literature Reading Challenge, I had it down to read for the Victorian Literature Reading Challenge also but I decided to use it for the Gothic one since it had a lot of classic Gothic themes which I love. I have struggled with reading Dickens over the years only because I think he is wordy and often his stories…
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Review: The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks
I think I must be the only girl on earth who hasn’t seen The Notebook. I am just not into Nicholas Sparks, and I had no interest in watching The Notebook let alone reading a Nicholas Sparks novel. However, at the behest of one of my friends, I decided to cave and read ONE Sparks novel. I picked The Wedding. Now, in general I too fancy myself a jaded cynic so Nicholas Sparks has never really had any appeal to me what-so-ever….he seems a little too over the top sappy. Romance as a genre in general has never been one that I am particularly into though I do like Para-Romance books…
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Review: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
I decided to read Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness as part of the Victorian Literature Challenge. I have read Heart of Darkness before for a Comparative/Literary Criticism class in college. I’ll be honest, I didn’t care for it much then and I didn’t care for it reading it again two years later. Though I hoped that not having to write a paper on the book and not having to deconstruct the entire concepts would help me be able to get into it more but I was sadly disappointed. Conrad’s novel is an interesting specimen in literature, it is more of a transitional book that has a foot in the Victorian era but…
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Review: The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasumussen
I won a copy of The Bird Sisters by Rebecca Rasmussen thanks to a Goodreads giveaway. I had heard lots of good things about this book on Twitter and read lots of awesome reviews on Goodreads about this book and I must say in this case the book lives up to its hype….it was GREAT :). The story follows the lives of two sisters who couldn’t be more opposite–Twiss and Milly. The sisters are spinsters who live in the same house that they grew up in and are now in their 70’s. We get a little background on them in the beginning of the story and then the story shifts and…
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Review: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
I have settled on re-reading one of my fav books of all time….The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. I decided to read Dorian Gray for the Gothic Reading Challenge, I had it on my list to read for both the Gothic Reading Challenge and the Victorian Literature Challenge but decided to use it for the Gothic Challenge since I am in a ‘dark’ mood with all the madness happening…..why not have madness in my literature too LOL. Oscar Wilde is one of my most fav authors, he literally just didn’t care who he made mad and wrote about what he loved….he is eccentric, carismatic, and philosophical in his…
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Review: Dead Reckoning (Sookie Stackhouse #11) by Charlaine Harris
This was on my ‘top most anticipated book releases of the year’ list! As most of you know by now, I am a HUGE True Blood fan and I LOVE the Southern Vampire Mystery Series (SVMS) by Charalaine Harris. Saying that I couldn’t WAIT to get my hands on this book was the understatement of the year! By lucky accident I have been sick for two days now so I have been able to be home for two days and devoured Dead Reckoning by Charlaine Harris. The last book (Dead in the Family), the last book was a huge disappointment to me. Nothing really happened and the story just wasn’t really doing…
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Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1) by Charles Finch
In between books I picked up the first book in the Charles Lenox Mysteries, A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. I read this book as part of the Historic Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry. The HF Reading Challenge required one thing….the book must by set in a historic setting so that means any genre (mystery, sci-fi, YA, fantasy….anything. I don’t really know too much about the series but the books sounded like they would be right up my alley. I saw the series listed on Goodreads and they had favorable reviews from readers. The are more or less a remake of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries and since I have read many…
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Review: Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami (Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge)
I just finished reading Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami as part of the Haruki Murakami Reading Challenge hosted by Murakamichallenge.blogspot.com. I will admit, I knew absolutely nothing about this author and I am NOT a huge fan of Asian literature except for the more popular/mainstream Asian fiction books like Memoirs of a Geisha and Snow Flower and the Secret Fan. When I saw this reading challenge I decided to join because the author sounded intriguing and from what I read, his books sounded like something that would be right up my alley. I am a huge film/literary noir, hardboiled, and avant-garde fan and from what I read about Haruki Murakami…
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Review: Emma by Jane Austen
I finally find myself at the end of another book and at my computer long enough to compose a post. I just finished Emma by Jane Austen last night as part of the Victorian Literature Reading Challenge hosted by Subtle Melodrama. As the challenge outlines, the books must have been written during the Victorian era (1837-1901) or contain Victorian era thoughts/values which Austen does….though Austen wrote more in the Georgian era/ Regency era (1811-1817) her concepts and ideals were generally Victorian so I was happy I could include some of her novels as part of the challenge. Of course I have read Emma before, once in high school and once as part of…