Earlier this year, when I read the book Once There Was by Kiyash Moncef, I was impressed by how a first-time author managed such to create such a satisfying mix: excitement, humor, friendship and a hint of romance, beauty and danger, and a moving, emotional finale. When Kiyash Moncef graciously agreed to an interview, I … Continue reading Over at Calmgrove: My Witch Week interview with author Kiyash Moncef
I'm very pleased that I finished reading Krabat by Otfried Preußler this summer. Taking it slowly, one part per month, helped me get through and feel that I'd made a real step in German fluency. Here follows my summary of the third part in German and English, and some final thoughts in English. Nach Michals … Continue reading Krabat: The Third Year
This year for my Summer in Other Languages self-challenge, I am reading the novel Krabat by Otfreid Preußler. As I did with my reading of Die Kleine Hexe two years ago, I'm going to post a summary in German and English, plus some thoughts in English. I'll focus at first on my impressions from reading … Continue reading Krabat: The First Year
Hello! Sorry for disappearing this month. Everything is fine, just a bit hectic. I've been reading busily for Reading the Theatre, and will post mini-reviews at the end of the month. I also had a wonderful weekend trip to some artistic sites in France and Switzerland and I'll share those soon. I thought I'd come … Continue reading Beautiful Books: Neverwhere
This is a re-post of my review originally published at Shiny New Books. And if you'd like to go on to read about the next in the series, over at SNB you can read my latest review of the Folio Society edition of The Farthest Shore, which posted today. In our upside-down world of reversed … Continue reading Beautiful Books: The Tombs of Atuan
The Dark Is Rising series readalong has reached its end, with the final volume in the series, Silver on the Tree. Although the book takes place at midsummer, it seems strangely appropriate for me to finish reading it on the winter solstice, when The Dark Is Rising begins. (I can't help thinking of that as … Continue reading #TDiRS22: All shall find the light at last
I'm honored to have my review of the new Folio Society edition of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere posted as the final post for 2022 at Shiny New Books. Please check it out to learn more about this delectable new edition. Here's the opening of my review: I wouldn’t normally expect much of a book created as … Continue reading Neverwhere at Shiny New Books
In our Dark Is Rising series readalong, we've reached the Newbery-award winning The Grey King. Why did this particular book out of the five win the award? I think Greenwitch is a stronger book, although each of them has its points. Now I know that the book was probably an example of the Death by … Continue reading #TDiRS22: Death by Newbery
The second book of the Dark Is Rising readalong, hosted by AnnaBookBel, is The Dark Is Rising itself -- originally titled The Gift of Gramarye, but a publisher nixed that because of the fear that young readers would think the book was about grammar. Point taken, but in fact the chapter in which our protagonist, … Continue reading #TDiRS22: Into the darkness
For the next several months, I'm joining in a readalong of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series, hosted by Chris of Calmgrove - starting with this month's volume, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As I mentioned earlier, while the Narnia books have many weaknesses, they were incredibly formative for me as a reader and thinker, … Continue reading Through the wardrobe door: #Narniathon21
