‘Lessons in Magic and Disaster’ This may be marketed as a fantasy book, but just like real people, there is far more to this sparkling gem than meets the eye. Defying genres like a teenager defies logic, this book is a witch’s coming-of-age story wrapped in a historical mystery in
Read More →‘Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations’ Archaeology isn’t boring, but it sure can seem that way from the outside (Indiana Jones excepted, of course). Tiny brushes and trowels and patient, years-long digs to unearth the detritus of ancient
Read More →‘Eat the Ones You Love’ Creepy nostalgia with a literary flare and a killer orchid? Sounds like a good time to me. I like unexpected horror, especially the kind with a psychological undercurrent that makes the reader question their own mental habits and awareness in the same way a slasher
Read More →‘The Devils’ There is a subgenre of fantasy that I haven’t always appreciated. Grimdark novels often leave me feeling a little hollow and depressed. As such, it took me far too long to appreciate Joe Abercrombie’s incredible skill and masterful ability to make me fall in love with indifferent, morally
Read More →‘Everything Is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection’ Tuberculosis seems like one of those diseases from the Victorian era that was left in history like cholera or dysentery. Yet, it lingers large in vast portions of this world that we rarely see, and its insidious nature pervades
Read More →‘The Hymn to Dionysus’ I can never get enough mythological retellings. Ancient stories retold for a modern audience attract me like a moth to flame. I spent so much of my childhood enthralled by stories of gods, monsters and mythic adventure that getting to relive it as an adult just
Read More →‘Cleavage: Men, Women, and the Space Between Us’ Jennifer Finney Boylan has written several phenomenal books including her profoundly influential memoir, “She’s Not There,” which has won numerous awards, and deservedly so. I picked up this book with a lot of expectations and anticipation. I was pleased to find this
Read More →‘The King Arthur Baking Company Big Book of Bread: 125+ Recipes for Every Baker’ I love a challenge, so it’s not surprising that I joined with the many thousands who have tried to master bread baking over the last few years. It turns out, it’s both more complicated and blissfully
Read More →‘I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine’ Thinking of music as a balm isn’t a new concept. There have been numerous articles and quips and even songs written about the human compunction to use sound to express oneself and tap into something raw. Here, though, we have
Read More →‘That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America’ Book banning is an appalling stain on our society, and this book is a light, showing just how much damage it can do — and how to fight it. A one-time librarian of the year, working in the same school system
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