‘The Book of Alchemy: A Creative Practice for an Inspired Life’ I would love to tell you that I’m a lifelong journaler and that I have reams of my thoughts ready to burn at my funeral. Alas, instead I have boxes of journals I’ve started but never could maintain the
Read More →‘King Sorrow’ This is a big book — an epic doorstopper with multiple narrators, a winding timeline, and a torrent of emotion that’s rarely uplifting. In other words, it is not for the faint-hearted. And, yet, if you’re brave enough to crack it open, you will find a mesmerizing tale
Read More →‘Algospeak: How Social Media Is Transforming the Future of Language’ Every generation gathers its own stew of slang to scandalize their parents and, eventually, grows up to be those scandalized parents. Endless concern and overblown reactions to the evolution of expression is as old as humanity. Just ask the ancient
Read More →‘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
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