What a coincidence! I just finished reading Into Thin Air — the first-hand account, by journalist Jon Krakauer, of the harrowing and tragic 1996 climbing expeditions to summit Mount Everest that cost a dozen lives — only a week before the publication of the anniversary edition of the book, 30 years later. I inadvertently acquired…
Tag: reading
The Daughters’ War (Blacktongue, Book 0) by Christopher Buehlman — Book Review
Having just finished reading The Blacktongue Thief, I was excited to read The Daughters’ War. This prequel novel is the good kind of prequel, one that doesn’t spend all its energy backtracking the original story and telling us how everything got set up, how everyone became the characters that we knew, how they all just…
Seasons of Glass and Iron: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar – Book Review
Canadian poet and author Amal El-Mohtar is probably best known for writing two novellas: This is How You Lose the Time War and The River Has Roots and I had very opposite experiences reading them. The River Has Roots was probably my favourite thing I read last year, but I didn’t enjoy This is How…
The Blacktongue Thief (Blacktongue, Book 1) by Christopher Buehlman – Book Review
The Blacktongue Thief is a classic fantasy adventure that is equal parts fun, fresh, and familiar. Christopher Buehlman’s writing is what makes this story special. He has an impressive imagination and his world-building is masterful. He doesn’t waste efforts on making everything incomprehensibly otherworldly. Nor does he create entirely new universes with crazy rules of…
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab – Book Review
Unfortunately, this book taught me a lesson about falling for the premise of a book without knowing how it would be handled. The idea of a woman who was magically cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets was a very enticing one, mainly because I related very strongly to it personally. I’ve felt similarly…
The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, Book 1) by Katherine Arden – Book Review
This was the perfect story for the season as we approach midwinter: even the beautiful cover and title of this book promise an enchanting tale, full of magic and infused with Slavic folklore. The story of a country lord, Pyotr Vladimirovich and his family, starts out with a recounting of the legend of the Frost…
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones – Book Review
Having seen the beautiful and fun movie adaptation from Studio Ghibli, I went into reading Howl’s Moving Castle with the expectation of finding a twee, charming, quaint, light-hearted children’s story with a lot of magic and a little adventure, something in the vein of Peter Pan or Mary Poppins. The story began with a young…
Tales From The Loop, written and illustrated by Simon Stålenhag — Book Review
This is the third Simon Stålenhag book I’ve experienced this year (and I’ve actually got one more on loan from the library, so another review should be coming soon). I’ve loved them all, but sadly, I got to these books out of order. This book should have been the first one (and I already read…
The Lesser Devil (a Sun Eater story) by Christopher Ruocchio – Book Review
I had a lot of problems with the very popular galaxy-spanning epic science fiction series, Sun Eater, after reading the first book (Empire of Silence) — yes, I was condemning the whole series after only reading the first book — bad reader! However, in my heart I didn’t want to give up on it, and…
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