Monday, October 5th, 2009
Delicious, by Sherry Thomas
Sherry Thomas is a relatively recent entrant into the world of historical romance; her first published novel, Private Arrangements, I reviewed a mere year and a half ago, here. She’s a current resident of Texas, but she moved to the US from China at the age of thirteen and apparently had a taste for historical [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews, historical fiction, romance novels by Stephanie
Friday, May 29th, 2009
The Nymphos of Rocky Flats, by Mario Acevedo
Mario Acevedo apparently, when he was four years old, told one of his aunts that he wanted a machine gun for Christmas. A stint in the army — where he also flew helicopters — apparently cured him of that, and provided him with fodder and knowledge for a series of books about a vet — [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews, fantasy, horror by Stephanie
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
Lust, Loathing, and a Little Lip Gloss (Sophie Katz, book 4), by Kyra Davis
Kyra Davis is half Jewish (Eastern European) and half African-American; she married early and repented at leisure, getting divorced within a relatively short period of time. Despite a career in the fashion industry, she found herself writing novels as a sort of therapy, given the events of her life. Unlike most people’s therapy journals, though, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews, contemporary by Stephanie
Wednesday, April 29th, 2009
This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet, book 1), by Pramoedya Ananta Toer
Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who died in 2006, was an Indonesian author and political prisoner. He protested first against the treatment of the native Indonesians by their Dutch colonizers, then the World War II occupation of Indonesia by the Japanese, and then against the authoritarian regimes that replaced them. His political beliefs — which tended towards [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in book reviews, historical fiction by Stephanie
Monday, April 20th, 2009
Virtually His, by Gennita Low
Gennita Low is unusual among authors in that not only does she have a day job — she runs her own roofing company — but it’s sort of a working-class day job, and she celebrates it. Her blog is at rooferauthor.blogspot.com, and she doesn’t pretend she’s just doing it until she can write full-time, as [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews, romance novels, science fiction, suspense/thriller by Stephanie
Wednesday, April 15th, 2009
Shaking the Tree: A Collection of New Fiction and Memoir by Black Women, edited by Meri Nana-Ama Danquah
Meri Nana-Ama Danquah was born in Ghana, and emigrated with her family at the age of six, in the mid-1970s. Her full-length memoir, Willow Weep for Me: A Black Woman’s Journey through Depression, was published in 1998 and immediately hailed as groundbreaking, being that it was the first work published by an African-American person dealing [...]
No Comments » - Posted in bio/autobio, book reviews, contemporary by Stephanie
Monday, April 6th, 2009
The uncollected stories of Aliette de Bodard
Aliette de Bodard is up for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Author, as part of the Hugo Awards; this is her second year of eligibility. She’s an author that most of us probably haven’t heard of, especially book reviewers like me, being that she writes short stories. As much as I love [...]
No Comments » - Posted in alternate history, book reviews, fantasy, science fiction by Stephanie
Friday, April 3rd, 2009
The Living Blood, by Tananarive Due
Tananarive Due (accent on the second syllable) is married to Steven Barnes, also a novelist. Formerly a columnist for the Miami Herald, she used to live in Miami, and now lives in Glendora, CA. She received a B.S. in journalism from Northwestern (a very fine journalism school) and an M.A. in Literature, specializing in Nigerian [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in book reviews, fantasy, horror, suspense/thriller by Stephanie
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009
Kira-Kira, by Cynthia Kadohata
Cynthia Kadohata was born in 1956 in Chicago, Illinois, and is of Japanese-American heritage. Her grandparents married in Japan and then emigrated here, and her mother was born in southern California. Although Ms. Kadohata was born in the North, she spent a good deal of her childhood in Southern states, during an interesting time, racially [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews, children's lit, historical fiction by Stephanie
Monday, March 16th, 2009
Returning My Sister’s Face and Other Far Eastern Tales of Whimsy and Malice, by Eugie Foster
Eugie Foster is a Chinese-American writer; she was born in the Midwest (Urbana, IL) but escaped down south (Atlanta) and refuses to return. (After this winter, I can see why.) She writes columns on how to write for YAs, a pursuit I applaud, and is one of the directors of Dragon*Con. She’s also the managing [...]