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
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009
The Mystery of Grace, by Charles de Lint
Charles de Lint is one of my favorite authors; he’s a resident of Ottawa in Canada, and has set several of his early works there. More recently, his works are set in a town called Newford, which isn’t explicitly anywhere. Mr. de Lint is an amateur musician and is very passionate about his music; each [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,fantasy 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 [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,fantasy,historical fiction,horror by Stephanie
Friday, March 13th, 2009
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
Sherman Alexie is of Spokane/Coeur d’Alene heritage; he was born on the Spokane reservation in Washington and had hydrocephalus when he was a kid. He attended the local white high school and played basketball before going to Gonzaga and Washington State University. A B.A. in American Studies later, he started writing poetry, and then novels, [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,contemporary by Stephanie
Monday, March 9th, 2009
Crystal Rain, by Tobias Buckell
Tobias Buckell was born on Grenada; he is of mixed racial heritage. He moved to the U.S. right before he started college, and attended Bluffton College, located in middle-of-nowhere, Ohio. (I can say that because my father was born there.) He still lives in Bluffton, Ohio, and complains about its land-lockedness. (I’m pretty sure he [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,science fiction by Stephanie
Sunday, December 7th, 2008
One Hundred Years of Solitude, by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Gabriel Garcia Marquez won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1982. He is considered one of the pioneers of the ‘magic realism’ movement, a subset of postmodernism that concerns itself chiefly with telling things that are true, even if they aren’t necessarily ‘real.’ He writes epic stories; this novel spans at least a hundred years, [...]
No Comments » - Posted in alternate history,book reviews,contemporary,fantasy by Stephanie
Friday, August 22nd, 2008
Cobwebs, by Karen Romano Young
So there’s this GIANT BOOK SALE going on just up the street from where I live, and if one managed to rack up $25 worth of books, one got 20% off. This book was the book that put us over the top. I’d never heard of the author, and the book description didn’t quite grab [...]
1 Comment » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Thursday, July 17th, 2008
Beast, by Donna Jo Napoli
This is another entry in Donna Jo Napoli’s collection of retold fairy tales; I reviewed another (actually a Greek myth) here. Ms. Napoli (most like Dr. Napoli) is a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College. She has written a good deal of novels for children and young adults; none for adults, but that’s certainly not [...]
No Comments » - Posted in book reviews,children's lit,fantasy by Stephanie
Monday, May 26th, 2008
Black and White, by Lewis Shiner
Subterranean Press, purveyors of such novels as this one, this one, and this one, made an announcement last week that Lewis Shiner’s new novel, Black and White, was to start shipping last weekend, so I thought a Monday review would be good timing. The Subterranean Press edition is the only edition of this book, as [...]