Dream Girl

       Despite writing with powerful and excellent voice and despite fabulous imagery, S.J. Lomas' novel, Dream Girl, just couldn't keep me hooked. Strong characters in interesting situations could not make up for how often I found myself thrown from the story by the tense switches between character. Christine looked, Gabriel sees, she ran, he runs, she dreamed, he wrote. It was too distracting, which is sad, because Lomas has a lot to offer, and the dark atmospheric qualities of Dream Girl make me want to be able to recommend it. I hope to see more from this author in the future, because seldom does a writer establish such strong voices so quickly in a story, and I'd like to read some more from S.J.'s imagination.

Fries and a Novel

So, you live in an area with a thriving library system, but just never manage to get to the library? The community we visited yesterday's Culver's is making access to books one step more simple by hosting a Little Free Library. It may not be on the drive-through, but it certainly stands to get a lot of traffic from people hungry for more than just a butter burger. Stocked with enjoyable books, their LFL was a beacon of light in a well landscaped picnic area.
Keep your eyes peeled for these little guys, you never know when you may stumble across one in the most unexpected places.

Infinityglass

In Infinityglass, the third of Myra McEntire's Hourglass novels, we have the pleasure of getting to know McEntire's world through the eyes of Dune and the as-yet-unmet  Hallie, whose particular talents threaten to turn the world of the Hourglass team inside out. I admit, it was with great trepidation that I picked up this novel. While Hourglass had nestled into my heart, the narrative choices in Timpepiece left me feeling disappointing. I like to be able to like my main characters, and it took too long to get there in Timepiece. When I started Infinityglass, I worried that would again be the case, and I felt my fears were confirmed in the first chapter, but by the second my mind was changed, and I am glad to have kept with it.
Infinityglass flaunts McEntire's meticulous world building in a quick paced story full of a delicious blend of angst and yearning. Complete with family dysfunction and deep secrets, McEntire kept me turning pages well into the wee hours of the night. I liked the way that Infinityglass examines the concepts of identity and agency. While also delving into interpersonal relationships, particularly friendships, the relationship between Hallie and her concept of self was the most powerful.
The entire Hourglass series is well worth reading if you're looking for something that will pull at your heart strings in a world that is at best, wibbly wobbly and timey wimey.


You can follow along for 140 character reviews @Biblivoracious, or find more of my reviews at Paisley and Pretties and We Do Write.

Dream Weaver

The long review in which I gush about Dream Weaver.

Dead Dreams

Look for my full review of Emma Right's Dead Dreams on We Do Write and Paisley & Pretties in November.

Wicked as They Come

For my full review of Wicked as They Come, 

click here

Hopeless, Maine: Inheritance

Click here for full review

Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter

Click here for full length review

Jane Eyre, 166th Anniversary

Endless

Check out my full length review here.

In the Shadow of Blackbirds

Click here for my full review.

Conventions

Photo by Darren Lewis

Here on earth, we don't capitalize it. Sure, Mars and Jupiter get a capital letter, but the convention is that earth doesn't. It bothers me. Earth, the spinning top of iron and water with this mostly-nitrogen but oxygen rich mist that infuses us with life, doesn't rate it's place with the proper nouns. It sets me on edge the same way that, at some point, someone decided that the plural of DVD and the myriad other acronyms somehow should include an apostrophe. When I read DVD's, all I see is something belonging to the DVD.*

Please forgive me when I insist that we live on Earth, which is covered in water, sand, earth and other things, and that here on Earth, people love their DVDs, CDs, and other data storage media. But don't forgive me for my Oxford commas, because I'm unapologetic in my support of the Oxford comma.

Let's start a list of the other writing conventions that make our teeth itch. Which irritate you most?

*Per my favorite style manual on plural abbreviations, "[t]he trend is away from using an apostrophe to pluralize an abbreviation." Hopefully that trend will hold. Diana Hacker, A Pocket Style Manual (Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2000), 70.

Songs of the Humpback Whale

For my full review, click here

The Heavens Rise

Click here for a full review of The Heavens Rise

Life, Literacy, and the Pursuit of Happiness

Literacy changes lives. It opens doors, encourages connections, shrinks the world and expands it. Literacy empowers. As parents, we beam with elation when our children grasp their first toy, when they utter their first nearly word-like string of sounds: their first step, their first real word, their first joke. Then later, when our sons and daughters recognize their first letter, their first word- when they start to recognize that those jumbled strings of sounds can be turned into strings of letters, and that someone can then leave a message for someone else to read later, for anyone else to read later, that elation grows.
In many ways, literacy is the bedrock of our culture. We teach our children through that magnificent written word, and use written words to communicate at nearly every level of daily exchange. It has grown from the height of rarity and privilege to the fulcrum of our lives. The written word defines and instructs. We even build temples to the written word, where librarian priests oversee the ritual of borrowing words and maintaining order, while instructing the next generation in the catechism- I will respect library books, I will read with my eyes, not my jelly sandwich, not my markers, not my scissors, not my shoes.
Because literacy is crucial to success and because literacy empowers, I care about books. I feel passionately about access to books. I care about libraries. I care about books that help people, children and adults, love reading.
Early education programs help promote literacy, as does taking the time to read with a child. The Little Free Library organization creates greater access. A library card can mean the difference between a world that stretches only to the television and a universe filled with limitless permutations of possibility and opportunity. A good book recommendation can make the difference between reading with joy or only as a chore.
Get out there, read with a child. Volunteer with a literacy program- there are adult literacy programs too. Donate a book, help fund or build a LFL in an area where public libraries are scarce. Recommend a good book to someone who is at that point of tension between the difficulty of the words and the value of their content. You are reading this because someone else helped provide the tools for you to learn to read. I am writing this for the same reason. It's our turn.

Shine, Shine, Shine

The Chaos of Stars

The Night Circus

The Night Circus

The Fundamentals

You can follow along while @Biblivoracious tweets 140 character book reviews. They'll be indexed here on the blog where you can also find book links, the occasional longer review or analysis, and articles relating to the reading of the printed word.

If you have a book you'd like reviewed, please email me.

If you don't love what I write, I'm sorry, please feel free to shake your fist at the sky. I don't recommend the gnashing of teeth.

Sit back, sip some tea; let's enjoy some good books and avoid some not-so-good ones.