Brett Battles is just like a carnival juggler. Imagine one of those burly guys with a bare oiled chest, juggling impossible objects in front of a stunned crowd by torchlight. Imagine a chainsaw, a sabre, a fiery club, all flying in air at the same time, and Battles below keeping the whole thing spinning with […]
Since starting this blog, I have had the opportunity to read several debut books by new writers who are publishing their works exclusively for the digital market. Today I am happy to introduce James Conway, whose ebook The Vagabond King is now available. Written in poetic prose with the blues as a driving rhythmic force, […]
So, after reading Ready Player One, it turns out I’m a geek. I suspected I was, since I’ve always had a fondness for all things geeky. But although I was never really into video games (I do remember, however, obsessively playing a game called “Castle” sometime around 1988 or ’89. It was loaded on my […]
Joseph Rinaldo’s first book, A Spy at Home, was a thriller about a CIA operative who embezzles nine million dollars from his employer and the repercussions of his actions, and featured an endearing character with Down syndrome. Hazardous Choices, his second release, also has a main character with Down syndrome, but that is about the […]
Usually in this blog, I try to keep my reviews to current releases, which makes sense because I rarely “go back in time” to try to catch up with books I’ve missed. This October, however, I broke that rule and picked up Handling the Undead, a book that was released a year ago. I did […]
Let’s get this straight: Zone One is a zombie novel. There is blood, viscera, various bodily fluids streaming through the gutters, dead men walking, and heads being blown off right and left. There is terror and running away and hiding from the dead. There is a dying world without electricity, ash-covered streets, and bleak prospects […]
The wonderfully inventive Brian Selznick broke new ground in 2007 with The Invention of Hugo Cabret, a “children’s” book that combined text and illustrations in a way that had never really been done before. In fact, half the book is text and the other half full-spread illustrations, and the illustrated passages tell just as much […]
A contortionist folds herself into a tiny box. A young girl’s gown changes from white to black in front of your eyes. A magical ice garden waits to be explored within a black and white striped tent. Welcome to the Night Circus, a place where imagination is real, and reality is whatever you can imagine. […]
A Spy at Home is not the kind of book I usually choose to read. Nonetheless, as a new book review blogger it is flattering to be asked to review a book by a writer who visits your website. So I set off to read it, and discovered a new sub-genre: the international spy thriller/domestic […]
This is the first book I’ve ever read by Glen Duncan, and he’s written eight books. Where have I been? I wonder. I have a lot of catching up to do, because I loved this book. I love werewolf stories. There is something appealing about a character who is compelled to commit monstrous acts, but […]