Archive for October, 2007

The Eye of the Heron

This one is growing on me a bit the more I think about the overall message of the novel. When you boil it all down, really, this novel is about the value of having high ideals and our inability to stand by them on our own strength. So, if the novel stopped there, and the [...]

October 25, 2007   Posted in: science fiction  No Comments

Beowulf

I vaguely remember trying to read a translation of Beowulf when I was a freshman in college. At the time, it didn’t seem to actually tell a story, and since there were plenty of other, more interesting things to read as an English major, and many more interesting things to do as a college student, [...]

October 24, 2007   Posted in: fiction, poetry  No Comments

Abundance: A Novel of Marie Antoinette

This is my favorite way to read a biography–a book that reads more like a novel. Granted, Naslund freely admits that this is a somewhat fictionalized account of Antoinette’s life. She did however, do extensive research and has tried to be as faithful to actual events as there is evidence for. That said, this novel [...]

October 19, 2007   Posted in: fiction, historical fiction  No Comments

Coraline

Happily, this book met my expectations. I was hoping that I’d enjoy it more than the other Neil Gaiman novel I read, American Gods. Now, I realize that most reviews of American Gods are very favorable. I just really did not like it. The concept was very intriguing, but the story meandered, failing to interest [...]

October 2, 2007   Posted in: fiction, horror  No Comments