Okay, so. There are these kids, and when they get upset, they light on fire. Like, literal fire. And a woefully inadequate stand-in for Mary Poppins has to figure out how to control it. Also, it’s really funny and kind of touching. That’s it. That’s the book. I was pretty sure when I started Nothing toContinue reading “Don’t Look Away from ‘Nothing to See Here’”
Tag Archives: Fiction
Character, not Plot, Drives ‘Pachinko’
This one’s been on the list for a while, but I finally got to the tragic darling that I got on the digital library hold list for, like, seven months ago. (At a certain point, I probably should have just bought it, but I’ve been busy living in a global pandemic and all.) As itContinue reading “Character, not Plot, Drives ‘Pachinko’”
‘Spin’ Flies but Doesn’t Make the Cut
YA Fantasy has given us more teenage female warrior characters since Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I am not complaining. Hunger Games deserves (much of) its hype. I tore through the Throne of Glass series like I was in the middle of a desert and it was a cool glass of water. But it’s alsoContinue reading “‘Spin’ Flies but Doesn’t Make the Cut”
Open This Lovely (Heartbreaking) Door
My list has two door-themed titles on it and also I put them on the list a while ago, so I was not sure exactly which one Laura Ruby’s Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All was. As it turned out, it didn’t matter, because what I got was as lovely as it was heartbreaking. InContinue reading “Open This Lovely (Heartbreaking) Door”
Aging and Loss With Arms Wide Open
One of the most frightening things about growing older is the uncertainty: which terrible ailment(s) will I or my loved ones suffer with in their twilight years? Will my body be ravaged by time or will I lose my mind? Both? Neither, because I’ve planned on going out with a bang a la Secondhand Lions?Continue reading “Aging and Loss With Arms Wide Open”
Let ‘Lotus’ Break Your Heart – and Mend It
Almost from the very beginning of Lotus, a novel by Lijia Zhang that focuses on a Chinese prostitute (or ji) at the turn of the century, I could see a million different ways that the titular character’s heart was going to get shattered. What I didn’t see, and what I could not have anticipated, wasContinue reading “Let ‘Lotus’ Break Your Heart – and Mend It”
Ring Reads 