The holidays are a time when I get extremely sentimental and nostalgic. My favorite childhood memories are of Christmas and the holiday season. My favorite part is getting ready for Christmas, the decorating, the baking, the Christmas songs. We start decorating the house the day after Thanksgiving and don’t stop until the week before Christmas. [...]

The longest running television show in the history of America television is the subject of this hilarious comic book. The stories are a bit far fetched even for The Simpson’s and yet I couldn’t stop going to the next adventure in the comic. I guess I’m one of those people that doesn’t care what it’s [...]

I am always intrigued by fiction with a biographical twist. This book was from the point of view of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley. Through her eyes you saw the couple from the time they fell in love, through their divorce,  until his suicide. You saw firsthand the passionate love they shared in the beginning [...]

The Kitchen House is an intricate tale of the south. It takes us back to when servants were the property of their masters and could not speak up for themselves or their family members. Many of the intimate secrets of this family are shared with us as the book unfolds. The master, in [...]

From bluerise to whiteset Dave Duncan spins an intriguing tale of adventure across the continent of Aureity at the center of a world that blends elements of fantasy and science fiction into a unique speculative reality. As a reader I was seeking a title that would fulfill a number of requirements; a fantasy or science [...]

I read this book in one afternoon—it was that good! The title refers to the way that they teach children to spell Mississippi in the South (M, I, crooked-letter, crooked-letter, I, crooked-letter, crooked-letter, I, humpback, humpback, I). Given that information, it is not surprising that the story takes place in rural Mississippi. [...]

This book was initially reviewed by Suzanne back in September 2009. Based on her review I added this novel to my “must read” list and am very glad I did. Like Suzanne, I was initially intimated by its large size, but the first chapter got me hooked. By the time I had come to the [...]

Grand tales of high adventure as northmen go a-viking in pursuit of silver and gold across a tumultuous Europe of the Tenth Century A.D. are spun by Frans G. Bengtsson in “The Long Ships”.  He brings alive this time when the continent trembled at the approach of the men in the dragon ships and people [...]

I pulled out a wonderful book from my ’snowy day’ shelf. The Birchbark House takes place in 1847. It follows the life of a 7 year old Ojibwe girl named Omakayas, which means Little Frog. She and her family live on an Island in Lake Superior. Through their experiences you learn of the
Ojibwe culture and [...]

Come one, come all, step right up and pay your nickel to meet the freaks in Ellen Bryson’s book “The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: A Novel” wherein she brings alive the world of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum through the eyes of the title character Bartholomew ‘Barthy’ Fortuno A.K.A. The World’s Thinnest Man. The [...]