5 Stars – Page 19 – Looking For a Good Book

May 22, 2018

JOE GOLEM: OCCULT DETECTIVE – graphic novel

At some point in our future, parts of Manhattan become submerged in thirty feet of ocean water. Forty years after the disaster this area, now known as The Drowning City, has a new problem … an unknown creature is rising from the dark waters and snatching children and taking them into the water. Joe Golem… Continue reading

GRAPHIC NOVEL, MYSTERY, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Mystery, Reviews, SF/Fantasy

May 17, 2018

LIFE IS LIKE A MUSICAL – Tim Federle

Tim Federle’s Life is Like a Musical appears to be targeted toward the audience for his Young Adult books, but the advice he offers up is pertinent to everyone. Although many who read this book will know Federle as the author of popular books such as Tequila Mockingbird: Cocktails with a Literary Twist and the… Continue reading

CHILDREN’S, ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION, Uncategorized, YA

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Children’s Books, Entertainment, non-fiction, Reviews, Theatre, Young Adult

May 7, 2018

CITY OF BLADES – Robert Jackson Bennett

This, my friends, is how you write an epic, original, engaging fantasy! Author Robert Jackson Bennett is a wizard, I’m sure of it. He can take a complex, unusual idea and make it simple and ordinary for the reader and likewise take a simple, seemingly ordinary idea and provide a complex world around it, and… Continue reading

SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy

April 26, 2018

THE ASYLUM OF DR. CALIGARI – James Morrow

I don’t think there is anyone writing today like James Morrow. I’ve seen him compared to Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. and to Harlan Ellison, but Ellison is too pedestrian compared to Morrow, and Vonnegut not quite risky enough. In The Asylum of Dr. Caligari, Morrow mixes art, war, and madness – which, when you think about… Continue reading

HUMOR, OTHER

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Humor, Literature, Reviews

April 20, 2018

IRVING BERLIN, THE IMMIGRANT BOY WHO MADE AMERICA SING – Nancy Churnin

This children’s picture book about one of America’s greatest songwriters – who wasn’t actually born in the United States of America – is an absolutely marvelous biographical tribute. Author Nancy Churnin somehow manages to tell the entire Irving Berlin life story in thirty-two gorgeously illustrated pages, hitting the highlights, catching the struggles and the passions… Continue reading

CHILDREN’S, MEMOIR, NON-FICTION

5 Stars, Biography, Book Reviews, Books, Children’s Books, History, non-fiction, Picture books, Reviews

April 2, 2018

THOSE WHO RUN IN THE SKY – Aviaq Johnston

Aviaq Johnston’s Those Who Run the Sky is an exciting, coming-of-age story that should be read by every fifth-grader on the North American continent. Pitu is a young Inuit boy. He is out hunting when a storm hits and he becomes lost, without his dogs or weapons, and the strange storm takes him to a… Continue reading

CHILDREN’S, MYTHOLOGY, Uncategorized, YA

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Children’s Books, Mythology/Legend, Reviews, Young Adult

March 20, 2018

KONUNDRUM – Franz Kafka

I’m not sure if there’s a term for fans of the works of Franz Kafka (Kafkaites? Kafkers?) but if there is one, I would proudly bear the label. In fact, I have an unusually large collection of books by and about Kafka, so a collection of ‘selected prose’ such as this is generally not new… Continue reading

SHORT FICTION, Uncategorized

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Literature, Reviews, Short Stories

March 19, 2018

STOLEN BEAUTY – coloring book

I love almost everything about this book. I have been fascinated (and horrified) by the crime of art theft ever since I came across an article about one of the big art gallery thefts a number of years back. Since then I’ve learned that there have been a fair number of large-scale heists, but if… Continue reading

ENTERTAINMENT, NON-FICTION

5 Stars, Art, History, non-fiction, Reviews

March 8, 2018

THE COMPANY OF WRITERS – Hilma Wolitzer

THROWBACK THURSDAY: REVIEWING A REISSUE I regret that this book sat so long in my to-be-read queue. I regret it because it’s a tremendous read. Mostly this book centers around the author’s thoughts and suggestions for anyone considering starting or joining a writer’s group. I’ve been a part of a few and most of them… Continue reading

NON-FICTION, Uncategorized

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, non-fiction, Reviews

February 28, 2018

EVERTON MILES IS STRANGER THAN ME – Philippa Dowding

If you don’t already know Philippa Dowding, you must correct that immediately. Rush out and grab everything she’s written and give it a read, and then come back to this book. Everton Miles is Stranger Than Me picks up on the story of Gwendolyn Golden from the book The Strange Gift of Gwendolyn Golden. If… Continue reading

CHILDREN’S, SF/FANTASY, Uncategorized, YA

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Children’s Books, Reviews, SF/Fantasy, Young Adult

February 23, 2018

RUNNING ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD – Jess Butterworth

Tash is a Buddhist in Tibet, which is dangerous as Tibet is occupied by the Chinese and they have forbidden worshiping as Buddhists. Tash and her family practice their faith in secret and outwardly behave in such a way that the Chinese soldiers won’t give them a second glance. But Tash is aware of the… Continue reading

CHILDREN’S, Uncategorized, YA

5 Stars, Book Reviews, Books, Children’s Books, Reviews, Young Adult

January 22, 2018

EAST OF WEST, THE APOCALYPSE: YEAR TWO – graphic novel

Just … wow. If there is such a thing as the perfect graphic novel, this would be it for me. Set in a present-day dystopian alternate United States, this ambitious epic presumes that the U.S. Civil War never really ended and there was constant contention between various factions – until a comet hit the center… Continue reading

GRAPHIC NOVEL, MYTHOLOGY, SF/FANTASY

5 Stars, Art, Book Reviews, Books, Graphic Novels, Mythology/Legend, Reviews, SF/Fantasy