You would be forgiven for thinking Starling House is just another haunted house story. There’s a falling-down mansion with a tragic backstory, an orphaned heroine, and a tormented heir, all set in a town rife with corruption and secrets. But in Alix E. Harrow’s capable hands, those familiar elements are transformed into a richly textured…
I am not a gambler. Slot machines make me tense. I refuse to fill out basketball brackets. I have bought a lottery ticket precisely once in my life. The one thing I am willing to gamble on is a book, especially if I can even the odds. Case in point: I like old houses and…
It is just so lovely when things live up to your expectations, isn’t it? Back in June, I shared my excitement for Alexis Hall’s Mortal Follies, a Regency romance with a touch of magic, during our Summer Book Buzz. But it wasn’t until last week that I finally had the chance to read this swoony,…
As superpowers go, time travel seems like the best one for a bookish person -- it would let you loop back around as needed, until every last page was read. Then again, time loops, as anyone who has ever watched Groundhog Day can tell you, are tricky things. Holly Smale's adult debut, Cassandra in Reverse…
The phrase “beach read” is a deeply subjective one. For some, it means a breezy romance set on a literal oceanside beach. For others, it’s an action-packed twisty thriller – the literary equivalent of a summer popcorn flick. For other people it’s a behemoth of a book – a biography, or a classic work –…
If you’ve been on the internet at any point since 2016, you’ve probably seen Maggie Smith’s viral poem “Good Bones.” It’s breathtakingly sad and also the tiniest bit hopeful, and any time the world seems especially disastrous, it pops up all over social media as a way to put words to unspeakably hard situations. At…
One of the small-but-significant joys of reading is figuring out the meaning behind the title. The moment when I make the connection – “oh, that’s what the author was going for” gives me the same sense of delighted satisfaction as finding the a tricky piece in a jigsaw puzzle. In the case of Rebecca Makkai’s…
First, a disclaimer: I like my job very much. I did not pick up The McMasters Guide To Homicide, Volume 1: Murder Your Employer for any reason other than my love of classic mysteries and the delightfully fussy cover. Second, if you are looking for a classic mystery…this book is not it. Think of it…
One of the hazards of working in a library is that I often put a book on hold and promptly forget about it. There are a lot of books in the world, they all sound delightful, and I have the memory of a goldfish, so it is not unusual that I come into the library…
When I think about my reading life in 2022, it feels like a blur. I really enjoyed some books, went through an alarming number of slumps, and had one glorious stretch where every title was an absolute delight. But overall, my year in books felt sparse and unsatisfying – something I’m determined to change. After…
