There are few authors whose books I feel comfortable reading–or recommending–sight unseen. Seanan McGuire is one of those authors. Way back in 2009, I picked up a book by an author I wasn’t familiar with and immediately fell in love with the story. October “Toby” Daye was a strong character that I enjoyed reading about,…
Author: Kristin
Game of Thrones Episode Seven: “The Dragon and the Wolf”
Welcome to our weekly recap of Game of Thrones, the show that makes you scream obscenities at your television. We’re well beyond the books and no one knows what’s going to happen, although as you might imagine, there are as many theories as there are characters in the series—and that’s not a small number. This…
Literary Lines–August 27
“Most people live their lives as if the end were always years away. They measure their days in love, laughter, accomplishments, and loss. There are moments of sunshine and storm. There are schedules, phone calls, careers, anxieties, joys, exotic trips, favorite foods, romance, shame, and hunger. A person can be defined by clothing, the smell…
First Chapter Friday: Storm Front
This week’s book is Jim Butcher’s Storm Front. First in the long-running series The Dresden Files, this book introduces Harry Dresden, the only openly practicing wizard in Chicago. A murder accomplished by magical means has Harry going up against a dark mage who has no qualms about killing anybody who gets in his way.
Just setting some things up
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The Remaining by D. J. Molles
“In a steel-and-lead encased bunker a Special Forces soldier waits on his final orders. On the surface a bacterium has turned 90% of the population into hyper-aggressive predators. Now Captain Lee Harden must leave the bunker and venture into the wasteland to rekindle a shattered America.” Okay, the situation with this book is kind of…
Waiting on Wednesday: Warcross
“For the millions who log in every day, Warcross isn’t just a game—it’s a way of life. The obsession started ten years ago and its fan base now spans the globe, some eager to escape from reality and others hoping to make a profit. Struggling to make ends meet, teenage hacker Emika Chen works as…
They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Let’s not mince words: this book is going to rip your heart out. Don’t expect last-minute reprieves for the characters you will come to love. Death comes for everyone, and the message of this book is that since you never know when it’s going to happen, you shouldn’t waste your life. In the case of this story, yes, Mateo and Rufus get an extra day to accomplish some of that living, but the endgame is still the same. Rufus wanted to travel and take photos, and Mateo wanted to be an architect. Neither will get to live their dreams, and no amount of living in the course of less than 24 hours can make up for that. One of the things that this book does extremely well is in highlighting the relationships in our lives and what they can mean to us. Each boy has people in their lives whom they love, but not in the sense of romantic love, and when they finally get to express that love, the sense of freedom is palpable. I especially liked Mateo’s deep connection with his friend Lidia, seeing how the two loved each other in a way that transcended any attempts to pigeonhole it. I have just such an opposite-sex friend myself, one who means the world to me, and seeing something similar in a story was so heartwarming. I felt connected to this book on a really personal level, because in many ways, I identified with Mateo. He was someone who holed up in his room a lot, watching movies and playing online, and he wasn’t one to get out and experience the world. I was like that myself for a long time, but I’ve been able to change that in recent years. In fact, I’m in the middle of planning a trip to Ireland; as a result Mateo’s journey towards life, and his realization that it’s okay to have a place to feel safe, is one that I can vouch for as accurate. I haven’t said as much about Rufus, but not because I didn’t like him. I just identified more with Mateo. But Rufus is a portrait of someone who is heading down a darker path and is lucky enough to be able to turn his life back around. The fact that it takes place in less than 24 hours doesn’t make it any less true. That’s another message from this book: the amount of time that something takes is less important than the fact that it happens. Mateo and Rufus find each other when each has less than a day to live. That in no way invalidates what they do for each other, and what they become for each other. The experience is what counts, in whatever form you want that experience to take. I hope that this book gets widespread attention, because with all the fears and uncertainties of life lately, a story with a message to get out and live is so incredibly vital. They Both…
Game of Thrones Episode Six: “Beyond the Wall”
Welcome to our weekly recap of Game of Thrones, the show that makes you scream obscenities at your television. We’re well beyond the books and no one knows what’s going to happen, although as you might imagine, there are as many theories as there are characters in the series—and that’s not a small number. This…
Literary Lines–August 20
“You treat hatred like a fine wine. Believing it gets better with age. Never expires. Doesn’t go bad. But that’s the thing about hatred. It can become rancid. And it will turn into poison if you keep it bottled too long. Hatred will eat through any container, and seep into the groundwater of the soul. …