tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32904821129027487362024-02-07T13:13:10.156-05:00From Austen to Zusak: Duxbury Free Library’s Book BlogA blog from the staff of the Duxbury Free Library with book reviews, reading musings, memorable quotes, and other thoughts and ideas about the books we’ve read and what we’re reading now. Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.comBlogger79125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-75778748565109709212018-02-11T14:25:00.001-05:002018-02-11T14:25:42.728-05:00Above Us Only Sky by Michele Young-Stone<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-65198231772025422802018-01-16T15:35:00.000-05:002018-01-16T15:35:38.543-05:00Looking Ahead to 2018I’m not huge on setting specific goals for myself in any respect – I’ve never been much of a New Year’s resolution maker – and especially when it comes to reading. I really enjoy planning my reading, in that I have a huge list of all the books and series I’d like to read someday. But generally I like the freedom and flexibility to choose the next book or two I read based on what I’m hankering forDuxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-79455724066567451202018-01-10T15:09:00.000-05:002018-01-10T15:09:08.302-05:002017: Reading Year in ReviewDespite major life events that took up a significant amount of time in 2017, namely buying and renovating a house, moving, and starting a master’s degree program, I was able to power through a substantial number of books last year. So I thought it would be fun to look back at the year behind us to break down just what my reading life looked like. See my previous round-up from 2016.
In 2017, I Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-55748952815023270522017-12-12T16:50:00.000-05:002017-12-12T16:50:29.220-05:00Summerlong by Peter S. Beagle Summerlong (2016) by Peter S. Beagle is an interesting book that doesn't fit squarely into any one genre. It has a little bit of mystery, a little suspense, some touches of magic and the supernatural, and lots of personality and relationship drama, both family and romantic.
All of the main characters, both 'normal' and mysterious, were very well fleshed out and interesting. I liked them Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-9007201546735083182017-11-24T15:08:00.000-05:002017-11-24T15:08:43.898-05:00The Sweet Life in Paris by David Lebovitz
The Sweet Life in Paris: Delicious Adventures in the World's Most Glorious - and Perplexing - City (2009) by David Lebovitz is an account of a chef moving from California to Paris to start a new life.
Sometimes funny, sometimes exasperating, always interesting, Lebovitz's experiences as an outsider getting to know and trying to adapt to a new culture is an engaging tale. Having Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-70819483735026906452017-07-25T10:32:00.000-04:002017-07-25T10:32:31.945-04:00The Impossible Lives of Greta WellsThe Impossible Lives of Greta Wells (2013) by Andrew Sean Greer was a lovely, quick read about how our choices can change us.
It's hard to describe what this book is about without giving away potentially too much of the story; I think it would be better to go into this book knowing as little as possible about the plot, discovering it along with the main character. Very simply, the story is a Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-36914489459655165382017-07-05T16:30:00.001-04:002017-07-05T16:30:35.368-04:00Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth by Apostolos DoxiadisLogicomix: An Epic Search for Truth (2009) by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou and artwork by Alecos Papadatos and Annie Di Donna is a biography in graphic novel form with a unique twist: the authors and artists are characters in the book themselves, and provide narration and running commentary throughout the story. Through them, we learn about the life and work of English Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-1139509231239761012017-06-21T16:11:00.000-04:002017-06-24T11:55:55.566-04:00The Dark Tower series #1-3The first three books of Stephen King's The Dark Tower series -- The Gunslinger [Revised ed. 2003 (orig 1982)], The Drawing of the Three [1987], and The Waste Lands [1991] together make quite an interesting start to the alternative universe fantasy series from the well-known horror author.
The Gunslinger is apparently the most atypical book of the series. King himself notes in Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-90820827076539109102017-06-07T15:06:00.000-04:002017-06-21T16:14:09.986-04:00The Shepherd's Life by James RebanksThough clearly written by someone who is not a 'writer', The Shepherd's Life: Modern Dispatches from an Ancient Landscape (2015) by James Rebanks was a compelling book about a lifestyle that hasn't changed much in centuries.
The book was filled with details and observations about the life of a shepherd in northern England -- a lifestyle pretty far removed from my own, and I would guess most Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-25972318582278927522017-05-17T14:58:00.000-04:002017-06-21T16:14:39.482-04:00The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWittTaking inspiration from the craze of the California Gold Rush and the madness it seemed to induce in the general populace and the individuals who participated, The Sisters Brothers (2011) by Patrick deWitt was a very good story from quite a different perspective than the books I typically read.
I didn't really know what to expect with this book at all, so I just settled down for the ride. I Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-85025866657088057432017-05-03T14:56:00.000-04:002017-06-21T16:14:49.963-04:00Dominion by C.J. SansomDominion (2012) by C.J. Sansom offers an incredibly important view of World War II and what might have happened if the allies had tried appeasement and compromise instead of fighting back against Hitler. It really made me think a lot about war and what is truly worth fighting for; for every action, both fighting and not fighting, there are always consequences.
This story was exciting, Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-40598874787830353652017-04-19T14:26:00.001-04:002017-06-21T16:15:19.364-04:00The Fiery Cross by Diana GabaldonThe 5th book in Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series, The Fiery Cross (2001) follows immediately after the events of book 4, and therefore maintains both the wonderful writing and interesting characters and settings we've become used to.
Jaime and Clair's relationship is still of course an idealized form of perfection, but that's okay -- I've always gotten the impression that Gabaldon knows this, Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-65329263757371482552017-04-05T14:22:00.000-04:002017-06-21T16:15:34.695-04:00American Gods by Neil GaimanJust in time for the premier of the TV show later this month -- Neil Gaiman's book American Gods (2001) is a folk tale for the modern age with plenty of action and unexpected twists.
This is one of my favorite tropes / sub-genres: taking gods and other mythological elements and inserting them into the normal, current world in a way that explains how they appeared in stories of yore but are notDuxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-42198796978818422032017-03-22T14:30:00.000-04:002017-06-21T16:15:44.371-04:00We Should all be Feminists by Chimamanda AdichieWe Should all be Feminists (2015) by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is similar in some ways to Make Good Art by Neil Gaiman -- the text of a speech (in this case a TED talk) by the author transferred to the written word in a dynamic and compelling manner.
I haven't seen the TED talk, but from the text of the book, I imagine an impassioned, interesting delivery, so I will certainly try to watch it Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-5494682758792864712017-03-08T14:17:00.000-05:002017-06-21T16:15:55.217-04:00Dominion by C.J. SansomDominion (2012) by C.J. Sansom was exciting, disturbing, interesting, and -- given current events -- pretty depressing. The story offered an incredibly important view of "what if" the allies had tried appeasement and compromise in relation to Hitler's reign. In not fighting back against the evil, the allies became the evil.
Sansom did an especially good job of demonstrating how insidious Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-40975444252254323622017-02-15T14:55:00.000-05:002017-02-15T14:55:17.411-05:00The Winter People by Jennifer McMahonThe Winter People (2014) by Jennifer McMahon is a wonderful book filled with excitement, mystery, troubling pasts, anticipation, and just enough of the supernatural (I won't say what kind -- that would give things away) to keep it interesting.
Flipping back and forth between the past and the present, I liked the connection that created, with the story weaving the two time periods together very Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-88496762482537991582017-02-01T16:51:00.000-05:002017-02-01T16:51:39.232-05:00While Beauty Slept by Elizabeth BlackwellWhile Beauty Slept (2014) by Elizabeth Blackwell is a beautiful, more realistic, behind-the-scenes tale of Sleeping Beauty. A very nice adaptation of the classic story, this time told from the perspective of one of Beauty's mother's ladies-in-waiting, therefore mostly taking place before Beauty is born and during her childhood and not focusing on her directly.
The characters were highly Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-51003765663707855052017-01-18T15:14:00.002-05:002017-01-18T15:14:28.414-05:00On to-reads and re-readingI mentioned in my last post about my plans for my reading in the year ahead. While I don't like to plan too much (in favor of allowing myself some flexibility and spontaneity in what I read, especially if something interesting comes through the circulation desk here), I do like to have a good stack of to-reads at home. I like to balance picking books from my 'offical' To Read spreadsheet with Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-68476363153947635192017-01-04T17:58:00.000-05:002017-01-11T15:25:08.278-05:002016: Reading Year in ReviewNow that 2016 is well and truly behind us (thank goodness), I thought I might take a look back at my reading from the past year. I have a personal, ongoing goal of expanding my reading horizons and making sure I don't stick to my mainstay genres -- namely fantasy -- so I keep track of what I've read by genre and my own rating.
In 2016 I finished reading 73 books:
14 Fiction
1 YA Fiction
10 Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-42199823956828398862016-12-21T15:34:00.000-05:002016-12-21T15:34:04.090-05:00The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar by Martin Windrow The Owl Who Liked Sitting on Caesar: Living with a Tawny Owl (2014) by Martin Windrow was a sweet book about an rather unusual (though at the same time so stereotypically British) relationship between a man and his owl.
It was truly fascinating to read about the habits of owls and how they did (and, in many ways did not) fit in with human habitation. Windrow made abundantly clear that he Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-49655837080048704402016-12-07T15:49:00.000-05:002016-12-07T15:49:53.728-05:00Falling From Horses by Molly GlossFalling From Horses (2014) by Molly Gloss is a somewhat sad, disturbing story about Hollywood cowboy films in the 30s in which not very much good happens to any of the characters. Written as a memoir of someone well-known, who interacted with other well-known people -- even though (as far as I know) it's all fictional and none of the characters in the book are real (aside from a couple of real Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-3393988829496861652016-10-31T13:58:00.002-04:002016-10-31T13:58:32.420-04:00Ready Player One by Ernest ClineReady Player One (2011) by Ernest Cline is a fascinating commentary on humans and Western civilization and a brilliant, exciting love letter to geeks, video games, and pop culture.
Set only a few decades in the future (scary in itself), after civilization has mostly fallen apart and 'society' exists only in virtual spaces, the story kept me interested, engaged, and slightly tense the whole way Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-88656986185814408502016-10-19T19:22:00.001-04:002016-10-19T19:22:56.136-04:00Page-to-Screen: TV edition!I interrupt my (somewhat) regularly scheduled reviews to discuss a topic that has started to dominate the way I choose what books to read: adaptations of books into ongoing tv shows. Though adapting books into movies has been a long-standing practice in Hollywood, I think the runaway success of Game of Thrones and Orange is the New Black (and older shows such as True Blood and Sex and the City) Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-65175728633882999392016-10-12T15:46:00.000-04:002016-10-12T15:46:06.633-04:00Flight by Kazu Kibuishi (Ed)Flight V. 1 (2004) edited by Kazu Kibuishi is a collection of 23 comics (and one very funny essay) by different artists with VERY different visual and storytelling styles, all with the general theme of flying.
This was a wonderful book that really showed the extent to which comic art can vary, from the detailed and ornate to simplistic and suggestive. Some of the individual stories really spoke Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3290482112902748736.post-11228354461171992002016-09-28T15:40:00.003-04:002016-10-01T11:49:20.905-04:00The Last Bookaneer by Matthew PearlThe Last Bookaneer (2015) by Matthew Pearl is a very interesting book with a great concept that didn't quite live up to the thrilling precedent set by Pearl's previous books I've read -- but was an enjoyable read just the same.
I like books and pirates are pretty cool, so the idea of book pirates has a lot going for it, which is why I originally picked up this book (that, and I really loved The Duxbury Free Libraryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17232948707987141833noreply@blogger.com0