Category Archives: Books

John Masefield’s The Box of Delights: or When the Wolves Were Running

Kay Harker is on his way home from boarding school for the Christmas holidays when he finds himself being followed by two suspicious characters. When he arrives home he finds that not only will he be sharing his holidays with … Continue reading

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The Medieval Murderers’ Sword of Shame

The Medieval Murderers (authors actually: Michael Jecks, Susanna Gregory, Bernard Knight, Ian Morson and Phillip Gooden), after pooling their talents on The Tainted Relic, have done so again with The Sword of Shame. As in Relic, each author contributes their own murder mystery, … Continue reading

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Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of The Wind (Book One of The Kingkiller Trilogy)

The Name of The Wind is a first novel. It’s one of those “first” novels that blindsides the reader with such power and skill that one wonders how the author has managed to stay unpublished until now. The answer, of … Continue reading

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Mark I. West’s  A Children’s Literature Tour of Great Britain

At seventeen, I had one of the thrills of my young life when during a tour of England with my church choir, our anxious chaperones finally let us loose in Oxford for a day. After happily getting lost in the … Continue reading

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Donna R. White’s A Century of Welsh Myth in Children’s Literature

The prospect of an adult discussion of some of my favorite childhood authors has great appeal, if only because it legitimates my occasional re-reading of Alan Garner and Lloyd Alexander as an adult. Although my adult self wishes to quarrel … Continue reading

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Catherynne M. Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden

Tiffany Matthews wrote this review. There is a strange gift for the reader at the heart of Catherynne M. Valente’s new novel, The Orphan’s Tales: In the Night Garden. Of the many prizes avid readers are granted while rustling through pages, there … Continue reading

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Robert A. Heinlein’s Time For The Stars

Robert Anson Heinlein is inarguably one of the great formative writers of science fiction. His work is not only seminal, it’s good — well-told, well-plotted, with solid characterization. It’s also frequently thought-provoking, with underlying philosophy and speculation that stays with the reader … Continue reading

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Catherynne M. Valente’s The Orphan’s Tales: In the Cities of Coin and Spice

Tiffany Matthews wrote this review. Catherynne M. Valente has quietly declared war on the pleasant lull and tawdry titillation that too often characterize contemporary fantasy fiction. Her new kaleidoscope of nested tales, In the Cities of Coin and Spice, offers the … Continue reading

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John Updike’s The Witches of Eastwick 

Craig Clarke wrote this review. Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie are three formerly married women living in the late sixties in a small Rhode Island town. They are also witches. If Alexandra wants the beach to herself, a simple whipped-up thunderstorm … Continue reading

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Angela Bourke’s The Burning of Bridget Cleary

I never had a chance to prove them wrong, My time was short, the story long.– Oysterband’s “The Oxford Girl” So much has been written about the world of the fairies — the otherworld that we apprehend through bits of … Continue reading

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