Category Archives: Books

Rebecca Ore’s Slow Funeral

Slow Funeral did not get lost in my reviewing pile — a pile now just small enough that our two felines aren’t in mortal danger from getting caught in a catquake that might bring down the pile! (Don’t laugh: this pile was … Continue reading

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Deborah Grabien’s JP Kinkaid Chronicles

This review is by the oh so extraordinary Sunny Solomon, of Bookin’ With Sunny. I have been hooked on Deb Grabien’s novels since I had the great good fortune to read the first of her Haunted Ballads series. What pulled me … Continue reading

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Deborah Grabien’s Haunted Ballads series

Come in. . . .I’ll turn down the sound system slightly. Yes, that’s ‘Matty Groves’. No, not the one off the classic Fairport Convention album, Liege And Lief, from ’69, but rather one from a Dutch concert they did in ’75. … Continue reading

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Jane Yolen, Heidi E.Y. Stemple, and Philippe Béha’s Fairy Tale Feasts: A Literary  Cookbook for Young Readers and Eaters

Liz Milner penned this review. When I think of the books I loved as child, I get hungry. There was Pooh lapping up honey and cream teas, Mary Poppins handing out magical gingerbread while Frodo chowed down on mushrooms and lembas. … Continue reading

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Francis P. Magoun, Jr. and Alexander H. Krappe’s The Grimms’ German Folk Tales

Once upon a time, there was a prince/princess/tailor/three sons/twelve lazy servants/a frog/a horse/a frog, a horse, and a prince/an old man. They fell on hard times/their father died/they were driven out of the house/they decided to seek their fortune/they decided … Continue reading

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Thomas Frederick Crane’s Italian Popular Tales

Faith Cormier penned this review. As is to be expected from Oxford University Press, Italian Popular Tales is no kiddie book, but rather a work of serious scholarship. Italian Popular Tales, first published in 1885, was the first comprehensive collection of folktales from … Continue reading

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John Colarusso’s Nart Sagas from the Caucasus 

Eric Eller penned this review. If our lives are to be short,Then let our fame be great! Let us not depart from truth! Let fairness be our path! Let us not know grief!Let us live in freedom! So starts the first saga … Continue reading

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Paul Brandon’s Swim the Moon

It was Christmas and Kinlocochbervie had a festive atmosphere about it. Decorations and fir trees decked out with tinsel stood in windows, lighting the dull afternoon with flashes of cheerful Technicolor brilliance, and the door to the Compass was adorned … Continue reading

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Charles Downing’s Armenian Folk-tales and Fables

Naomi de Bruyn penned this review. Armenia is a land which has been ravaged by war on far too many occasions. Other nations keep turning it into a battlefield, and tearing it apart. These tales have survived for many generations in … Continue reading

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Mark Brend’s Rock and Roll Doctor

Lowell George was the best singer, songwriter and guitar player I have ever heard, hands down, in my life. — Bonnie Raitt The first time I heard Lowell George was on a song called “Strawberry Flats.” It came from the … Continue reading

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