Bookish appetites and desires

Author: Madeline Miller    First Published: 2011 Genre: Mythology    Rating: ★★★☆ Son of the Gods, destined to be the greastest of the Greeks, radiant and handsome with his golden head of hair and lean muscles. We humbly present to you, Achilles. Swipe right! I have a lot of mixed feelings with this novel I think for two reasons: it was over-hyped and the story-telling was lackluster. I've been a fan of mythology in general since I was quite young, and fell in love with the siege of Troy specifically when I was probably around 11 or so, so I've read my fair share of adaptations and reimaginings in that time. What I love about this one is that it does offer a different perspective of said siege, highlighting different characters and important figures for the time. What it lacks is captivation. Let's start with our narrator, Patroclus - he should be renamed Boringclus. A very minor spoiler here, but when we start out, he is presented as someone who grew up in a very unhappy h

Author: Mark Blagrave    First Published: 2008 Genre: Historical Fiction    Rating: ★★☆ Now darling, tilt your head this way and give us a big smile! Now, slowly walk towards the camera and look over my shoulder. Wonderful! Movie goers won't be able to get enough of you! Now, mouth a few things while looking off into the distance. Don't worry, this isn't a Talkie so no need to have a script. Cut! Something about back in the silent film days just draws me in and makes me want to curl my hair, put on a cute dress, some sensible heels, and hit the town with my man in a suit on my arm. Too bad this one didn't live up to that idyllic fantasy. Like film left out in the sun, this was bad. I'm not sure what I was expecting of a book that starts out during the First World War, takes place during the Spanish Flu, and ends shortly after the Great Depression - I think - but I wasn't expecting it to be so depressing. If you like books that knock you over and then kick you i

Author: William Shakespeare    First Published: 1603 Genre: Classics, Play    Rating: ★★★★ Can you feel the love tonight? The peace the evening brings. Or does it? You don't even have to be a fan of Shakespeare's works to know that this one doesn't end in sunshine, rainbows, and sweet nothings whispered into the fade out of the scene. No, my friends, the story of Othello, which is a solid 4-stars in my opinion, is one rife with deceit, lack of trust and communication, and tragedy. Juicy. I will be quick to admit that I unapologetically love Shakespeare's works, and this one was no different. Unlike some of his other works, which I've read, reread, and devoured retellings and reimaginings of in I don't know how many ways, this was my first exposure in full to the story of Othello. I don't know what took me so long to get to this one, but I'm glad that I was older when reading this one than the others because I feel like this one had more nuiances and plea

Author: Teresa Messineo    First Published: 2017 Genre: Historical Fiction    Rating: ★★★★★ Two nurses in the throes of World War 2, one on the Western Front, and one deep in the East. What happens to them? Do they make it out alive? You'll have to read the book to find out. I cannot say enough good things about this book, but I'll try to contain myself in the interest of spoiling nothing. Teresa Messineo has well earned these 5-stars with her debut book because it is powerful, very well-researched, and it doesn't pull punches. In her writing she covers so many different elements of this war. Of course she covers love and loss, just like every other book set during wars and during this era in particular. What sets this one apart is that she really goes into how this war affected people psychologically, from being completely numb to the surrounding attrocities, to having hallucinations, of what you'll have to read to find out, and more. She does this in such an effortles

  Watery Through the Gaps , the second collection of nature inspired poetry by Emma Blas. A huge thank you to Emma for not only giving me a copy of her book, but for allowing me the opportunity to interview her so that we, the readers, could get a better understanding of her as a person, her muse, and her creative processes. Stay tuned for my review after our interview. The Interview What is something we should know about Emma Blas? I’m a poet, who uses the lens of the natural world to explore the human experience; I taught yoga for many years, and find my poetry maps the journey of self from disconnection, to something embodied, and more universally resonantly, whole. My poetry is sensual, but it seeks intimacy with the soul and with that something greater than romantic love. I often collaborate with visual artists in my work.  Where do you draw your inspiration from? I am a nature lover, and live on the dramatic coastline of Asturias, in the north of Spain. It is rugged and primal, u

  Author: Catherine Fisher    First Published: 2007 Genre: Science Fiction    Rating: ★★★☆ In a world where man has created the perfect device to house the world's inmates in an ultimate utopia, one man and one woman join forces to prove them wrong. Coming to a bookshelf near you, it's Incarceron . Intrigued? I was too. Yes, this steampunk dystopian novel dares to take on the narrative from two perspectives, an inmate who is convinced he's come from the outside world, and the Warden's daughter who is also convinced that he comes from the outside world. Did it work? Mostly, hence the 3.5-stars. I loved the whole premise of this book - a prison that is a supposed utopia where the world's criminals are stored, a world where they are forced to stay in the Victorian era, I think, characters who are battling man and nature in order to be free of Incarceron and of a loveless marriage. Yes! What I didn't love was how it was written. For the first quarter of the book or

  Author: Mary Carter    First Published: 2014 Genre: Mystery    Rating: ★ Have you ever locked eyes with a book on a sale table at your local bookstore and thought to yourself "Wow, I can't wait to dive into you, I bet you're fantastic!" then been utterly disappointed? Same. That's what this book did to me.  It's been a couple of weeks since I've given up on this book, and I honestly wasn't even going to post about this but the folks over on Goodreads - hello! - let it be known that they actually want to hear about the books I've not finished, so here we go. I'm going to attempt to do this as spoiler-free as possible. Did this have romance? Yes. Did it have mystery? Yes. Did it have travel? Yes. Did it have infuriating communication problems that literally could have resolved so many of the issues in a single conversation? Yes. Did our protagonist make me want to smash my face off of a wall because of how hypocritical, contrarian, and outright