By J.R. Ward
Read: Feb 2010
Rating: Devoured
I don’t know what it is about JR Ward, but her books are amazing. Once begun, it is impossible to stop. Everything else gets put on hold. And that took a serious chunk out of my work this week, as this beautiful, beautiful volume is over 600 pages. Yes, [...]

By Johanna Lindsey
Read: Feb 2010
Rating: Convoluted
There’s a LOT of fun to poke at this thing. Before I have fun, let me say that it wasn’t awful. It wasn’t really good, either.
BOOK-IN-A-MINUTE, Git-style
(Yes, that means spoiler)
Roseleen: I am a history professor with a penchant for old weapons. Look at this fabulous old sword my brother [...]

By Judith E French
Read: February 2010
Rating: A bit muddled
I bought this book because, well, it’s called The Barbarian and it has a laughably swoony cover. I mean, c’mon, what’s more classically romance novel than a dude’s face all up close and personal while he gaze intensely at you, all the while holding his very phallic [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: ~2002, November 2009
Rating: Gripping
Hoo-! I was up MUCH later than intended last night, polishing off the last of book 6, which I read right on the heels of #5. Good reading, there. When I say gripping, I mean it. The last third especially…
The Skull of the World follows Isabeau’s ultimate quest in [...]

Reviewed for the Feminist Review
By Alaya Dawn Johnson
Bolden
Racing the Dark is unique among fantasy books. The world draws upon Pacific Island and East Asian cultures to create a rich blend very different from fantasy canon—an island nation with an animist religion centering on sacrifice and binding. Though a young adult novel, Johnson is unafraid [...]

By Commander Pants
Read: October 2009
Rating: Fun
What could be more appropriate than to talk about god and mental illness? Even better, how about people who aren’t as ill as they seem?
Commander Pants (yes, that’s his nom de plume) has written a novel that cleverly forces one to question human nature while making us laugh. Reminiscent of [...]

By Margaret George
Read: May 2009, approx. 240 pages.
Rating: Sigh.
I get very disappointed when books I want to be good… aren’t. It comes particularly hard on the heels of a riveting series, like the Black Dagger Brotherhood. And I just gave up on The Mermaid Chair, so it’s doubly depressing to give up on this as [...]

By Tamora Pierce
Read: First time in 6th grade? Multiple re-readings thereafter. January 2009.
Rating: Immortal.
I love Alanna. I love, love, love, love, LOVE her. I think I was about 12… possibly 10 or 11… when I found In The Hand of the Goddess at the public library. It was exactly what I had been craving. A [...]

by Judith Lindbergh
Read: December 2008
Rating: Woah
I mean, seriously, woah. I’m still trying to sort out what I really think about this. I mean, it was good. It was really, really good. I can totally appreciate this as a writer, and an experienced reader. I’m not sure if that means its a good read, though… or [...]

By Donna Jo Napoli
Read: 1998, October 2008
Rating: Provocative
I still remember seeing Sirena on display at our school library, when it first came out. I was perhaps in 6th grade. It was on a special shelf, for the library’s special reader program–those readers got first pick of the new titles and were supposed to review them. [...]

By P.C. Cast
Read: First half of 2008.
Rating: Um?
The Smart Bitches have raved about two of PC Cast’s books so I figured she was a pretty safe bet. And it was really just… so-so. Entertaining, but not madly so. I don’t know what was wrong, per se, they just weren’t as good as they could’ve been. [...]

By Faith Erin Hicks
URL: http://faith.rydia.net
Read: December ‘06-January ‘07
Rating: Spellbinding.
Genre: Supernatural, Supreme Good vs. Supreme Evil.
Format: Full page.
Style: Black, white, and watercolor grays for shading.
Published: Not yet, but I would buy it ASAP. (Hear that, Faith!?)
Bonus: It’s COMPLETE!!! No waiting! Wait–it’s over?!
It took me a while to get through this one [...]

By Euripides. Translated by W. S. Merwin & George E. Dimock.
Read: October 2006
Rating: Mixed.
This is the Oxford University Press edition, with both a scholar and a poet working on the translation. The play itself is only, say, 1/3 of the book itself. (Brings back memories of Ayn Rand’s Anthem.) This was a blessing, as I’m [...]

By Judith Tarr
Rating: Ixcelsiooor!
Read: June 2006
This one came from Strand Books, my beloved second-hand goldmine. The description was interesting, the cover art is gorgeous (her neck piece looks like mother of pearl) and the story is well-told and thoroughly unusual. Very good.

By Piers Anthony
Rating: Frabjous
Read: approx. 1998 (age 12), reread August 2005.

I first read the Incarnations of Immortality when I was about 12, and I remember enough to know that I didn’t comprehend nearly as much as I will now, some 7 years later. (Yosh, has it really been that long?) I’ve reread this particular book [...]

By Neil Gaiman
Rating: DIVINE.
Read: Xmas 04

Holy crapmonkeys, I LOVE THIS BOOK. I can’t remember who gave it to me (Sreya?) but I ADORE it. Neil Gaiman is absolutely brilliant (and sexy, too).
We begin with a framed convict on the day he is released from prison. All he wants it to go home to his wife.
Alas, [...]