By Tracy Chevalier
Read: January ‘10
Rating: Illuminating
For the Feminist Review
I’m a huge fan of Tracy Chevalier. Like a lot of people, I began with Girl with a Pearl Earring, and have since made my way through all but one of her other books. So of course I leapt at the chance to sample her newest offering.
Like all [...]

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, [...]

Once upon a time, I discovered a wonderful, wonderful book. Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted is immerses you in Ella’s world, giving you a best friend as well as an adventure.
Then Hollywood got their hands on it. And THEY RAPED IT.
Below is an off-the-cuff rant I wrote in 2004, before the movie was even released. [...]

By Joanne Harris
Read: December 2009
Rating: Delicious
I saw the movie ages ago, but I don’t remember it very well. A good deal of the book felt familiar, which means the movie did bear some similarity to it. Not that anyone would really care when they could gaze on a GORGEOUS Johnny Depp.
The book is lovely. Intriguing, [...]

By Sarah Ellerton
Read: 2009
Rating: Lovely
http://requiem.seraph-inn.com/
Considering the OMGHUGE plot turn that happened this October, I figured I should get around to reviewing this.
Sarah Ellerton made her name in webcomics with Inverloch. That series has ended, and now she has two projects running simultaneously, both exquisite.

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 [...]

by Helen Fielding
Read: 2003-ish, October 2009
Rating: Even better.
I’ve fallen behind in my reviews, so this will have to be a bit quick.
Edge of Reason is even better than the original Bridget Jones. It’s longer, and more involved. It also has much more of her excellent friends.
And, yes, this is the one where she goes on [...]

By Helen Fielding
Read: October 2009, repeatedly since ~2002
Rating: v.v.v.v.g.
Bridget Jones is a classic of our time. She can’t be anything but. Plenty of people have gone on and on about how this book changed womens’ literature to chick lit (for better or worse). When I first read it, I was sixteen and trapped on a [...]

By Sarah Dunant
Read: October 2009
Rating: Excellent
The Birth of Venus begins in the most intriguing way… It is the tail end of the Renaissance, in Florence, Italy. An elderly nun in a convent dies from a malignant breast tumor. The convent’s tradition is to wash and clothe the body, make it fresh for the soul’s meeting [...]

By Emmanuel Guibert, Didier Lefèvre, Frédéric Lemercier
Read: October 2009
Rating: Wow
There’s no other word for it than, “Wow.” Every few pages, there it is again–Wow.
Didier Lefèvre was a photographer, who became involved with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). In 1986, he accepted an assignment to enter Afghanistan with an MSF mission, to document their journey [...]

By Danielle Corsetto
Read: July 2009
Rating: Squee!
http://www.girlswithslingshots.com
GWS is one of those comics that’s been around for years and often pops up when you’re reading other comics. It took me a long time to get around to it for some reason. Something Positive is doing a crossover, though, so I gave it a shot. And omigod perfect [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: Way Back When, July 2009
Rating: Bonny
Book Two in the Witches of Eileannan is a big ‘un. It covers TWO mega-battles/wars, and a giantass cast of characters. I love it.
And plenty of men in kilts. Not much fetishizing of the kilts, but plenty of kilts. And women kilting their skirts up because skirts [...]

By Kate Forsyth
Read: Early 2000s?, June 2009
Rating: Love
I owe one of my good friends a debt of thanks for turning me onto these. At the time it was just the first two on the shelf and we all thought it would be a trilogy. Imagine our delight when it turned into SIX books!
Eileannan is a [...]

By Nancy Werlin
Read: June 2009
Rating: Excellent
There must have been some great turnover in the AuthorSphere. Newer YA writers–ie., books published after I stopped reading them (around age… 13?)–are clearly onto something. I mean, really, really onto something. It’s not just The Disreputable History. It’s How I Live Now and Libba Bray and Impossible. Cuz this [...]

By E. Lockhart
Read: May 2009
Rating: Brilliant
Wow. This is one of the coolest books I’ve picked up in quite a while. Somehow a hardcover wound up on the Bargain table at Borders, and when I learned that A) Frankie was a girl, B) She was leading the Loyal Order of Basset Hounds, and C) She was [...]

By Amy Mebberson
Status: On Hiatus, Storylines Complete
http://www.mimisgrotto.com/thorn
It took a little while for me to notice that my RSS feed had stopped updating… and that Thorn really had gone on hiatus/retired. Thorn was a labor of love for its artist, an attempt to get syndicated, and I really wish it had. Now that it’s over, I [...]

by Fred Gallagher
Read: Continuously, reread May 2009
Rating: Brills
Get sucked in: http://www.megatokyo.com/
If you’ve been reading webcomics for any period of time and haven’t come across Megatokyo you’re not surfing the right comics. Ever seen the Sad Girl In Snow trope? This is where it was born.
Megatokyo is a lot of things, on a lot [...]

By Ariana Franklin
Read: Feb 2009
Rating: AWESOME.
I go down on bended knee to my friend V for recommending this. The cover and its text make this sound like a pretty dark murder mystery that happens to be set in medieval Europe. That was pretty cool, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so much. It’s FUNNY. [...]

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 Tracy Chevalier
Read: October 2998
Rating: Victorian
Can I rate something as being Victorian? It sums up quite a bit. Really, it’s on the cusp, beginning with the death of Queen Victoria. More Edwardian–plenty of cultural change going on.
It’s hard not to love this one. Two little girls who both decided that they would be best friends. [...]

By Tracy Chevalier
Read: October 2008
Rating: Enticing
I hadn’t a clue what this one was about before I opened it. It’s tangentially inspired by the life and works of William Blake, a neighbor to the children around whom the story revolves. It’s a tale of country people moving to the big city, about plain folk being [...]

By Tracy Chevalier
Read: October 2008
Rating: Mwah!
I really like Tracy Chevalier. Like so many people, I began with Girl With a Pearl Earring, and loved it. I think I love this even more, though.
Based off the tapestries by the same name, the book follows the people engaged in its making in the 14/1500s. We begin with [...]

By Anne Bishop
Read: September 2008
Rating: FAB.
You know the kind of book that you read in hours and days instead of weeks, the kind of book that makes you want to cry as you reach the end because it’s just so good? That’s the latter 2/3 of the Tir Alainn books.
The first, Pillars of the World, [...]

by Stephanie Rowe
Read: 2007/2008
Rating: Mostly fab
I didn’t realize I hadn’t blogged about any of these! They’re so much fun! I found the first one at the grocery store, and by the time I finally read it I was able to hop online and buy the next 3. Yes, they’re that good. I followed them. I [...]

by Robert C. O’Brien
Read: Middle school?, July 2008
Rating: J’adore
If you have never read about Mrs. Frisby, you are missing are a wonderful, crucial piece of childhood. I was given the movie, The Secret of NIMH (also reviewed below, when I was really, really young. Both my parents enjoyed watching it with me, and it was [...]

By Naomi Novik
Read: July 2008
Rating: Intense
I got an email alert announcing the release of this book, and was able to attend Naomi Novik’s very first book signing EVARR. She was excited, we were excited, and the space at the Greenwich Village B&N was standing room only. How cool was that?!
She read an as-yet-unpublished short story [...]

By Naomi Novik
Read: June/July 2008
Rating: Fascinating
I put off reading EoI for a long while because I just wasn’t in the mood. I read the first three Temeraire books back in ‘06 and they have since been passed on to both my parents. All our paperbacks now have warped spines and white, messy edges. Signs of [...]