Category: Fiction

Review: The Wings of Merlin by T.A. Barron

The Wings of Merlin is the fifth and final book in T.A. Barron’s “Lost Years of Merlin” series. While I found this last of the series more concentrated with cliches – moments reminiscent of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles… Continue Reading “Review: The Wings of Merlin by T.A. Barron”

Review: Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut

It’s hard to believe that a person could be such a brilliant, en pointe writer for so very long. Many of the stories (if not all?) in Look at the Birdie seem to have been written later in Vonnegut’s life. The illustrations are all… Continue Reading “Review: Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut”

Review: How I Paid for College by Marc Acito

Acito’s first novel, How I Paid for College: A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship & Musical Theater is an hilarious, honest in an “I don’t believe this” sorta way re-telling of a coming-of-age story. Of particular praise is Acito’s way of making a gay… Continue Reading “Review: How I Paid for College by Marc Acito”

Review: The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks

While I respect Banks’s intent – to expose human cruelty and how one family member’s pain can lead to the dysfunction and pain of all others, I must say – this novel, like it’s characters, is just one hot mess. Though the book was… Continue Reading “Review: The Wasp Factory by Ian Banks”

Review: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

With each new encounter, Twain proves himself to me to be both brilliant and complicated. The Prince and the Pauper is a tale of cautious optimism; unlike later works (Huck Finn, The Mysterious Stranger), in The Prince and the Pauper, Twain seems to still… Continue Reading “Review: The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain”