Author: cherylmahoney

I'm a book review blogger and writer. I have published four novels, The Wanderers; The Storyteller and Her Sisters; and The People the Fairies Forget; and The Lioness and the Spellspinners. All can be found on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. In my day job, I'm a Marketing Specialist. Find me on Twitter (@MarvelousTales) and GoodReads (MarvelousTales).

Book Review: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews2 Comments

Remember when I listened to the audiobook of Cary Elwes reading his memoir of filming The Princess Bride, and it was everything I wanted it to be and one of the best books I read all year?  Well–I did not manage to repeat the magic by listening to the audiobook of Carrie Fisher reading The Princess Diarist, her memoir of filming Star Wars.

It sounded great–I’d been meaning to explore Carrie Fisher’s writing ever since her death (which still makes me sad), and this promised to be reminiscences of filming the first Star Wars movie, plus excerpts from her journals of the time.  Wonderful!  And it was, for about the first quarter.  She talks a little about her life growing up, her very early film career, and how she first was cast as Princess Leia.  I loved the anecdotes of the first time she read the script, and how Leia got her iconic hairstyle.

But then, as she says, she met him.  I vaguely heard some while ago that Fisher had recently revealed her long ago affair with Harrison Ford–and here I stumbled right into the book that must have done it.  A solid half of the book (albeit in the middle) is devoted to “Carrison,” 19 year old Carrie’s affair with the then-married, mid-thirties Harrison Ford during the filming of the first Star Wars.  It was a remarkably unsentimental affair, probably some form of friends with benefits except they didn’t even appear especially friendly, and whole passages are devoted to how little he talked. Continue reading “Book Review: The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher” →

Blog Hop: Goal-Oriented Reading

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog Hop2 Comments

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you participate in readathons and/or reading challenges?

I think we all know I do reading challenges. 🙂  I’ve had annual challenges every year since starting this blog, though some years have been more intensive than others. I really enjoy reading challenges, partially because of how I use them.  I don’t ever set challenges to get myself to read books I don’t want to read (well, except maybe for the “read long books I’ve been avoiding” challenge I did one year–and I ended up liking most of those book anyway).  I use challenges to focus my reading, to remind myself to read books (or book types) I actually do want to read, but wouldn’t necessarily think about all the time.

I’ve never done a readathon.  I read a LOT, but in small snatches.  I rarely read for more than a half-hour stretch.  Partially that’s a product of how my life is structured, but I’m also really used to that.  I don’t often want to read for a lot longer than that.  Well, I often think I do in theory…but I’m also pretty sure that really I’m a quick stop reader, and will get antsy most of the time if I read for a lot longer.  Once in a while I’m genuinely in the mood to read all afternoon–but it’s unusual.

Are readathons or challenges a part of your reading?

Book Review: All Our Wrong Todays

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews, Science FictionLeave a comment

What if the world you and I are living in is, in fact, a dystopia?  That could (tragically) be the beginning of a review of a nonfiction book, but instead today I’m talking about another parallel universe book: All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai.  What if the world we think is real is actually the product of meddling with time travel, and we’re living in the universe gone wrong?

Tom Barren lives in a 2016 that looks a lot like the future envisaged in the 1950s.  Flying cars, high-tech medicine, an endless supply of free, non-polluting energy, universal peace.  It’s all because of a new, energy-generating technology discovered in 1966.  When Tom travels back 50 years to the dawn of his age, he inadvertently meddles in that key point in time–and wakes up to find himself in our 2016.  But then he has a dilemma–because while the world might be happier in his original universe, his life is significantly better over here.

This is one of those books I picked up because it had such an interesting premise–and it largely delivered on the promise, even if it didn’t turn out to be exactly what I expected.  I was so fascinated by Tom’s world and the events that led to its creation.  There was quite a bit of that, although the world is presented more through contrast with ours then by spending a lot of time in it–which kind of makes sense.  For Tom, replicators (or the equivalent) are normal, so they probably aren’t going to come up until he’s trying to make sense of a microwave.  We saw the alternate path of history and how a small shift could change it much more clearly, and that was very cool to explore. Continue reading “Book Review: All Our Wrong Todays” →

Blog Hop: A Long Time Ago…

On By cherylmahoneyIn Blog HopLeave a comment

book-blogger-hop-finalToday’s Book Blogger Hop question is: Do you ever go “way back” to when you first started blogging and look at your old review posts? Do you see any differences from then to now?

 

My earliest posts really are pretty far back by now–since I’ve been writing this blog for almost seven years!  I look back occasionally, when I want to see what I said about something that comes to mind again, to reference with a link back if a topic comes up now, or to choose a Classic Review to repost.

I don’t think my taste has changed hugely since I started blogging.  It may have become broader–I read less YA and more nonfiction, and the various challenges I’ve had over the years have influenced the more specific topics I may have covered (like fairy tales or parallel universes).  But overall, if I liked a book way back when, I still like it now–and if I disliked one, well, I probably haven’t reread it, but I usually still think I had good points.

My reviewing has become more immediate.  In early blog days I did more reviewing of favorite books I hadn’t reread recently.  It didn’t take long, though, to realize that it’s a lot easier reviewing a book I just read, so that shifted pretty fast.

The biggest difference to me may be subtle to other people.  I think I’m more confident in my reviews now.  At first I think I felt a need to defend my opinion–now, I still will tell you why I like or dislike something, but it doesn’t feel like an assertion so much as a statement.  That may not look very different to anyone else, but I can see it!

Readers who are also book bloggers, do you ever go back farther?  How has your reviewing change?

TV Review: Anne with an E

On By cherylmahoneyIn Reviews5 Comments

Because I evidently have not written enough about L.M. Montgomery lately…today I have a review of the recent Netflix special, Anne with an E, a six-hour miniseries.  This retelling of Anne of Green Gables was billed as a darker version–and it was.  Some aspects of it were wonderful and compelling.  Others, not so much, and I do mean the darkness.  It all gave me some new insights into the themes of Montgomery’s books though, and I’m always pleased about that!

The miniseries drew me in with a very good first episode (90 minutes–the rest are 45).  It followed very closely to the original story, as orphan Anne is mistakenly sent to Prince Edward Island and Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert, who had wanted a boy.  They decide to keep the talkative, impetuous Anne, who wants so much to be good and accepted but just keep running into problems.  That much is exactly the same as the original, though this version included occasional, PTSD-like flashbacks to Anne’s earlier life, where she was verbally and physically abused by the people she worked for (more on that later).  After the first episode, well, the series diverges farther from the book.  Glimmers and elements are drawn from the original, but great swathes of new things arise too.

Aside from having a thing about completion, I think I kept watching because of the characters (and to see how it would all develop).  Matthew, Marilla, Diana, Gilbert, Mrs. Rachel Lynde–all were wonderfully cast and portrayed, very much the book characters come to life (barring a few actions the plot forced them into).  It probably helped that I already knew them, but it also seemed like the series did a very good job giving us insights and understandings into the characters.  Even some of the minor characters came through in their essential elements: Josie Pye, nasty and mean; Jane Andrews, nice if forgettable; Ruby Gillis, silly and sweet (and sweet on Gilbert).

And how about Anne (with her E)?  Well.  The good and the muddled intersect in Anne.  She looked the part, probably more than most, as Anne is usually very Hollywood pretty for being a scrawny, freckled orphan.  She blooms over the course of the book, suggesting she started without much physical beauty.  (Although I have to say, I was bothered throughout to a ridiculous degree by the thinness of Anne’s braids.  She hates the redness of her hair, yes, but she has plenty of it!)  As to character, she uses all the big words and goes into delighted raptures and has all the starved desire for love that the character should have–great swathes of her dialogue come straight out of the book.  But. Continue reading “TV Review: Anne with an E” →