I recently gave a tour of my L. M. Montgomery collection, and today I thought I’d invite you to visit another shelf. I don’t discuss Star Trek as often, but I do have almost as many books! Check out the video below for some comments on my favorites. For my Trek fan readers, I’d love to hear about your favorite books too!
I’m following up last week’s review of When Bad Things Happen to Good People with another favorite nonfiction book, and one that also feels relevant to right now, though in a very different way – The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. Now may be a good time to think about little ways to boost your happiness.
I don’t expect every review I do in the future will be by video, but right now I’m home a lot and it’s a good time to film. I’m home a lot because, probably like many of you, my region is under a “stay at home” directive for the coronavirus pandemic. I decided a very small thing I could do in response was to make a video reviewing a book I have found helpful (and recommended in the past) for dealing with scary, tragic, unfathomable things.
I wrote a review of When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold Kushner before, and yesterday I made the video below. The book explores the role of faith and God in the face of inexplicable tragedy, and offers enormous insight.
I recently reviewed Gaston Leroux’s Phantom of the Opera, the original book that began the story. I had a lot of thoughts…so I decided this was a good book to start something new I’ve been thinking about trying. See below for my video review of the book – how it differs from later versions, and why I don’t think we can be sure that it all happened quite as it seems!
A Book Club friend recommended In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan some time ago, and I finally got to reading it in the last couple weeks. I’m glad I finally did, because it was funny, insightful and very original, while commenting on so many familiar story tropes. Excellent read!
The story centers on Elliot, a boy from what we’d recognize as the real world, who has the chance at age thirteen to cross a magical wall into a country wholly separate and secret from the world he knows, where magical creatures abound. He’s invited to join the Border Camp, launching us into something that somewhat resembles many other stories of children going away to magic school. Except – Elliot is obnoxious, sarcastic, and cuts right through any pleasant fantasies. He’s wildly indignant that they have no pens or central heating, and when he realizes they’re being trained for war promptly observes that they’re being turned into child soldiers. Which is…actually quite true, but something I’ve never seen put so bluntly in any magical book!
Elliot only agrees to stay because he meets Serene, an elf maiden. Her full name is Serene-Heart-in-the-Chaos-of-Battle. Elliot thinks this is the most badass thing he’s ever heard, falls promptly in love, and agrees to remain. Also, maybe he’ll get to meet mermaids.
Tales of the Marvelous 