"Grace is God's best idea. His decision to ravage a people by love, to rescue passionately, and to restore justly---what rivals it? Of all his wondrous works, grace, in my estimation, is the magnum opus." Max Lucado writes this claim in this first paragraph of his...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 130: The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint
by MHill | Oct 29, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Charles De Lint, Fiction about Artists, Magical Realism, Marion's Favorite Books, Newford, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"I suppose the other thing too many forget is that we were all stories once, each and every one of us. And we remain stories." This sentence written near the end of The Onion Girl by Charles de Lint brings home an important point in human development. We are all...
Wisdom From Kammbia Review 129: Forests of the Heart by Charles de Lint
by MHill | Sep 24, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Charles De Lint, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Newford, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
In all my years reading (and writing), if someone asked me who is your favorite novelist, what would I write? I have to write that it is Charles de Lint. Over the past three decades, I have kept de Lint novels on my shelf more than any other author. Two of my...
Marion’s Favorites: Zero Gravity (A Documentary About Wayne Shorter)
by MHill | Sep 4, 2023 | Marion's Favorites, Movie Reviews, Nonfiction, Wayne Shorter
Wayne Shorter is my favorite musician. I have chronicled my admiration for musicians like Incognito, Pat Metheny Group, Sting, Bill Withers, and Michael Franks online over the years. Those are my favorites. But, Wayne Shorter has moved past them all. I spent my...
Wisdom From Kammbia Review 128: The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Aug 27, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. However, I did not come to his work through his magnum opus, The Book of New Sun. I've started with some of his standalone novels, like Pirate Freedom and The Land Across. Also, I've read the first book of some of his series...
Rereading Home Is The Sailor by Jorge Amado
by MHill | Aug 6, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I’ve decided for the rest of the year (and into 2024) to reread novels that I first wrote reviews for when I started the blog in 2011 and other books I read in my 20s and 30s. I want to rediscover why I read and start a new foundation for my reading life. To connect...
Happy Birthday Bill Withers!
by MHill | Jul 4, 2023 | Marion's Favorites, Music Reviews
Happy 85th Birthday to Bill Withers! Bill left us five years ago but his musical legacy as one of America's greatest singer-songwriters is permanent. He is one of my all-time favorite singers and his soulful, storytelling style of music carved out a unique career....
Best Book Ever Podcast 149
by MHill | Jun 26, 2023 | Best Book Ever Podcast, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I was invited back to one of my favorite book podcasts, The Best Book Ever Podcast, hosted by Julie Strauss. This was my third appearance on the podcast and we discussed one of my all-time favorite novels, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber. Faber's...
Rereading The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
by MHill | Jun 20, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"The rhetoric of a sermon was one thing; his wife's grim reality was another. Civilizations did not vanish smoothly and easefully; empires did not set like suns: empires collapsed in chaos and violence. Real people got pushed around, beaten up, robbed, made destitute....
The Way of Edan by Phillip Chase
by MHill | Jun 14, 2023 | Book Reviews, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Booktube has been around for some time and it has become a place where book lovers have gathered to watch videos about books. I have ventured into the Booktube world over the past couple of months and one of my favorite BookTubers is Professor and Author Philip...