Another year has come and gone and I've read and reviewed 16 books for the blog in 2013. I had a good year reading and looking forward to a better reading year in 2014. Here’s my favorites in 2013: (click on the title to read that book’s review) 1) Gilead by...
Book Review 49: The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman
by MHill | Jan 4, 2014 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews
One of the things, I have tried to do as a book reviewer for this blog is to read fiction outside of my comfort zone. I believe it's important to stretch your reading experience and grow as a reader in the process. It's too easy to only read in the genre you are...
Book Review 48: Extremes by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
by MHill | Dec 20, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Retrieval Artist Series
What happens when a rogue scientist decides she wants to kill an entire moon city with a virus in order to create her own version of a superhuman race? That question is the basic plot of Extremes by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Extremes is the second novel in the...
Book Review 47: The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
by MHill | Nov 17, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Retrieval Artist Series
Has anybody ever read a science fiction mystery? I must admit I love when authors combine genres in their books. Dean Koontz is one of the masters of genre combining and twisting in his works. The Disappeared by Kristine Kathryn Rusch is the first novel I've read...
Book Review 46: The Husband by Dean Koontz
by MHill | Oct 19, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews
"I would have love to read that book with you, babe." My wife made that comment after a recent conversation about books. I told her I had read Stephen King's Bag of Bones recently and her interest in that book surprised me. She was more of the movie watcher than...
Book Review 45: All God’s Children & Blue Suede Shoes by Ken Myers
by MHill | Oct 6, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Nonfiction
What is pop culture? That's the one question I've always wanted to get a definitive answer to in all of my adult life. Well, I believe I have found a book that attempts to give me that answer. All God's Children & Blue Suede Shoes by Ken Myers explores the...
Book Review 44: Gray Matters by Brett McCracken
by MHill | Sep 13, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Nonfiction
"Christians have a hard time with nuance, gray areas are not out strong suit." "Discernment is a tricky business, much more complicated than a checklist or matrix of black-and-white criteria. And it begins on the inside, with an awareness that while discernment is a...
Book Review 43: The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith AKA JK Rowling
by MHill | Aug 23, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews
I had made it a personal policy to not read and review for this blog the hottest or most publicized novel of the year. However, I did almost break my policy last year with Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. But, I decided against it. Well, my resistance has finally dropped...
Book Review 42: A Mind To Murder by P.D. James
by MHill | Aug 11, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Adam Dalgliesh Novels, Book Reviews
P.D. James has been given the unofficial title, Queen of Crime, and after reading A Mind to Murder showed why she has earned this moniker. A Mind to Murder began with the murder of Enid Bolam, the administrative head at the Steen Psychiatric Clinic in London. She had...
Book Review 41: Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
by MHill | Jul 27, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Charles Johnson, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog
Middle Passage is the story of Rutherford Calhoun, a free black man, living in 1830's New Orleans. Rutherford is a thief, hustler, and womanizer who has lived a nomadic, vagabond life and somehow stayed out being sold into slavery. Well, there's a prim and devout...