"In this day and age, it may seem anachronistic to aspire to eternal works, or to ask for help from God with a painting or a poem. But we do not have any chance of accomplishing the first without the second." E. Lily Yu wrote the above sentence in the last section of...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 185: Exodus of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Feb 9, 2026 | Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I’ve spent the first five weeks of 2026 engrossed in Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the Long Sun Quartet. The saga of the Long Sun began with Nightside the Long Sun, progressed through The Lake of the Long Sun and Calde of the Long Sun, and reached its culmination in Exodus...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 184: Calde of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Jan 29, 2026 | Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Is giving yourself up as a sacrifice the right thing to do in order to bring peace? What boundaries are crossed when religion turns political and politics becomes religious? Those two questions came to mind after I finished Calde of the Long Sun, the third book in the...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 183: Lake of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Jan 19, 2026 | Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Have you ever read a novel and felt the story was heading one way, only to find it taking a completely different turn? This is the case with Lake of the Long Sun, the second book in Gene Wolfe’s Book of the Long Sun series. The story picks up right after the first...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 182: Nightside the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Jan 10, 2026 | Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Gene Wolfe has become an author who has grown on me throughout my reading life. I’ve praised his work on my blog for years, considering him among the best American fiction writers after WWII. Even though the science-fiction and fantasy literary community lauds him,...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 180: Sanshiro by Natsume Soseki
by MHill | Dec 18, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Booktube has become of my favorite places to find out about books, and I have watched a lot of content there. One of my favorite Booktube channels is Books with Zara. Zara has eclectic taste in fiction, and I have liked the vibe of her videos. She recently did a video...
Rereading Erasure by Percival Everett
by MHill | Nov 1, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction about Artists, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"A trout is very much like truth; it does what it wants, what it has to." The above quote came near the end of the novel, Erasure, by Percival Everett. I'm rereading this wonderful and thought-provoking novel again to see if it will make my all-time favorite novels...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 176: Four Souls by Louise Erdrich
by MHill | Oct 23, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Louise Erdrich, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Romans 12, Verses 19-21 reads as such, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, "if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 175: Afterlife by Julia Alvarez
by MHill | Oct 12, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
The PBS “American Masters” program I watched last week featured author Julia Alvarez and detailed how her important work in fiction helped make American Latina literature a major part of publishing in the 1990s. I have always known about her fiction since my days as a...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 174: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
by MHill | Oct 5, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
I have never read H.P. Lovecraft before, and it seems his stories reinterpreted by modern authors has come onto my reading radar. I read The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle earlier this year and that novella was a reinterpretation of Lovecraft's story, The...