"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....
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 115: Sula by Toni Morrison
by MHill | Nov 1, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Toni Morrison, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
“Outlaw women are fascinating---not always for their behavior, but because historically woman are seen as naturally disruptive and their status is an illegal one from birth if it is not under the rule of men. In much literature a woman’s escape from male rule led to...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 113: Erasure by Percival Everett
by MHill | Aug 19, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Percival Everett, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Percival Everett is a writer I have wanted to read for some time. I have come across online articles and social media posts over the past year about his work. Well, I finally did a Goodreads search on his books and chose Erasure for my first Percival Everett...
Rereading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
by MHill | Jun 29, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Rereading Series, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
I just finished reading Bel Canto by Ann Patchett for a second time today. Bel Canto is Patchett's most well-known and beloved novel. This blog post is not another review of what I have already written. But, it is another look at her story and hopefully a different...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 95: The Wood Wife by Terri Windling
by MHill | Jan 13, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
In my previous post, I decided to give myself a reading challenge where I will read the books on my physical and digital shelves for this year. The goal of this reading challenge is to read more of what I already have instead getting something new. Also, I hope to...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 78: The Final Revival of Opal & Nev by Dawnie Walton
by MHill | Apr 24, 2021 | 2021 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"The easiest thing in the world is to be yourself. The hardest thing in the world is to be yourself." Those two sentences were appropriate for one of the two major characters, Opal Jewel, in Dawnie Walton's excellent debut novel, The Final Revival of Opal & Nev....
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 50: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
by MHill | Jul 19, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Black History Month, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Octavia Butler, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I want to update a review from 2012 for one of my all-time favorite novels, Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Parable of the Sower is the story of Lauren Olamina, a teenager growing up in a grim LA suburb where their gated community provided a semblance of a...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 42: Face of an Angel by Denise Chavez
by MHill | Apr 18, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, 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
Rereading a novel can bring different expectations from when you first read it over twenty-five years ago. This is the case with Face of An Angel by Denise Chavez. Face of an Angel tells the story of Soveida Dosamantes, a waitress at El Farol Restaurant in the...
Book Review 143: The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
by MHill | Sep 27, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books
Wow! Sometimes as a reader you get to read a book that make you say the aforementioned expression after you close the book. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah is such a novel for me. The story of two French sisters, Vianne and Isabelle Mauriac, and their harrowing...
Book Review 140: The Little Country by Charles de Lint
by MHill | Aug 26, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Charles De Lint, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Rereading Series
Back in the early to mid-1990's, Charles de Lint was one of two novelists I read regularly. The other novelist was Dean Koontz. I had not been a big reader at that point in my life and I can attribute the love of reading in my adult life to both of these authors. ...