It's okay to be imperfect. It's okay to not do everything just right. It's okay to be who you are....imperfections included. The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown brings the importance of imperfection home in this book. I read Brown's Daring Greatly last month and...
Marion’s 31 Favorite Books of All Time
by MHill | Aug 30, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
2020 has been a challenging year. Dealing with a worldwide pandemic, political unrest here in America, and high profile celebrity deaths like Kobe Bryant and Chadwick Boseman have made it a year that no one saw coming. However, I have reached August 31st and another...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 53: The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa
by MHill | Aug 9, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
The Housekeeper and The Professor by Yoko Ogawa is my first read for Women in Translation Month 2020. It is the story of a single parent housekeeper and her relationship with a former mathematics professor that can not take care of himself after a serious accident a...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 52: White Pages by Ran Walker
by MHill | Jul 24, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
In a reading life, you will come across a novel that speaks directly to what you are going through. It is interesting that the power of a story can connect with a book that you read at the proper time. This is the case with White Pages by Ran Walker. Kamal Jackson is...
Wisdom From Kammbia Review 51: Pacific Edge by Kim Stanley Robinson
by MHill | Jul 21, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Kim Stanley Robinson is one of the science fiction writers I have read throughout my reading life. He joins Octavia Butler, Greg Bear, and Robert Silverberg as the science fiction writers I have found interesting and thought provoking to read. Pacific Edge is the...
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, 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 49: Woven In Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
by MHill | Jul 16, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
There are books that make you want to turn the page to find out what happens next. However, there are a few books that turn the page for you and invite the reader into the story. Very few novels make you feel the latter. Little Country by Charles de Lint is one of...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 48: Late Bloomers by Rich Karlgaard
by MHill | Jul 6, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Sometimes there is a book on your shelf that is waiting to be read. The book waits patiently until you have gotten other books out of the way before you are ready to read it. Late Bloomers by Rich Karlgaard is one of those books. I bought this book shortly after it...
Marion’s Black Author Reading List
by MHill | Jun 8, 2020 | Black History Month, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I have been deeply affected (and many Americans) by the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25th. Seeing a human being die like that should never happen in a civilized society. As a black man, I saw my worst fears come to light once again. Also, I’m a book...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 45: Eva Luna by Isabel Allende
by MHill | May 24, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"Words are free, she used to say, and she appropriated them; they were all hers." That sentence from early in the novel, Eva Luna, by Isabel Allende captures the spirit of her protagonist. Eva Luna is a spinner of tales and the stories from growing up poor on the...