Guy Gavriel Kay is becoming one of my favorite authors and joining a list that includes Jorge Amado, Jonathan Carroll, and Charles de Lint Sailing to Sarantium will be the second Kay novel I have read this year and the third one in the past couple of years. Sailing to...
Book Review 146: Green Lantern Mosaic #1 by Gerard Jones and Cully Hamner
by MHill | Oct 24, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
A reader asked what influenced my fictional world of Kammbia by email a few days ago. I thought about this question since that email and I had always believed my direct influences were Charles de Lint's novels about Newford, Canada and Jorge Amado's novels about...
Book Review 145: Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
by MHill | Oct 20, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Nonfiction, Writing
It has always fascinated me on what makes art sells over the long term. Whether Star Wars from Film, Harry Potter from Books, Michael Jackson's Thriller from Music, or Seinfeld from TV, it's been interesting to see what makes the public connect with certain artistic...
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 142: The Girl on Paper by Guillaume Musso
by MHill | Sep 12, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
I will admit that I'm a reader for story more than anything else. Beautiful wordplay and language is nice and interesting. I can appreciate technical craftsmanship. It doesn't mean I won't read challenging or difficult novels. But it must have a story at its core...
Book Review 141: The 6:41 to Paris by Jean-Phillippe Blondel
by MHill | Aug 31, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
One of my reading goals for 2018 and beyond is to read more translated fiction. Reading is one of those activities that can take you to another place, another culture, or another perspective with little risk to the reader. The only risk is a few dollars (if you buy it...
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. ...
Book Review 139: The Artist’s Journey by Steven Pressfield
by MHill | Aug 23, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
"Your artist's journey is unique to you. You alone are on your path. Your job is only to follow it and be true to it. Who knows what heights it may eventually bear you to? You are an artist. Your journey--however humble, however fraught, however beset with thorns and...
Book Review 136: The White Raven by Carrie D. Miller
by MHill | Jun 22, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
I never thought I would like reading a book about witches. Well, that's the power of reading. You can end up liking something unexpected. The White Raven by Carrie D. Miller is the story of Aven Dovenelle....
Book Review 135: The Man in The Maze by Robert Silverberg
by MHill | Jun 14, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
"Science Fiction, more than any other form of literature, is a progress, and it comes with a sell-by date. Some old SF can become unreadable. Some reputations erode with time. What we respond to, once the sell-by date is past, is art and, perhaps, is also truth."...