I must admit I did not think my first review for 2014 would be a non-fiction book. Since I tend to read more fiction than non-fiction and all my reviews reflect that truth. Anyway, there is always a book that jumps out at you and asks to be read and reviewed. Why...
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 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 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...
Book Review 40: Cold Fire by Dean Koontz
by MHill | Jul 18, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
A little over a decade ago, I went on a Dean Koontz reading binge. I read at least ten or eleven of his novels and I couldn't get enough of them at that time. However, my reading tastes has changed quite a bit over the years and I really didn't have a desire to go...
Book Review 37: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
by MHill | Apr 20, 2013 | 2013 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
"For me writing has always felt like praying." "Adulthood is a wonderful thing, and brief. You must be sure to enjoy it while it lasts." Those touching, powerful quotes are from Minister John Ames, the protagonist of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Gilead tells his...
Book Review 34: The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
by MHill | Jan 14, 2013 | 2012 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
Have you ever read a book that you knew instantly you should have read years ago? I knew it after reading the first chapter of The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I was working at a mom-and-pop bookstore in Santa Fe, NM in 1996 when this novel was published. I...
Book Review 26: Athol Dickson’s The Opposite of Art
by MHill | Aug 11, 2012 | 2012 Book Reviews, Athol Dickson, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
Athol Dickson is becoming one of my favorite novelists. Last year, I did a review for his Lost Mission novel and I throughly enjoyed it. Now, I'm doing a review for his latest novel, The Opposite of Art. Also, he is the first novelist I've done a second review for on...
Book Review 25: Havoc In Islandia by Mark Saxton (Islandia Quartet Book #4)
by MHill | Jul 30, 2012 | 2012 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Islandia Quartet, Marion's Favorite Books
The past two reviews, The Islar (a sequel) and The Two Kingdoms (a prequel) to the underground utopian classic, Islandia, has shown a depth and clarity of a fictional world unlike anything I've ever read before. Havoc in Islandia, a second prequel to Islandia, I...