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...
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 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 49: Woven In Moonlight by Isabel Ibanez
by MHill | Jul 16, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, 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 41: The Spectator Bird by Wallace Stegner
by MHill | Apr 4, 2020 | 2020 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies
As a reader, there are some books (and authors) you have been meaning to read. But other books (and authors) would come before it. Unfortunately, Wallace Stegner fell into this category for me. I've been meaning to read his...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 31: Ascending by Meg Pechenick
by MHill | Dec 1, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
What if you were the only person on a spaceship with an alien race? You were the person groomed to speak an alien language and take part in an intercultural exchange between planets? You would want to do it in the first place? If you did, how you feel about it?...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 11: The Knight by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | May 5, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Legendary author science-fiction and fantasy author Gene Wolfe died on April 14th at the age 87. Wolfe created a body of work over five decades that placed him at the top of the genre and considered by many to be...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 9: Lord of Emperors by Guy Gavriel Kay
by MHill | Apr 13, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Guy Gavriel Kay, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Guy Gavriel Kay has become an author I look forward to reading. His brand of fantasy captured my attention in Ysabel, Children of Earth and Sky, and Sailing to Sarantium, the first book in Sarantine Mosaic...
Book Review 147: Sailing to Sarantium by Guy Gavriel Kay
by MHill | Nov 19, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Guy Gavriel Kay, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
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 92: Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
by MHill | Oct 2, 2016 | 2016 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Octavia Butler
There has not been a novel that caused such discomfort, challenge my assumptions, or made me defensive while reading like Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. It is the sequel to Parable of the Sower and continues Lauren Olamina's quest to create a new religion,...
Book Review 74: Glass Soup by Jonathan Carroll
by MHill | Dec 20, 2015 | 2015 Book Reviews, Jonathan Carroll, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorite Duologies, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I mentioned in my previous review that I have spent the last month of year reading three novels by Jonathan Carroll. Glass Soup is the second of the Carroll novels and I will be posting a review on The Wooden Sea by the end of the year. These Carroll novels have given...