Can a novel you read in your early 20s effect you in the same manner when you re-read it in your mid-40s? Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison gives this reviewer a split verdict to the aforementioned question. It is the story of an unnamed protagonist who leaves the...
Book Review 103: The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
by MHill | Mar 27, 2017 | 2017 Book Reviews, Jonathan Carroll, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"Reading a book, for me at least, is like traveling in someone else's world. If it's a good book, then you feel comfortable and yet anxious to see what's going to happen to you there, what'll be around the next corner. But if it's a lousy book, then it's like going...
Book Review 99: Trader by Charles de Lint
by MHill | Jan 13, 2017 | 2016 Book Reviews, Charles De Lint, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Newford, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Sometimes the best books are not the ones you get the most amazing reading experience from. But, the ones that touch you at the right time or season in your life. Trader by Charles de Lint fits that description. "I'll tell you about art. Do the best job you possibly...
Book Review 97: Ysabel by Guy Gavriel Kay
by MHill | Dec 1, 2016 | 2016 Book Reviews, Guy Gavriel Kay, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Ned Marriner, the fifteen-year old protagonist in Guy Gavriel Kay's tenth novel, Ysabel uncovers a startling discovery in an Aix-en-Provence cathedral. He is in the Southern France city with his father, a famed photographer who is shooting photos around the city for...
Book Review 88: Independence Day by Richard Ford
by MHill | Jul 23, 2016 | 2016 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Does living through your "existence period" mean you are truly an independent human being? Richard Ford attempted to answer that question in Independence Day, the second novel in the critically acclaimed Frank Bascombe series. Last year, I reviewed The Sportswriter,...
Book Review 75: The Wooden Sea by Jonathan Carroll
by MHill | Jan 2, 2016 | 2015 Book Reviews, Jonathan Carroll, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I've spent the last month of 2015 reading three novels by Jonathan Carroll. The Wooden Sea is the third of the Carroll novels I've read. You can look at the reviews of the other two Carroll novels: White Apples and Glass Soup here. I will admit after reading these...
Book Review 74: Glass Soup by Jonathan Carroll
by MHill | Dec 20, 2015 | 2015 Book Reviews, Jonathan Carroll, Marion's Favorite Books, 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...
Book Review 73: White Apples by Jonathan Carroll
by MHill | Dec 13, 2015 | 2015 Book Reviews, Jonathan Carroll, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I have spent the last several weeks reading three novels from Jonathan Carroll. This review of White Apples is the first of the Carroll novels I've read. I had never heard of Jonathan Carroll before reading this post from Neil Gaiman about him. Besides Gaiman, he...
Book Review 65: The Sportswriter by Richard Ford
by MHill | Jun 4, 2015 | 2015 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
The Sportswriter by Richard Ford chronicles an Easter Weekend in the life of Frank Bascombe, a failed novelist turned sportswriter. Ford's breakout third novel grapples with the themes of grief, a failed career, and unhealthy relationships. Bascombe's story is told...
Book Review 41: Middle Passage by Charles Johnson
by MHill | Jul 27, 2013 | 2013 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
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...