The Book of Jonah has been on my mind for the past several weeks. I don’t know why one of the most popular Old Testament stories has been in my thoughts lately. I decided to embrace those thoughts rather than push them away; my plan was to first revisit the Book of...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 198: The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas by Machado de Assis
by MHill | Jun 29, 2026 | Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
One gap I have in my reading life is classic fiction. I’ve read David Copperfield & Great Expectations by Dickens, Madame Bovary by Flaubert. I have Mansfield Park by Jane Austen & Don Quixote by Cervantes on my Kindle app to be read. For some reason, I have...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 197: To Leave A Warrior Behind by Jon Tattrie
by MHill | Jun 10, 2026 | Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Nonfiction, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Writing
"Writing isn't about doing what everyone else tells you to do. Writing is about doing what your creative voice wants you to do." I begin this review with those two sentences from Kristine Kathryn Rusch's The Write Attitude. Rusch writes about what a writer's mindset...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 196: The Horse by Willy Vlautin
by MHill | May 27, 2026 | Book Reviews, Fiction about Artists, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
He explained to her how he was tired of the uncertainty of a musician's life, tired of being gone nearly every night of the week while she sat at home alone. And he was tired of playing other people's songs in casinos. "I mean I play five nights a week with Ronnie...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 195: Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami
by MHill | May 26, 2026 | Book Reviews, Haruki Murakami, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Nonfiction, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Writing
Have you ever picked a book from your library and started reading it? I did that a few days ago with Novelist as a Vocation by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is one of my favorite authors, and this is my eighth book of his I’ve read and reviewed on this blog. I was...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 194: The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings
by MHill | May 18, 2026 | Book Reviews, Magical Realism, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Have you read a novel and you are still not sure what to make of it? I feel this way after reading The Ballad of Perilous Graves by Alex Jennings. I enjoy fantasy books that are unique and don’t have sequels, and I found out about this one recently. I’m glad it did...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 193: Bless Me Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
by MHill | Apr 29, 2026 | Book Reviews, Magical Realism, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
In a hypothetical “most used copies” category for novels, Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless Me Ultima would stand among heavyweights like Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, Jon Steinbeck’s Of Mice & Men, James Hilton’s Lost Horizon, and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 190: Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark
by MHill | Mar 23, 2026 | Book Reviews, Magical Realism, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, P. Djeli Clark, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
"For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12 Revised Standard Version) I...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 186: Break Blow Burn & Make by E. Lily Yu
by MHill | Feb 15, 2026 | Book Reviews, Christianity, Christianity & Art, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Nonfiction, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Writing
"In this day and age, it may seem anachronistic to aspire to eternal works, or to ask for help from God with a painting or a poem. But we do not have any chance of accomplishing the first without the second." E. Lily Yu wrote the above sentence in the last section of...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 185: Exodus of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Feb 9, 2026 | Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
I’ve spent the first five weeks of 2026 engrossed in Gene Wolfe’s The Book of the Long Sun Quartet. The saga of the Long Sun began with Nightside the Long Sun, progressed through The Lake of the Long Sun and Calde of the Long Sun, and reached its culmination in Exodus...