Over the past couple of years, I have tried to find a home as reader (and a writer for that matter). While I've enjoyed reading across genres and have broadened my reading life in immeasurable ways. Still, I've always wanted a reading home that I connected with the...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 164: Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami
by MHill | May 14, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction about Artists, Haruki Murakami, Magical Realism, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
My previous review was a reread of A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami and admittedly I did not enjoy my reading experience the second time around for one of my favorite novelists and a book that introduced me to the Murakami fictional universe. However, I had been...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 147: The City and Its Uncertain Walls by Haruki Murakami
by MHill | Jul 22, 2024 | 2024 Book Reviews, Haruki Murakami, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Can we truly become our authentic self? This is the question Haruki Murakami attempts to answer in his latest novel, The City and its Uncertain Walls. It was already released in Japan in April 2023 and will be released in the United States this November. Murakami...
Wisdom from Kammbia Book Review 12: A Brightness Long Ago by Guy Gavriel Kay
by MHill | May 27, 2019 | 2019 Book Reviews, Guy Gavriel Kay, Marion's Favorite Books, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
You know when an author has become one of your favorites when you put down what you were currently reading and buy a new book to read it. Guy Gavriel Kay has become one of those "must read" authors for me. A...
Book Review 129: Children of Earth and Sky by Guy Gavriel Kay
by MHill | Mar 18, 2018 | 2018 Book Reviews, Guy Gavriel Kay, Magical Realism, Marion's All-Time Favorite Novels, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
Have you ever as a reader given a novel you did not finish another chance? Well, there is a first time for everything. I gave Children of Earth and Sky a second chance. I read it a couple years ago when it was first released. Kay writes beautifully, and the...
Book Review 120: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
by MHill | Nov 3, 2017 | 2017 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books
Some novels read fast. Non-stop page turning action that grabs your imagination and doesn't let go until you finish. Other novels read slowly like eating a well-cooked meal at your favorite restaurant. You take the time to eat your meal with a glass of...
Book Review 98: The Ocean At The End Of The Lane by Neil Gaiman
by MHill | Dec 13, 2016 | 2016 Book Reviews
I finally read a Neil Gaiman novel! It has taken me awhile to read Gaiman as a novelist, even though I read the groundbreaking and wonderful Sandman comic book series back in the 1990s. Gaiman is an author I have been meaning to read over the years and the time came...
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 64: The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
by MHill | May 12, 2015 | 2015 Book Reviews
One of the most surprising elements in being a book review blogger is how you can choose some books to review and how some books can choose you to review them. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro became the latter instead of the former for me. I recently heard an...