The PBS “American Masters” program I watched last week featured author Julia Alvarez and detailed how her important work in fiction helped make American Latina literature a major part of publishing in the 1990s. I have always known about her fiction since my days as a...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 174: The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson
by MHill | Oct 5, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
I have never read H.P. Lovecraft before, and it seems his stories reinterpreted by modern authors has come onto my reading radar. I read The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle earlier this year and that novella was a reinterpretation of Lovecraft's story, The...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 173: Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma
by MHill | Oct 1, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Having had this blog and reviewed almost 500 books for close to fifteen years, I’ve realized my favorite stories are coming-of-age stories. I cannot pinpoint exactly why coming of age stories pique my interest the most as a reader. But they do. Ormeshadow by Priya...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 172: Aleph by Paulo Coelho
by MHill | Sep 26, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
A few years I finally read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho. Coelho’s most well-known inspirational novel has captivated and enchanted readers around the world. I will admit that I did not get the same feeling as many readers have from it. However, it intrigued me, and I...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 169: Mbaqanga Nights by Leonora Meriel
by MHill | Aug 8, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Fiction about Artists, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Two Jewish brothers emigrated from Ukraine to South Africa in the 1800s to find a better life. The grandson of one brother opened a mixed-race jazz club in South Africa during apartheid. Mbaqanga Nights told the story of how the grandson managed South African politics...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 167: The Ballad of Black Tom by Victor LaValle
by MHill | Jul 26, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Magical Realism, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
One thing I have learned in the last few years of reading, that first impressions of a novel are not always accurate. Sometimes a second impression can give a novel a better chance of being read than the initial impression. This is the case for The Ballad of Black Tom...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 166: The Famished Road by Ben Okri
by MHill | Jul 17, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Magical Realism, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
"People who use only their eyes do not SEE. People who use only their ears do not HEAR. It is more difficult to love than to die. It is not death that human beings are most afraid of, it is love." These words come from the father of the protagonist, Azaro, in Ben...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 165: Magical Realism by Maggie Ann Bowers
by MHill | May 21, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Book Reviews, Magical Realism, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Nonfiction, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
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 163: Bloodchild & Other Stories by Octavia Butler
by MHill | Feb 17, 2025 | 2025 Book Reviews, Black History Month, Book Reviews, Octavia Butler, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
It's been awhile since I read Octavia Butler and I had planned to read her short story collection, Bloodchild & Other Stories for quite some time. Well, I had an opening last week and read this excellent and important collection. Butler writes in the preface, “The...