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...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 151: To Barcelona and Back by Pamela Sargent
by MHill | Aug 23, 2024 | 2024 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, MH Travel, Nonfiction, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Writing
I truly believe that the universe has a way of bringing the right book into your life when you need it most. This is the case with To Barcelona and Back: One Writer’s Tour of Spain by Pamela Sargent. Sargent, a veteran science fiction writer, was at a crossroads in...
Marion’s Eight All-Time Favorite Short Stories (Part One)
by MHill | Dec 15, 2023 | Marion's All-Time Favorite Short Stories, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Short Story Review, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
Over the past couple of years, I have read more short stories. Short stories have added an extra dimension to my reading life and diversified my reading. I have become a bona fide short story reader and these eight stories are my all-time favorites. I've divided my...
Marion’s Sixteen All-Time Favorite Novels (Part Two)
by MHill | Nov 27, 2023 | Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Wisdom From Kammbia Column
The number 16 symbolizes trust, intuition, balance, and leaning into your own wisdom. In addition, it’s a number that isn’t commonly seen on all-time lists, but I thought it was the right choice for my list of favorite novels. I just posted part one of my all-time...
Wisdom From Kammbia Review 128: The Death of Doctor Island by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Aug 27, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Gene Wolfe, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom From Kammbia Novella Review
Gene Wolfe is one of my favorite authors. However, I did not come to his work through his magnum opus, The Book of New Sun. I've started with some of his standalone novels, like Pirate Freedom and The Land Across. Also, I've read the first book of some of his series...
Wisdom From Kammbia Book Review 125: The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin
by MHill | May 1, 2023 | 2023 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorite Books, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Nonfiction, Rereading Series, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Writing, Writing and Publishing Resources
"All Art is entertainment. That's so clear it's fatuous to repeat it. Art and Entertainment are the same thing, in that the more deeply and genuinely entertaining a work is, the better art it is. To imply that Art is something heavy and solemn and dull, and...
Wisdom From Kammbia Story Review 19: The Past Is A Dream (The Launch of a Blacktopia) by Maurice Broaddus
by MHill | Mar 18, 2023 | Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Short Story Review, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
"No one ever considers the impact of a single life well-lived. The relationships made and lives touched. How a person might walk through history inadvertently." Those words of wisdom spoken by Nora Bradford, pilot of Ghana's first interstellar spaceship and longtime...
Wisdom From Kammbia Story Review 18: The Galactic Industrial Complex by Tobias S. Buckell
by MHill | Mar 6, 2023 | Short Story Review, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
Tavi is an intergalactic cab driver trying to hold on to his NYC cab driving job and make ends meet. However, when he picks up an octopus-looking alien that commits suicide by jumping out of his cab, Tavi could lose his job. His employer offers him a new cab to cover...
Wisdom From Kammbia Story Review 15: Seven American Nights by Gene Wolfe
by MHill | Dec 27, 2022 | Gene Wolfe, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Short Story Review, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
What is America? The late Gene Wolfe attempted to answer this question in a novella that has been one of the genre's best works of short fiction since its publication in the Damon Knight's 1978 anthology Orbit 20. Seven American Nights won the 1979 Hugo Award for best...
Wisdom From Kammbia Story Review 11: Come Home to Atropos by Steven Barnes
by MHill | May 5, 2022 | 2022 Book Reviews, Marion's Favorites, Marion's Reading Life Blog, Short Story Review, Wisdom From Kammbia Column, Wisdom of Kammbia Story Review
Steven Barnes writes a sarcastic, charming story that comes as an infomercial, designed to attract rich white folks who want to end their lives in paradise on a Caribbean island. However, the story reveals the illusion underneath. Travel to exotic lands always appears...