Tag: Religion

The Mothers

February 21, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: Nadia is a high school senior, ready to escape her small California town for college. The abortion she has seems, at the time, to be the best choice – but while her life goes on without much pause, the lives of those around her are deeply affected and will be for the rest of their days. The Review: Another ToB Irregular wrote on Twitter that this book is an exploration of the following question: “What if your […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Abortion, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Brit Bennett, Family, Fiction, Literature, Religion, review, Reviews, Riverhead Books, The Mothers, The Tournament of Books 2017

The Seed Collectors

January 9, 2017 by Drew

The Short Version: The Gardener Family has secrets. After the death of the eldest family member, some of those secrets begin to come to light – secrets of paternity, of love, of how the middle generation all died on a mysterious expedition, and of real world magic. The Review: It is a goddamn shame that just as Scarlett Thomas delivers her best novel so far, one that highlights all of her eccentricities and skills in perfect measure, that American audiences are […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: 6, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Botany, Family, Favorites, Fiction, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, review, Reviews, Scarlett Thomas, Science, Speculative, The Seed Collectors

Roundup, October 2016

October 31, 2016 by Drew

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn 3 out of 5 The Short Version: A young woman on the margins, working as a fraudulent psychic, lands a gig investigating a creepy house and creepy child for another woman. What ensues is a classic gothic battle for sanity. The Review: Flynn’s voice is unmistakeable and it was great to hear it again, seeing as it’s been awhile since Gone Girl and we’re likely to have to wait a while longer yet for her next […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Literature, Mystery, Non-Fiction, Poetry • Tags: A Head Full of Ghosts, A Thousand Mornings, A Visit to October Country, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Contagion, Dana I. Wolff, Disease, Exorcism, Fiction, Gillian Flynn, Heidi Julavits, Horror, Literature, Mary Oliver, Metafiction, Mikhail Bulgakov, North Brother Island, Novella, Paul Tremblay, Peace, Poetry, Psychics, Religion, Review Roundup, Reviews, Roundup, Russia, Speculative, Stalin, The Devil, The Grownup, The Master and Margarita, The Prisoner of Hell Gate, The Vanishers, Thriller, Typhoid Mary

Mr. Splitfoot

October 28, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Sometime in the 1990s, Ruth and Nat, two orphan children raised on a farm of other orphans, meet a mysterious stranger who begins to manage their budding career as psychic mediums. In the present, Ruth’s niece Cora is unexpectedly pregnant – and meets Ruth late one night, when she convinces Cora to leave on a trek with her. The two tales will intertwine in far upstate New York, across time and space… The Review: I knew next […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: A Visit to October Country, Book, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Ghost Stories, Ghosts, Gothic, Indiespensable, Literature, Mr. Splitfoot, Religion, review, Reviews, Samantha Hunt

Shylock is My Name

January 20, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: Simon Strulovitch is a present-day art dealer in Northern England whose daughter is running amok. As she rebels from him and from their shared Judaism, he chances a meeting with Shylock himself – and finds his only option for satisfaction being to demand his pound of flesh. The Review: It should come as no surprise that one of the world’s foremost Jewish authors would take on one of Shakespeare’s thorniest plays and most anti-Semitic plays. What does surprise – […]

Categories: Fiction, Literature • Tags: Advance Review, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fiction, Hogarth Shakespeare, Howard Jacobson, Judaism, Literature, Philosophy, Religion, Reviews, Shakespeare, Shylock, Shylock is My Name, The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare

Bookburners, Season One

January 13, 2016 by Drew

The Short Version: After her brother nearly dies from calling up a demon, NYPD Detective Sal Brooks joins an oddball team based out of the Vatican and charged with hunting down magical relics. But even the Vatican isn’t necessarily safe from evil… The Review: So let’s talk first about the structure of this here thing. SerialBox Publishing is taking Mark Z. Danielewski’s idea for The Familiar (a reading experience that mirrors the experience of a really great TV series) and doubling down: a […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: Action, Adventure, audiobook, Book Review, Book Reviews, Bookburners, Books, Brian Francis Slattery, Fantasy, Fiction, Magic, Margaret Dunlap, Max Gladstone, Mur Lafferty, Religion, Reviews, Serial, Serial Box, Serial Novel, Xe Sands

The Merciless

October 12, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Sofia has just moved to a new town and her new high school is as thorny as any. Somehow, though, she falls in with the popular girls and meets a cute boy – so maybe things will be okay. But when the clique kidnaps the weird rebellious Brooklyn and sets out to exorcise her, what seemed like Mean Girls gets a whole lot darker and devilish. The Review: I’m intrigued, personally, by having read this book and The Hellbound […]

Categories: Fiction, Horror • Tags: Danielle Vega, Exorcism, Fiction, high School, Horror, Religion, Teen, Teenagers, The Devil, The Merciless, Young Adult

The Library at Mount Char

October 9, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: Father is missing, possibly dead. The Librarians are unable to return to the Library and left to their own devices, out in a world that they can control but cannot understand. But Carolyn has a plan – one that might very well change the nature of reality itself… if she (and the world) can survive it. The Review: I’d like to propose a certain subset of books, mainly for conversational classification as opposed to any genre/critical meaning. […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction • Tags: A Visit to October Country, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Fantasy, Fiction, FirstReads, Religion, Reviews, Scott Hawkins, The Library at Mount Char

Good Omens

March 23, 2015 by Drew

The Short Version: The world was created. This is generally regarded as an only so-so idea – but the end is coming! The Antichrist is born unto… an utterly ordinary human family (thanks to a clerical mixup with the babies). And one angel & one demon, friends over the millennia, decide that maybe we don’t need the end of days to happen – but they’ve gotta find the kid first. Hijinks ensue. The world, such as it is, goes on. The […]

Categories: Fantasy, Fiction, Literature • Tags: Angels, Apocalypse, Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Death, Demons, etc, Fantasy, Fiction, Good Omens, Humor, Literature, Magic, Neil Gaiman, Re-Reads, Religion, Reviews, Terry Pratchett, Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, The Devil, The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Witches

Raging Biblio-holism

The overwhelming urge to collect, consume, and consider books