Book Review: The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa

Translated by Philip Gabriel, Published by Berkeley 2017 A lot of Japanese authors and their novels have crossed my path lately, and The Traveling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa is one of them. It's inviting cover and petite size suggest a light easy read, but this tiny book is packed with humor, emotion and a …

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Book Review: Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Published by Penguin Random House 2017 There are far too few novels out there that address mental illness; especially books where the protagonist is the one with mental health issues. Honeyman shows that this can clearly be done well, with gentleness, tact, and even humor. Written in first person POV, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine …

Book Review: Once Upon a River, by Diane Setterfield

I loved this book. Not only is the cover of Once Upon a River beautiful, but I love a good story about mysterious waters. I also loved the tone, the writing style, and the wonderfully developed characters. Set in a small village on the river Thames, the story follows events surrounding the sudden and dramatic …

Book Review: Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami

This book is a real mind bender. I took so many notes and at the end of my note book is this acronym: WTF!!!! So, yeah, that kind of sums it up. I can't wait to tell you about it! How did I Hear About Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World? This novel …

If No One Reads Your Writing, Are You Still a Writer? (And Other Questions to Keep You Awake at Night)

My husband is not a creative type. He is an engineer; everything he does is precise, rational, pragmatic. I rarely engage him in conversations about books and writing, because we think too differently. I believe in possibility and the power of the imagination, and he believes in only what he can see. Now and then, …

Book Review: Tell Me Lies, by Carola Lovering

I read Tell Me Lies in about four days. I eagerly turned the pages even when I felt like screaming in frustration at the main characters––or, maybe because of that? Tell Me Lies is a New Adult novel that highlights a variety of disorders that can afflict us when young and often shapes our lives …

Book Review: The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

Winner of the 2000 Man Booker Prize This book came to my attention while taking Atwood's online writing course through Masterclass, where she explained the use of different literary devices. The Blind Assassin is an example of a "story within a story", something you might be familiar with if you've read Frankenstein or The Princess …

Writing With Others

Writing is, by nature, a solitary endeavor. Inspiration, conception, research and development, and execution are, for the most part, done in a state of introspection. Collaboration, if any, occurs when we finally allow someone to look at what we produced during that time, a period of length which varies for everyone. What may take one …

Book Review: A Dog’s Way Home, by W. Bruce Cameron

  I picked up A Dog's Way Home on a whim. I had recently put down a deposit on a puppy and this was on a shelf by the register. I do not normally read books that star animals and it sat in my "To Be Read" (TBR) pile for a while. By the time …

Her Hair, Her Choice.

"She cut her hair." "What? Short?" "Yes! Chopped it all off! What was she thinking?" "She was such a pretty, elegant young lady." The woman's companion shook her head. Her own hair, I noticed, was plaited in a long braid draped across her bosom. "All the young girls are cutting their hair off now." In …