Wayne and Rebecca Madsen

East
by Edith Pattou
During the holidays, we spent much of our time reading books, catching up on my one-book-a-month goal. Although I spent most of my break digesting some books on postmodern theory and archiving (non-related), this book, I mostly devoured on the flight back from Michigan; Rebecca had read it before me during the flight to Michigan.  read more »

The Chronicles of Prydain
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The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King
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Warning: Spoilers  read more »

We liked Shannon Hale's The Princess Academy, so on Melissa's recommendation we picked up The Goose Girl to read to each other on our trip to Oregon.

The book was good. I was really worried it was going to turn out to be a "coming of age story" (bleech), but I was actually quite captivated the whole book through. Moreso because Rebecca was reading it to me and that always makes a book better.  read more »

I was recommended this book by some friends and after the first chapter I was terrified. And captivated. But by the middle of book, I was tired and honestly stopped reading.

Let's just say, I got the point early on: people who have children and have two incomes are in trouble for no fault of their own. Well, sort-of not their own. But a fascinating study nonetheless. Here's a break down of their analysis.  read more »

I was really excited to pick up P.D. James' novel after I saw the trailer for the upcoming film based on the book. The concept behind the plot captivated my interest from the start.  read more »

Now, I'm not a stickler about grammar, per se. Sure, I notice on occassion when there is a misplaced or missing punctuation mark. But it doesn't ruin my day or take the "s" off my proverbial skittle to see an it's where an its belongs. Given Lynne Truss's warning at the start of the book that you should put this book down if you don't gasp in horror when you see incorrect grammar, I almost put the book down without reading past the first page. I called her on her hyperbole and sarcasm though, and I'm glad I did.  read more »

Amazingly, I survived high school and college English Lit classes without having read this book. I read 1984 three or four times, but never Brave New World. All I can say is that I shouldn't have read the forward for this book. I saved it until the end, just in case it had spoilers in it. Even though I saved the forward until the end, it still spoiled the book for me.  read more »

The first book I ever read by Robert Cormier was After the First Death. Although I admitted that the book was well written intellectually, the book was very dated in a 1970's world and I didn't give it credit for being a wonderful novel. Being dated to the 1970's is key to understanding both First Death and I am the Cheese.  read more »

There was a time I would have embraced fully James Joyce's work. However, at this point in my life I see this work as being romantic dribble.  read more »

Robin McKinley once stated that every author has one story they are trying to get out and all their works can be traced through that story line. Although I hadn't noticed that before, after reading these two books (and several discussions with Rebecca on the topic), I'm convinced that many authors follow this pattern. Dan Simmons has an obsession with taking literary genius and bringing a reincarnation to a future science fiction conflict. And his grasp on making an interesting world definitely convinces me that there are volumes of backlog notebooks he's written for his story.  read more »