Sunday, May 6, 2012

Between the Covers - Book Review #13

This book review brought to you by the late wizard, Tatsu!

Still slogging through the backlogs of books I've read on bed rest while recovering at home and in the hospital ... Here's another installment from your friendly neighborhood demon writer.

1) Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith was waaaaay more entertaining for me than his Pride and Prejudice zombies novel. In fact, I confess on never finishing that one. This one I finished, though! I read it in two days. It was very amusing and well worth a read. A good blend of history and vamps, if ever the two should meet. Don't expect a really complicated plot, but expect to laugh.

2) From the Teeth of Angels by Jonathan Carroll. This is one of his earlier books and a lot of people reviewed it as
not "mature writing." I'm not sure what those reviewers meant. The subject matter discussed was death, a very mature topic, and having just had a brush with death myself, I found his insight poignant and downright hilarious in a rdeliciously dark way, which is just what I like. If you like reading magic realism or cross genre fantasy, then check out this interesting view on death for yourself. It's good, really good. I swear, you will find yourself wishing you'd written the darn thing yourself!

3) Black Swan, White Raven edited by Ellen Datlow. A great fairy tale collection. One of her earlier collections, but all the authors are stellar and the fairy tale twists are entertaining. If you like the other fairy tale collections she's edited, then read this one!

4) Wicca: the Complete Craft by D.J. Conway. This book covers the basics of Wicca for beginners. Like Ellen Dugan's books, it's written in a friendly tone. The material is helpful, but I didn't like think the order it was presented in was the most logical. I also thought some of the material needed to be discussed a little more in depth, though for beginners or for research material, this book is a good starting point.

As always, happy reading and happy writing to all!

2 comments:

Erin O'Riordan said...

Good to see you blogging again, Nora.

I liked ALVH. Sometimes, I forgot I was reading fiction and fooled myself into thinking I was reading history.

Shah Wharton said...

I love these between the covers post. Straight to the point no messing and you always read a t least a couple of books I want to read! For me today? Number one and possibly four, although two sounded interesting too.

PS: Come check out the 7 lines following the 77th line of Finding Esta - My WIP - and see who else I passed this beautiful meme on to - You're one ! :)

Hope you're feeling better? I say that holding my breath. Also, a question re thyroid pooh - do you suffer HOT FEET? Grr.... My feet have steadily risen in temperature over the past year and now, to the touch they are cold, but they feet emerged in boiling water! Its 2.30 and I cannot sleep because of them. (Hope me moaning about something so irrelevant doesn't serve to piss you off? I do realise it's incredibly minor in the great scheme of things - Just don't know anyone else who has thyroid issues and its apparently linked?) Hugz. X