book review
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In the fifteen hundreds, a noble girl is born in France. She is named Marguerite, after her mother, who dies in childbirth. Her father dies when she is three years old. The orphaned Marguerite, along with everything she inherits – chateau, vineyards, villages, wealth – are left in the care of her guardian, her father’s…
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“The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive.” Harvey is a ten year old boy, and like many such young boys, he prefers fun and games to rainy days and chores. But it is February, he is bored, and there is no respite in sight. Until one stormy day, just as Harvey is…
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Baldur’s Gate is a video game franchise based on the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role playing game. It is also the name of one of the main cities in the game. The most recent iteration of the video game, Baldur’s Gate 3, was released in 2023 and remains extraordinarily popular, not least because of the…
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Imagine Europe, the shores of Italy, the Aegean Sea. Now imagine it full of monsters – dashing vampires and tattoed Nordic werewolves. Imagine its inhabitants practicing sorceries and Black magics, calling forth the elements and summoning the dead. Imagine elves hungry for human flesh held back by holy crusades, and a Savior who is the…
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Book originally read and reviewed end of April, 2026. According to the book, “moon of the crusted snow” refers to the month in deep winter where the air is so cold, it freezes the very surface of the snow, creating a crust on top as what remains below stays powdery and light. This season –…
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One spring in the city of Golden, a man named Theo moves onto the Promenade. He is eighty-six years old, brought to town on some kind of mysterious business, and he’s not sure how long he’s going to stay. He becomes a regular at the coffee shop The Chalice, because they serve the finest espresso…
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The same friend who recommended El Deafo in response to my concerns about accurately and sensitively writing a Deaf character also told me about Exile and Pride: Disability, Queerness, and Liberation by Eli Clare. In this case, the purpose of the recommendation was two-fold. On one hand, it was in response to my desire to…
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This was a book club pick for May 2026, which is when I originally read the book and wrote this review. I loved it so much I include a little homage to it in my own novel – graffiti of cockroaches in an alley. “Art is what we leave of ourselves in other people.” This…
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When Mouse, a thirty-something editor with a dog named Bongo, gets a call from her father asking if she’s willing to clean out her recently deceased grandmother’s house, she doesn’t hesitate. Her father never asks her for anything, so the moment he does, she’s ready to answer. That’s just what family does. He warns her…
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The other day, while having a writing session with a good friend of mine, I talked at length about my efforts in writing my novel, which includes a Deaf protagonist. I mentioned how I messed up a significant part of my first draft relating to her, and how I had to spend time researching the…
