Paul Tremblay’s A Head Full Of Ghosts is a beautiful novel, a post-modern tale of demonic possession that leaves you questioning where truth lies in our surreal/unreal world. Publisher William Morrow sums up A Head Full Of Ghosts: The lives of the Barretts, a normal suburban New England family, are torn apart when fourteen-year-old Marjorie… Continue reading A Head Full Of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
I made a social blunder recently when I disparaged Harry Potter during a family vacation. I started reading the Harry Potter series this summer, along with my wife and our 11-year-old daughter. There are lots of Harry Potter fans in our extended family. I have several nieces and nephews that grew up with author J.K.… Continue reading Editorial: Harry Potter and the Pretentious Book Reviewer
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole is funny, wise, and as close to a perfect novel as you’re likely to find. Protagonist Ignatius C. Reilly is a bloated buffoon, a man-baby who lives with his mother, has a troubled digestive valve that causes him to burp and fart with great frequency, and possesses… Continue reading A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
The magic of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling lies in its combination of simplicity and familiarity. Like a three-chord pop song, Harry Potter sticks in your head, causing pleasant sensations as it bounces around your brain. We know this story; an unlikely hero with a regal destiny is sent on an… Continue reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a slow literary slog. This 1967 novel, considered a landmark work of Latin American magical realist fiction, is a major drudge. It felt like it took me 100 years to read. I couldn’t find my way around the Buendia family tree and all its weird, gnarled branches.… Continue reading One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
We all want to be Hugh Howey when we grow up. Howey is a folk hero to those of us who dip our toes in the waters of self-publishing. After publishing Wool with a small press, Howey self-published his post-apocalyptic sci-fi series on Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, where it found a huge audience. The following… Continue reading Wool Omnibus Edition (Wool 1 – 5) (Silo series) by Hugh Howey
War is hell, and perhaps there is no more fiendish quality to armed conflict than the loss of humanity that comes with being a wartime soldier. Life is simultaneously priceless and cheap. There are a million ways to die during a war and Louis Zamparini manages to avoid all of them in Unbroken: A World… Continue reading Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand
Every single one of us has got the devil inside, and nobody knows it better than Ignatius Parrish the narrator of Joe Hill’s novel Horns. Ig wakes after a night of sorrowful drinking to find he’s grown horns on top of his head. Worse yet, the horns bring out the worst in everyone Ig encounters.… Continue reading Horns by Joe Hill
Author Rick Riordan found a way to make 6th grade Social Studies interesting by giving Greek mythology a modern update and employing a likeable adolescent hero in this first installment of his Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series, The Lightning Thief. Percy is a dyslexic, ADHD kid who has been kicked out of six schools… Continue reading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
Neil Gaiman walks the same hollowed ground as Roald Dahl and Clive Barker; creators of lush, detailed modern fables that scare the crap out of children. Gaiman’s Coraline has gone from cult classic to timeless classic since its release in 2002. We all relate to a kid that doesn’t get enough parental attention, and Coraline’s heroic… Continue reading Coraline by Neil Gaiman
