Looking for Your Next Book

The fifteen year old in me absolutely loves this.  I sure would have liked having something like this in the 1970s when I was an avid comics - specifically Marvel - reader. I would have referenced this constantly with the introduction of new characters or villains (or at least someone i didn't think I was very familiar with). This purports to "define the Marvel Universe."  Not just the cinematic universe. But where is the line drawn?  What is knowingly excluded?  The Marvel Universe I grew up with included westerns like Kid Colt, Rawhide Kid, and Two-Gun Kid. These are not included.  This is not a surprise since it definitely appears to be geared toward the superhero stories and there's still plenty of information to include. (I should note that this isn't just a dictionary of character names and home-worlds, but anything that might be unique to the Marvel worlds.) But what IS interesting is the omission of major players like Magneto ... he is listed multiple time

Author Jacqueline Winspear wraps up her Masie Dobbs series with this, book number eighteen. She addresses this decision to end the series in her introduction, acknowledging that fans may not be happy with the decision but why she's made the decision. It is 1945, London, and Maisie discovers four youngsters squatting in an abandoned home - a home that the owners have asked Maisie to check on. The four orphans are terrified of being discovered and distrustful of Maisie, though Maisie recognizes they are still 'good' children as they've taken care of a British soldier who stumbled upon them while in the throes of what we would today refer to as PTSD. Maisie also chases some ghosts of the past - she learns that her first husband, James, had a son with Enid whom he never spoke about. It's hard not to review the entire series of Maisie Dobbs in this wrap-up volume. Especially hard given that much of this book is a wrap-up in itself. It creates a bit of an odd paradigm bec

The opening sentence describing this book on Goodreads really is a very good set-up. "Escape isn’t the hardest challenge for a slave – it’s staying free afterwards." Mia and Thomas are brother and sister, on the run from the tyrannical King Williams. Mia has a magical power of foresight and the king wants her to use that power for him and his securing of power over the kingdom. But the siblings aren't interested in being used in this way. The territory they travel through is a gritty, desolate landscape with dangers of its own (such as the fierce sand-hogs) which Mia can't seem to foretell with her sight. Escape seems hopeless until they encounter a band of rebels and hear rumors of an airship that might help take them away. This book is billed as a steampunk adventure with shades of magic and alchemy tossed into the mix.  And while I understand why this classification, I find it to be more of an adventure fantasy (escape the mad king!) in a dystopian world.  There

Seanan McGuire's Tidal Creatures is the third book in her Alchemical Journeys series and it's a powerhouse.  It's been a while since I read the previous two books, but it's likely that you may want to read them before taking this particular journey. The Lunar gods take human hosts and navigate the skies at night over the impossible city. The Alchemists are looking for a way to infiltrate the skies, using the lunar gods, and then rule the world. ("Alchemists have no morals" we are told.) At Berkely College, Jane, the human incarnation of the god Change'e tries to avoid a professor who she is sure can see her god identity, while meeting up with another god who is returning from his journey across the sky. What she finds, however, is the incarnate of the god Mani at the door to the world where they begin their journey. Working with other gods, and bringing the death - most likely a murder - to the attention of her superiors, Jane will try to find out how this

I'm a fan of the works of Steve Almond, ever since I picked up and read, somewhat randomly, his collection of short stories, My Life in Heavy Metal . I will gladly buy and read anything he writes. Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow , Almond's latest book, is part memoir, part 'how to' for writers, and part teacher's classroom notes. Although Almond is a bit self-deprecating throughout, he uses it to point out mistakes he's made , hoping it helps others avoid the pitfalls: I realized that early in the drafting process, I wasn't thinking about plot at all. I was simply trying to get a beat on my characters, who they were and what they wanted. thus, I spent a lot of time simply marching them around their daily routines and hoping they would bump into plot. ... This kind of thinking requires the author to step back and consider the larger arc of her story. And again, speaking bluntly, I suck at this kind of stepping back. I'm an inveterate improviser. Put

 Paulie Johansson is in a long-term relationship with Declan. It's comfortable, but hardly exciting. On a lark, Paulie auditions to be on a Swedish reality television show,  Sverige och Mig ( Sweden and Me ) in which contestants participate in a number of contests, someone gets eliminated and the ultimate winner gets to connect with Swedish ancestral relatives. Paulie is accepted to the program and leaves her boyfriend and best friend to spend a couple of months in Sweden filming the new season of  Sverige och Mig. She gets highly emotional, crying a lot - which the Swedes love (their nickname for the show is "Crying Americans"), though she manages to make it through most of the challenges. There isn't a lot of personal time, but Paulie does manage to talk to Declan on occasion, though the conversations seem tepid at best.  She then has an emotional affair with a crew member from the Swedish production team. When Paulie returns home, having both pushed  Sverige och M