What happens when we stop dreaming? And what if we could steal the dreams of someone else and take them for our own? Would we do it, even if it meant the destruction of the people we’re stealing from? That question is at the heart of The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline (2017). This Young AdultContinue reading “‘The Marrow Thieves’ explores a dystopian indigenous world”
Category Archives: Reviews
The ambiguities of race resonate in ‘Passing’
I wanted to read a classic of African-American literature during February and the solution was found when the New York Times Style Magazine’s T Book Club chose Passing (1929) by Nella Larsen as its monthly selection. The slim novel — really more of a novella — is set in the 1920s and explores the practicalContinue reading “The ambiguities of race resonate in ‘Passing’”
Mina Baites plays a bittersweet tune in ‘The Silver Music Box’
Johann Blumenthal is a German silversmith, a talented silversmith who counts both Gentiles and his fellow Jews among his regular customers in The Silver Music Box (2017) by Mina Baites. Filled with love for a homeland that doesn’t always love him back, he enlists in the German Army to fight in World War I. BeforeContinue reading “Mina Baites plays a bittersweet tune in ‘The Silver Music Box’”
Andy Weir’s Madcap Misadventures and Math on Mars
The Martian (2012) is the story of an astronaut on a manned mission to Mars who gets left for dead when his crewmates evacuate in a crisis. It has a lot of the elements that made me think I didn’t like science fiction for so long. Primarily, it has techno-babble. Lots and lots of techno-babble.Continue reading “Andy Weir’s Madcap Misadventures and Math on Mars”
The Three Investigators get their start in this children’s classic
With a reluctant helping hand from film director Alfred Hitchcock, no less The Secret of Terror Castle is the first case for the Three Investigators — aka Jupiter Jones, Pete Crenshaw and Bob Andrews, teenage boys living in Southern California circa 1964. Mastermind Jupiter has recently won a contest that earned him 30 days ofContinue reading “The Three Investigators get their start in this children’s classic”
Classic ‘Mother Night’ resonates all these years later
Vonnegut could not have known how his homegrown Nazi theme would play out in the 21st century We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. Howard W. Campbell Jr., the narrator of Vonnegut’s brilliant 1966 novel Mother Night, is pretending to be a Nazi —Continue reading “Classic ‘Mother Night’ resonates all these years later”
Miss Silver dives in at the deep end in ‘The Silent Pool’
Who wants to kill Adriana Ford? And how many will die before the villain is found? The first question to be answered in any Golden Age mystery featuring Miss Silver is simple: How will the retired governess-cum-detective acquire her client? Up to now in the series she has been hired by total strangers on trains,Continue reading “Miss Silver dives in at the deep end in ‘The Silent Pool’”
Rogue cops face off against rural Idaho town in ‘Blue Heaven’
can anyone save annie and william? I have read the first couple of books in author Box’s Joe Pickett series, but Blue Heaven (St. Martin’s Press, 2008) is a standalone suspense/thriller about some rogue L.A. cops who retire to Idaho with their ill-begotten gains and proceed to wreak havoc on the rural community. (The titleContinue reading “Rogue cops face off against rural Idaho town in ‘Blue Heaven’”
‘A Divided Loyalty’
Cold case heats up in latest Inspector Rutledge mystery When Inspector Ian Rutledge quickly solves the murder of an unknown young woman, he’s just as quickly assigned to follow up on a similar cold case in Avebury, known for its series of standing stones akin to the more famous Stonehenge. The case is tinged withContinue reading “‘A Divided Loyalty’”
‘Just Mercy’
Author’s note: It’s #ThrowbackThursday here at An American Bluestocking, when I share earlier takes on books I think are worth your time. I originally wrote this review in January 2016; it was published on LibraryThing. This book broke my heart. One of the (few) encouraging things that seems to be coming out of our currentContinue reading “‘Just Mercy’”
An American Bluestocking 