Dana Swier Huff's Blog, page 96

Book Blogging

I have loved reading and books for as long as I can remember. I have been writing about books I read here for a little over five years now. Over time, this blog became devoted (by and large) strictly to reading pursuits (although I may occasionally be writing about Apple Mac and iPhone apps, especially if I think my book friends might be interested in them). I just read all the book bloggers' posts in my RSS feed. I spent the morning (and a few minutes of the afternoon) watching the newer adapta

The Woman in White

Wilkie Collins's novel The Woman in White is one of the first "detective novels" and is still considered one of the finest Victorian "sensation novels." I decided to read it after reading a student's praise of it while reading AP applications (we have an application process to take AP English courses at my school). I have heard references to the novel for some time now, one of the most recent in conjunction with the recent spate of Charles Dickens novels such as Drood and The Last Dickens. I dec

New eReader App and Updates

The Unofficial Apple Weblog reviewed Barnes & Noble's new eReader app today, and it doesn't look pretty.

This is a bad product debut. It has an onerous and ill-thought out sign up routine, lousy selection and many prices are way too high.

I had to test the veracity of the reviewer's claim about the cost of the books, so I did a search for Neil Gaiman's books in the B&N reader and the Kindle store. I found that the prices for books in the Kindle store were several dollars less without exception and

Out of Sorts

Nothing I have picked up to read since finishing Katherine Howe's novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane has grabbed me. I don't honestly know what I want to read, and I'm not having much luck. I am feeling kind of blah. I am wondering if part of it is that I really want to write something, but I feel that I don't have any ideas I want to explore right now. It's a bit of a depressing state to be in.

I have also been listening to Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince read by Jim Dale in my ca

Meleagant

It looks like I owe the writers of First Knight, a film I detest, an apology. They didn't craft Meleagant out of whole cloth as I thought. I really remember Mordred abducting Guinevere. I am wondering if some of the versions of her abduction that I've read didn't swap Meleagant for Mordred. It's strange I don't remember him at all in The Mists of Avalon or Le Morte D'Arthur. I don't even remember him from Chrétien! It makes me wonder how closely I could have read. I know it's been well over 15 y

Beach Books

I'm hitting the beach tomorrow! We're staying in Florida for a few days next week, and so I'll have plenty of choice, I decided to bring along the following books (the first of which I have just started reading):

Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver (the sequel to The Bean Trees; I have taught The Bean Trees several times, and I have been meaning to read the sequel for years) Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson The Big Over Easy by Jasper Fforde (the first of Ffo

The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning this morning to finish Katherine Howe's debut novel The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane. This novel intertwines two stories. The first is the story of graduate student Connie Goodwin, who we meet as she is sitting for her oral qualifying exam for the doctoral program in history at Harvard. The qualifying exam is a clever device, which allows for Howe to give readers unfamiliar with the Salem Witch Trials some background without feeling too much lik

In Progress: The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane

I am about halfway through The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, and what a delightful read it has been so far. Not since I first picked up Diana Gabaldon's Outlander have I read a book that contains a confluence of so many things that interest me or that I can relate to. First of all, I was taken aback when the protagonist, Connie, referred to her grandmother as "Granna." That's what I call my grandmother, and I have always believed I invented it. I had to do a Google search to assure myself th

Beaded Journal

Iliana held a contest in honor of her blog's fifth anniversary, and I was one of the winners. My prize was one of her famous beaded journals. Take a look:

I didn't expect the journal to come wrapped. Look at the pretty paper and ribbons!

Here's the unwrapped journal. Pretty colors!

Here is the side of the journal. You can see the beads.

The journal opened from the back. Like Iliana says, the journals lie flat when opened.

Here's the open journal.

Very pretty! If you would like to buy your own, visit I

Interred with Their Bones

Jennifer Lee Carrell's novel Interred with Their Bones is the story of Kate Stanley, accompanied by a series of helpful and untrustworthy sidekicks, who is searching for Shakespeare's lost play Cardenio after being put on the scent of the play by her mentor, Rosalind Howard.

I wanted to like this book, but in the end, I wonder why Matthew Pearl alone of the writers I've read seems capable of writing a good literary thriller. Interred with Their Bones is a dizzying and sometimes quite poorly writt