Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 65

"Tales from Alegaesia: The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm" by Christopher Paolini

It's been a decade since I read Eragon by Christopher Paolini, though not quite long since I finished the Inheritance Cycle, but it's definitely been a minute or two since I visited Alegaësia.  I very much enjoyed the series as a whole -- it's one of the few fantasy series I've been able to get really into -- so it was a big treat to discover this new book at Walmart while on vacation!

This book has three short stories bound up within the framework of Eragon and Saphira helping to bu...

"The King's Players" by Charity Bishop

This series just keeps getting better and better.  And that's saying something, because The Usurper's Throne  and The Welsh Gambit  were totally engrossing and enjoyable.  But The King's Players made me truly care about some of its characters, not just observe them, and that makes it a cut above, in my opinion.

This book is all about King Henry VII and his loyal, ruthless, wily enforcer, Sir Thomas Lovell (#youlikemebecauseimascoundrel), who are trying to discern if Sir...

"A Worthy Rebel" by Jody Hedlund

I have mixed feelings about this book.

On the one hand, I like the message it conveys:  that you don't need to try to be like other people in order to be important.  But on the other hand, it's a lot more focused on romantic feelings than I generally enjoy.  It's not quite my flavor of tea, if that makes sense.

Beautiful, delicate Lady Isabelle runs away from the cruel man her stepmother wants her to marry.  Cole Warwick, a handsome woodcutter, rescues her. 

Actually, th...

"The Adventures of the Woman Homesteader: The Life and Letters of Elinore Pruitt Stewart" by Susanne K. George

So, y'all already know that I dearly love Elinore Pruitt Stewart's two collections of letters, Letters of a Woman Homesteader  and Letters on an Elk Hunt .  They're flavorful and fascinating and fun.  And the fact that they're mostly based in fact is just sooooooo cool to me.

Well, this is a combination biography of Stewart and a collection of MORE of her letters.  It shows just how much care she put into crafting her writings, more than I'd realized, but also highlights her...

"Olivia Twist" by Lorie Langdon

This is such a cute, fun book!  I mean, it's not cute in the fluffy-kittens-and-chirping birds way, but it's just filled with adorable people who happen to be stuck in some pretty dire situations.  The people are cute and adorable, even if everything going on around them is desperate and dangerous.  Does that make sense?

Basically, it picks up where Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens ended, sorta.  It's hard to explain.  It uses the story of Oliver Twist as its...

"The Edge of Over There" by Shawn Smucker

I think this book would have been easier to get into if I'd read the book that precedes it, The Day the Angels Fell.  But I haven't.  And I didn't have time to go find and read that one first because I was reading this for the INSPY awards and I was on a deadline.  So the first hundred and fifty pages felt like I'd never seen Buffy the Vampire Slayer before, and somebody grabbed a random disc from season 5 of the show and made me watch it by myself, with no friends or inte...

"Curtains for Three" by Rex Stout

I love Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe mysteries.  They relax and rejuvenate me.  Just hanging out with Archie and Wolfe and Fritz and Saul and Fred and Orrie and Inspector Cramer in the Brownstone on West 35th Street is like a little vacation for my inner being.

This is one of the collections of three short mysteries that are especially delightful when I'm very busy.  If I have to set the book down between stories, I won't have to worry I'll forget what's going on, as the stories won't...

Top Ten Tuesday: Summer TBR 2019

This week, That Artsy Reader Girl is asking us for the top ten books on our TBR list for the summer.  I must be honest here:  I'm a mood reader.  I can make TBR lists all day long and into the night and then discard them the minute I finish a current read and look around for my next book.  



So I make no promises about whether or not I'll actually read any of these.  Except one, because my church's book club is discussing that next month, so I simply must read it.

T...

"The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder" edited by William Anderson

Oh.  My.  Word.

So, my mom picked up this book at the Wall Drug bookstore in Wall, SD, a couple months ago.  She showed it to me when I was visiting her last week, and I ended up reading the whole thing over the course of about three days.  It was fascinating and encouraging and wonderful.

It was fascinating because of how well I feel like I got to know the woman behind the books I've loved basically all my life.  These letters start in 1894 and go 1956, and they are st...

"Speak Easy, Speak Love" by McKelle George (again)

This is the perfect summer read.  Breezy and witty, filled with summer's sunshine and shadows, and crammed with characters I adore.  Lots of substance, but also lots of fun.

I mean, that's my personal definition of a perfect summer read, anyway.

I reviewed this pretty fully last year when I first read it, so if you want to know more about the plot, you can read about that in my other review.  This post is going to be more about gushing about all the things I love.

First of all, it...