Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 70

New Story in a New FREE Anthology!

It's true!  My "flash fiction" piece called "Knighthood" now appears in the brand-new anthology It Happened in a Flash presented by Holly Lisle.  You can get the e-book for FREE on Amazon or on Barnes and Noble, and other places too, I'm told.

The sixty-four stories in this anthology all revolve around something impossible happening, and they're all 500 words or less.  And if you think it's tough to cram a full story into 500 words, with a protagoni...

"Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Richard and Florence Atwater

I'm afraid I liked this book better as a kid.  It's still cute and fun, but my suspension of disbelief got stretched a little too far for me to totally enjoy it.  Not that it was a huge favorite of mine as a kid either -- I remember reading it and wishing my parents would let us have snow in the house, but that's about all I recall, so I must have only read it once or twice.

I read it now because my 8-yr-old loves penguins.  This is the last book we'll be reading this semester f...

"I'd Rather be Reading" by Anne Bogel

What a perfectly delightful book!

Really, reading this made me wonder sometimes if Anne Bogel had been reading my thoughts and copying my life.  I identified with her behavior toward books so fiercely in so many ways!  I'm book-bossy.  I need due dates to help decide what books to read.  I've been known to go to the library multiple times in one week.  I don't have any book twins, but I've got loads of book friends upon whom I rely for recommendations.  I rearrang...

"Death by the Book" by Julianna Deering

The more Drew Farthering Mysteries I read, the better I like them!  I've been reading them all out of order, but it hasn't mattered, as each one has been fun in and of themselves.  And I have enough practice reading book series that I can add to the timeline in my head a little helter-skelter, as needed.

In Death by the Book, Drew Farthering, his girlfriend Madeline, and his pal Nick Dennison must solve a series of seemingly random murders.  Each murder draws closer and closer t...

"Twenty and Ten" by Claire Huchet Bishop

A few homeschooling mom friends recommended this to me a few years ago when I was teaching my oldest about WWII and trying to figure out how to explain the Holocaust to him because he's very sensitive, and was even more sensitive back then.  Unhappily, I never found a copy before we were done with school for the year.  Happily, I DID find a copy last year sometime, and finally managed to read it myself this fall.  

Even though my son is in 5th grade now, I'm still going to...

"Marilla of Green Gables" by Sarah McCoy

Today is Lucy Maud Montgomery's birthday!  To celebrate, I'm reviewing a book that's based on her Anne of Green Gables series, Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCoy.  As you would expect, this is a prequel to the Anne books, creating a deeper backstory for Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert than is provided in Anne's stories.

I really liked the first two-thirds of this book.  Reading the imaginings about Marilla's life as a quiet, reserved girl who knows loss at a young age, who...

"Jane of Austin" by Hillary Manton Lodge

This is a refreshing book.  It's sweet, salty, full of likable characters and enough problems to keep things interesting.  It's also a retelling of Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, set in Austin, Texas, in the present day.

People told me I would love this book.  I bought a copy.  Then I resisted reading it for months because I was afraid I wouldn't actually love it.

But I put it specifically on my Autumn To-Do List as something I wanted to read this fall, so I...

A Literary Christmas Challenge 2018

You probably remember me participating in this challenge for the last two years.  It's so fun, I'm doing it again this year!  Basically, you sign up at In the Bookcase, you pick some festive books to read and review, and then you link your reviews back at In the Bookcase.   You can check out other people's reviews too, maybe get ideas for Christmasy books you want to read, maybe make a new blogging friend, etc!


This year, Tarissa is also hosting a giveaway in conjunction wi...

Top Ten Tuesday: Thank You Notes

This week is a freebie for TTT, hosted now by That Artsy Reader Girl.  I'm doing Ten Book-Related Thank-You Notes.  Here goes!

1.  Dear Cowboy, thank you for being a loving husband who works hard at his job so I can buy books.  You keep me happy.

2.  Dear Public Library, thank you for having a good selection of books so I don't have to buy every book I want to read.  You keep my marriage happy.

3.  Dear Book Bloggers, thank you for faithfully reviewing books!&n...

"An Hour Unspent" by Roseanna M. White.

TODAY is the 100th anniversary of the ending of World War I.  Or, the Great War, as they called it then.  Perfect time to review this book, as it takes place during WWI.  In fact, I tried to hold off on finishing this book until today, but the truth is, I finished it a couple days ago because I couldn't stop reading it.  However, I did manage to hold off on reviewing it until today so I could mark this very important day in a special way on my blog!

I would have finished it...