Rachel Kovaciny's Blog, page 96

"The Searchers: The Making of an American Legend" by Glenn Frankel

The subtitle of this book makes it sound like this will be 340 pages about how the 1956 movie The Searchers was made.  But actually, only the last few chapters are about filming the movie.  Instead, the book begins by trying to sort fact from fiction regarding the real-life abduction by Comanche warriors which inspired the book that was in turn made into the film.

On the cover, you see a picture of John Wayne from the movie on the left.  On the right is a photograph of Cynt...

"Wizards, Hobbits, and Harry Potter" edited by Mark Whitlock

This book was not exactly what I was expecting.  I thought it was going to be all about the bad and evil things contained in fantasy fiction, and why we should stay away from them.  The subtitle of "What Your Family Needs to Know" certainly made it sound that way.  But actually, it was a thoughtful discussion of what the Bible says about magic, the power of storytelling, and also how to read fiction in a discerning manner.  My copy also includes a CD of an audio discussion...

"Something Rich and Strange" by Ron Rash

[image error] It took me a verrrrrry long time to read this book, considering it's only 434 pages long.  That's because most of the short stories included were, well, rich and strange.  I would read one a day, maybe.

I absolutely loved that nearly all the stories took place in the mountains of western North Carolina.  Them's my stomping grounds, folks.  Many stories mentioned towns like Boone and Blowing Rock that I have spent many happy hours in (including my honeymoon).  Some inv...

Tag -- I'm It!

The two books I'm reading right now are loooooooooooooooooong. Long in pages, and long in time it takes to read them.  Which means I've been neglecting this blog dreadfully. I was just thinking, "Wouldn't it be nice if I had a bookish tag sitting in my drafts I could finish off?" And I didn't, which made me frowny. But then I was playing catch-up on reading the blogs I follow, and look what I found on Flowers of Quiet Happiness! Kara was so kind as to tag everyone in the blogosphere, whi...

Top Ten Tuesday: Fandom-onium

Today's topic from The Broke and the Bookish is a "fandom freebie."  I'm choosing to focus on ten literary worlds that can count me as a devoted fan.



I'm thirty-six, so I tend not to use the term "fangirl" to describe myself.  But I absolutely use the verb "fangirling" to describe my behavior at times -- I can act all fangirly even if I'm not exactly a fangirl.  Just drop a character name or quote a line, and *boom!* I'm ready to discuss, dissect, drool, or daydream.  Also...

Mini March Reading Tag -- Summary

You may recall me posting briefly about this event.  I decided just to do one summary post at the end of the month about what I read for each author, since I didn't read anything new or big.


For Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, I read "A Scandal in Bohemia" and "The Adventure of the Copper Beeches," both of which are in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.  I'm teaching ninth-grade literature and creative writing to our oldest niece, and those were both things I assigned to her.

For William Shak...

"The Merchant's Daughter" by Melanie Dickerson

So many of you have recommended Melanie Dickerson's fairy tale retellings to me over the past few years, and I have several of her books on my to-read list.  When the price for the e-book version of Dickerson's version of "Beauty and the Beast" dropped recently, I decided to give it a try.  And I read the whole thing in only three days, which necessitated a couple of extra battery rechargings for my phone.

So, yes, I definitely enjoyed this book!  The Beast, Lord Ranulf le Wyse,...

"Black, White, Other: In Search of Nina Armstrong" by Joan Steinau Lester

Jamie at Books and Beverages reviewed this recently and made it sound so good, I put a hold on it at my library right away.  Culture clashes, and the way people navigate them, have fascinated me for a long time, probably since I moved from Michigan to North Carolina when I was twelve and discovered people who thought, talked, and behaved in ways different than I did.

Nina Armstrong's dad is black.  Her mom is white.  And they just split up.  Nina now lives with her mom in t...

Top Ten Tuesday: Spring in the Air!

Actually, we're in the middle of a winter storm here, so all the flowers are coated in ice and look very bedraggled.  But it's supposed to warm up this afternoon, so I'm really hoping no permanent damage has been done to our peach and cherry-plum trees.  They're so laden with blossoms that I've been hoping for lots of fruit.



Be that as it may, spring officially begins next week, and the list prompt from The Broke and the Bookish reflects that fact.  Here are the top ten books on...

"The Phantom of the Opera" by Gaston Leroux

It's Beauty and the Beast Week over at Meredith's blog, On Stories and Words!  Be sure to stop over there to see all the fun posts, games, and so on.  For this event, I am reviewing The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux, the gothic novel that inspired the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical.  While The Phantom of the Opera is not strictly a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, it does share a lot of similarities, which I will explore here.


I became a fan of the musica...