Here's Max Booth III's Isaac, the main character in the book The Nightly Disease, to tell us. "This is my take on it. Hotels are the kind of places you don’t mind bringing your family to—you can expect good service, a nice breakfast. Motels, on the other hand, are where people take cheap dates for … Continue reading What’s The Difference Between a Hotel and a Motel?
Eileen is a well-written and strange little book, that is hard to recommend. But stay with me. It's slow. Fully three fourths of the book are just a few days in the life of Eileen, a rather odd young woman with no ambition and a social recluse by choice. She just goes to work at … Continue reading Eileen – Book Review
The following is a short excerpt from Seanan McGuire's Every Heart a Doorway that should be enough to either convince to buy the book right away because wow! The book tells the story of a group of teenagers that are trying to adapt to life after living in portal worlds (like the Narnia kids or Dorothy … Continue reading Just a Bit of Great Writing
Amazon has been around since 1994, and their first book bestseller list appeared in 1995. The book most popular that year on Amazon, and probably nowhere else, is quite perfect (but you'll have to wait to see what book it is). Looking at the best seller lists for the past 15 years gives us a … Continue reading Amazon’s Best-Selling Books for Each of the Last 15 Years, Rated
China Miéville is at the forefront of the "new weird", but This Census-Taker, while weird, seems like a departure from his other books. This Census-Taker is a book I liked but find hard to really recommend to others. The most interesting thing about it is the subtle hints to the larger world of his Bas-Lag … Continue reading Thoughts after reading Miéville’s This Census-Taker
Did you know that Chris Riddell is a genius? If you are like me, you may not even have heard of Chris Riddell, whose name I just learned last week. He is a cartoonist whose recent work includes illustrations to Neil Gaiman's excellent short story The Sleeper and the Spindle. But that's not what I … Continue reading 12 Hilarious Illustrations to Unwritten Books
There is an author you may not have heard of who is about to go really big. (Ok, if you are reading this blog you are actually somewhat likely to have heard of her). I speak, of course, of Victoria Schwab, author of A Darker Shade of Magic This is one of my favorite books … Continue reading This Author is About to Become Famous. Read Her Books Now and Impress Your Friends
Sometimes you see a cover and immediately know that you are going to buy the book. Dan Simmons' Drood is a great example of this for me. Below are two other covers I saw recently that I saw and just knew I had to own the books. 1. The Forest of Memory This is a forthcoming book … Continue reading These Two Covers are Just Jaw-Dropping
When we take a look at the recent Goodreads Choice Awards, we can see a few really interesting things. The first and most obvious thing is just how amazingly popular The Girl on the Train was last year. I mean, it's just ridiculous. Paula Hawkins' thriller got just a little less that double the votes of … Continue reading The Unbelievable Popularity of The Girl on the Train
I'm reading Undertow Publication's excellent anthology Year's Best Weird Fiction Volume Two. It was there I encountered the following sentence, the first in the story Loving Armageddon by Amanda C. Davis: She presses her cheek to the center of his chest, listening to the beat of his hand-grenade heart. Now. Here's why I think this is awesome. There's … Continue reading The Best First Sentence of the Year?
