A place of wildly diverse book reviews sprinkled with frequent swears, opinions, and general nerdery
At Thanksgiving, my grandmother taught me how to make pies. It was always her thing to bring to the family feast. Now, that she can no longer stand to be on her feet that long, the job falls to me, and has done for a number of years now.
The below is a short piece of creative writing I did, in memory of the first time we made pies together.
Happy Thanksgiving! Continue reading “Apple Pie”
I generally don’t care for memoirs. They seem too self important and egotistical, because unless you’re a president, or a scientist who made a remarkable discovery, or a doctor who found a cure for something, I can guarantee you’re not that important. Continue reading “As You Wish…”
So, a cool thing happened this weekend with my book club meeting. A few months ago, while reading Sharon Kay Penman’s blog, she put up one of her infamous Book Bankruptcy Blogs. In it, I noticed a name I recognized – Judith Starkston, who was publishing a book called Hand of Fire.
“Is that… it can’t be… maybe it is a common name?” said my brain.
“I bet Google will know!” replied the rest of my brain. It can have some good ideas on occasion. So off we went to ask Google and lo, and behold! We were rewarded with a link! To a website! We clicked it! Continue reading “Hand of Fire: interview with Judith Starkston”
Many of us have seen the trend in wax tarts, basically wax potpourri. We’ve likely all bought them from large retail stores, maybe even gotten in on the whole Scentsy thing. However, some small businesses are making an effort to break into this retail niche. One such small business owner, Becky Anderson, is trying to do exactly that with her company, Two Timing Tart. Her unique scents are the trademark of her business, and definitely break away from the traditional, boring profiles of more well-known wax companies.
Becky, thank you for talking with me today!
A recurring theme/love interest in my life is Arthurian literature. I’ll read Arthurian lit in just about any incarnation. So it seems appropriate that the first book review I post here is for what may well be my all time favorite book.
The Mists of Avalon
by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Reviewed by KM Continue reading “The Mists of Avalon”
Hello, Dear Reader!
Welcome to Her Grace’s Library, where all things literary happen. Or so the plan goes. They say that the best way to make the gods laugh is to make a plan, so we shall see. Already I’m going off topic, since books and literature are not the only things that will be here. I also have a child, so there will be kid things. And music. There must be music as well. And science! I am not a scientist, but that doesn’t stop me from opining about it anyway. Also, there WILL be times when I geek out about Star Trek or Firefly or Dr Who or any number of fandom-based shiny things. Consider yourself warned. Oh, and I occasionally get on a soapbox about current events and politics. And by occasionally, I mean all the time.
I’m a bleeding heart liberal atheist with socialist tendencies, who follows scientific findings and discoveries, believes everyone should have all their needs met regardless of their circumstances in life, believes in equality of all kinds, believes in a woman’s right to choose, and who enjoys debate. I welcome differing opinions, but you must be kind to each other, at least on my blog. Verbally beat the shit out of each other elsewhere, but here you will be nice.
All that said, the main purpose for my brand new and shiny blog is to talk about books, literature, history, book reviews, and to write the occasional academic article. My first love is reading, and I agree with the late, great Christopher Hitchens when he said that “It is not snobbish to harbor grave doubts about somebody who seems uninterested in reading for pleasure or recreation.”
So, Reader, let us proceed into the Library!
Her Grace's Library 