Although I’m picky enough about what I read that I’m generally sure I’ll enjoy the books I borrow or buy, occasionally there are some that miss the mark. These are books that had promise, but fell flat. The Hero and the Crown This book was promising — strong female main character, dragons, etc. — but…
Tag: didn’t like
Review: Roosevelt’s Beast
In 1914, Theodore Roosevelt, his son Kermit, and a handful of naturalists and explorers began a months-long trip down the Rio da Dúvida (River of Doubt), an unmapped tributary of Brazil’s great Amazon River. The expedition claimed the lives of several, and nearly killed Roosevelt. Louis Bayard’s novel Roosevelt’s Beast uses this true trip as…
The Worst Time to Fail at Editing
A couple months into my tenure as a government employee, it occurred to me that I’d never read America’s Constitution. I know the preamble (Schoolhouse Rock version, anyone?), but it feels like of un-American to not read the whole document at least once. So I picked up The Constitution of the United States of America:…
Review: Hild
Little is known about the girl who would eventually come to be known as St. Hilda of Whitby: she was born in 614 A.D., baptised in 627, disappeared from written record, and reappeared 20 years later and became a powerful political advisor and teacher. Hild is author Nicola Griffith’s attempts to fill in the historical…
Review: The Caged Graves
When Verity Boone returns to Catawissa, Pennsylvania in 1867, the warm welcome she expected is anything but. She barely remembers her own father, and her fiance isn’t anything like the man with whom she’s exchanged tender letters. Even worse, when walking through the town graveyard Verity spots her mother’s grave — outside the cemetery wall…