[Book] Of Curses and Kisses by Sandhya Menon

Book cover I usually don't do the comparative thing, but this one stuck me pretty directly.  Imagine the movie Crazy Rich Asians, but teenagers at a boarding school in the mountains outside of Aspen, with a broadly international cast.  Main point: pretty much everybody is insanely rich. The main character, Jaya Rao, is a princess from an old kingdom of India who is literally there to break someone's heart....

22 Jan 2020 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

Stopping Regular Book Blog

For over a year, I have published a book review every other week, on Wednesday, at noon.  Every week in the middle of both summers. Reading for review My wife is a librarian, and when I started this blog, it was partly a way for me to share something about the numerous pre-release books that she and I would get when we went to book events.  Also, when I started, doing this was fun, and I figured that if I were any good at it, maybe I would reach other readers....

6 Oct 2019 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[Book] The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen

Title Illustration I read somewhere that the story of Disney's Frozen was based on this book, so I decided to read and review it for this blog.   I want to be clear that there is almost nothing that the story of Frozen has left in common with this original fairytale, except for a talking reindeer.  This is a short read, and I've linked to the full text via Project Gutenberg in the book information block below....

3 Oct 2019 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink

[Book] The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Book cover The Graveyard Book isn't a horror novel, but it is absolutely goth and macabre. The story follows a boy from 18 months old when his whole family is murdered and he wanders off into the night through his childhood as he is raised in a graveyard by two ghosts and a vampire as guardian (who supplies physical things, like food and clothes).  At one point, we meet a werewolf and ghouls as well....

18 Sep 2019 · 2 min · Gary Allen Vollink