Category Archives: Reviews

Official book reviews.

Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson

The surprise (for me) in reading Winesburg, Ohio came in the interiority of the characters Anderson describes. It rather reminded me of something written by Tove Jansson

Le Morte d’Arthur

Thomas Malory

Le Morte d’Arthur is not actually one long epic about the life and death of King Arthur, but rather a collection of stories of the knights of the Round Table fused by Malory into a somewhat coherent tale…

Mockingjay

Suzanne Collins

After the events of Catching Fire, our 17-year-old heroine Katniss finds herself part of some rebel plot hatched by the supposedly destroyed District 13 to overthrow the evil Capitol…

Catching Fire

Suzanne Collins

The second book in the Hunger Games series starts off innocuously enough. Fresh from her status as the winner of the 74th Annual Hunger Games, Katniss Everdeen travels through the other oppressed districts of the nation of Panem on a victory tour…

The Hunger Games

Suzanne Collins

The Hunger Games debuted just a few years ago and quickly sold many millions and was snatched up for a movie. In short, the book’s exposure is universal, and anyone who’s anyone has already read the whole trilogy by now…

The Devil All the Time

Donald Ray Pollock

I’m so tempted to begin and end this review with one word…

El Conde Lucanor

Don Juan Manuel

As a collection of stories, El Conde Lucanor was bound to have some highlights and some lowlights, but the low outnumber the high, and the high aren’t as high as a reader would hope…

The Divine Comedy

Dante Alighieri

Given the magnificent structure of the work, and the quality of the poetry in Italian, I have to wonder if it’s worthwhile to read The Divine Comedy in translation…

Moominvalley in November

Tove Jansson

Tove Jansson, the dreary Finn, is at it again for one last time. Moominvalley in November is the last of the Moomin books (which is a shame), and it reads more like a suicide note than a children’s book…

Orlando Furioso

Ludovico Ariosto

Without a doubt, Orlando Furioso is one of the most enjoyable books I’ve ever read. From start to finish, it’s all action, and all awesome…