Tag Archives: Emma Hooper

Seven Favorite Book Review Discoveries

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Books! Everywhere! Books!One of the cool things about doing the book reviews for WKAR’s Current State and this website is when I discover a book or author that might have slipped through the literary cracks if it wasn’t for that review copy in my hand. A little bit of an unexpected treasure. And some publisher just sent it to me? For free? Sweet…

While I don’t love writing a bad review (even though I can have an eerie Dorothy Parker-esque talent for it from time to time), writing a good book review is a lot of fun. Many times, it is difficult for me to edit the review down to the necessary length. I’m gushing about the book, and I want to gush more. It’s a gush-tornado!

Here are seven books I’ve done over the years that I recommend you check out (and the links to my reviews):

 

 

Books 2015…. and one last review! Salman Rushdie’s Two Years Eight Months and Twenty Eight Nights

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BooksIt’s almost 2016 and I am feeling a little guilty. See, I got a copy of Salman Rushdie’s latest offering (Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights) back in the late summer. I read it over a week, wrote my review and… sat on it.

I didn’t review it in the Fall or Winter. And here it is, almost 2016 and I can’t look at my copy The Satanic Verses without feeling a little ill.

So why the hold up? Well, I only do two reviews a month on WKAR’s Current State and I like for my reviews to stick (You can find links to all my reviews here). In other words, I want them to feel important. I want to take on the bestsellers, celebrate new authors or works I found, say something maybe about the Michigan literary scene or literature in general (I love taking on a classic). And this book didn’t inspire me. There was just something I always wanted to say or review more.

I had some great reads over 2015! I loved Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper, adored In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume and recommended The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman to everyone I know. I also was dismayed by the mess that is Margaret Atwood’s The Heart Goes Last and couldn’t get rid of my copy of Above Us Only Sky by Michele Young-Stone fast enough. And don’t get me started on the heartbreak that was Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. I’m still recovering from that publishing error.

So to take care of my Rushdie guilt, I have decided to just post my draft of my book review here. This is me, cleaning my reviewer palate and preparing for the new year ahead. You can read my book review below. (And Happy New Year!) Continue reading →

New WKAR Book Review: Emma Hooper’s Etta and Otto and Russell and James

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Current StateI was back on WKAR today with a new book review. If you wonder what I sound like when I fawn over a book, this is it. I’m reviewing Etta and Otto and Russell and James by new author Emma Hooper. Check it out.

You can listen to my review here: http://wkar.org/post/book-review-emma-hoopers-etta-and-otto-and-russell-and-james

If you would rather read my review, you can do so below.

You can find the novel on Amazon.com here. If you want to check out my other book reviews for WKAR’s Current State, you can do so via links on this page.

I hope you enjoy my new review! Continue reading →

Five Things I Am Into Right Now, January 2015

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This is Lightning. She only has bad daysSo I’m going through a thing with a video game.

Do you remember this post? (The reference is only a few paragraphs, it won’t take you long.) There I am praising Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

You can feel the love.

It could be argued that it was the honeymoon stage of my relationship with the game.

See, I’ve had a long relationship with Lightning and her role-playing world, playing both of the installments before starting on the third and final part (I’m sure it could almost equal entire months if the hours were embarrassingly added together). And, as you can guess from the post then, everything was going swimmingly in our relationship. We laughed at the same jokes, enjoyed discussing our past history…. Then this damn monster called Grendel appeared in a desert world and ruined everything for us.

Ruined, ruined, ruined!

Now, I love the literary reference in the monster’s name, so the creators get points for that, but that monster destroyed my infatuation with the game and world and Lightning and sent me away. (Actually, over to Gotham City and a Batman game.) It’s not often I leave a game unfinished, especially a Final Fantasy game, so it was rough. I like to think it felt that way to Lightning too.

So here I am, it’s a new year, and I am looking for new beginnings, new possibilities. And since Lightning and I have such a long past I decided to give it another shot….

Of course, this time I am wisely playing on easy.

I have no video game shame.

Here is my first list for 2015, and speaking of video games… Continue reading →