I swear it’s a complete accident that this post immediately follows my last one about The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I did not reread Animal Farm as part of an allegories-with-talking-animals kick. Rather good timing, though, albeit a very different sort of allegory. No, I reread Animal Farm because since the last time … Continue reading Animal Farm (George Orwell)
As Monty Python would say: “…and now for something completely different.” And so I give you: River of Teeth. The second I saw this book mentioned on a friend’s Facebook, I knew I had to read it. The premise is so ridiculously, delightfully bizarre that I immediately went “OH HELL YES!!!” Because the premise … Continue reading River of Teeth (Sarah Gailey)
If you’re only familiar with Tolkien through popular culture and Lord of the Rings, you might not know that he wrote short books too, and most of them aren’t set in Middle Earth. I’ve read several of these over the years. Last year I read Smith of Wootton Major, which is a meditation on imagination … Continue reading Farmer Giles of Ham (J. R. R. Tolkien)
There are good reasons I’m reviewing these two books together. It’s not just because they’re both by Jack London, and both about dogs in the Klondike. Let me back up a bit. I went through a bit of a Jack London phase when I was a teenager – 14 sounds about right. I don’t remember … Continue reading The Call of the Wild (Jack London) and White Fang (Jack London)
It’s actually a total coincidence that I read The Ruby in the Smoke only a few weeks after finishing Pullman’s Four Tales. I chose The Ruby in the Smoke back at the beginning of the year, for the children’s book category of my annual reading challenge; Four Tales was an impulse buy while I was … Continue reading The Ruby in the Smoke (Philip Pullman)
