This one started out slow, and I didn’t initially connect to the characters, but I kept going with it, and just before the halfway mark, it clicked and I ended up really enjoying it. Eva has the power (curse?) to be able to feel the emotions people leave imprinted on inanimate objects, just like her father did. She’s never met anyone else who has the same ability until Harriet finds her. Harriet also has the … Read More “The Memory Collectors by Kim Neville” »
Category: Magical Realism
Overall, this was the perfect book for the beginning of autumn. The writing style reminded me of a fairy tale, and I just wanted to curl up under a warm blanket with some apple cider and enjoy it uninterrupted. Alice Hoffman’s latest addition to the Practical Magic series takes us back to the years of the Salem Witchcraft Trials, and we learn about Maria Owens — her childhood, her first love, her daughter — and … Read More “Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman” »
I really enjoyed this mix of mystery, family drama, and love story with a bit of “magick” thrown in. The Moon Girls are taught from a young age that their singular goal in life is to have a daughter — specifically without a husband — and to raise her to follow in the Moon legacy of strength and magick. Elzibeth (Lizzy) Moon wants nothing to do with that life, and leaves for New York, not … Read More “The Last of the Moon Girls by Barbara Davis” »
A father — President Abraham Lincoln — mourns his son, Willie — who has died of typhoid fever — as thousands of parents mourn their own sons — who have died in the first year of the American Civil War. This book takes place over one night (along with several flashbacks) in a crypt where “sick-forms” stay near their “sick-boxes” waiting to get well. They are unaware of the years and decades passing them, unaware … Read More “Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders” »