Category Archives: book review

The Queen of the Tearling series

Posted on December 5, 2019 by forstegrupp

Recently I blew through all three books of Erika Johansen’s Tearling series. The novels narrate how the young woman Kelsea comes to power in the kingdom of the Tearling which is in thrall to the neighboring kingdom of Mortmesne, ruled … Continue reading →

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Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

Posted on December 3, 2019 by forstegrupp

Some time in the last few months, I read Naomi Novik’s retelling of Rumplestiltskin, where the little gnome becomes a tall, handsome, emotionally distant elf. He rules a winter kingdom and periodically invades the human kingdom of green growing things. … Continue reading →

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A fast but enjoyable YA read

Posted on September 5, 2019 by forstegrupp

Told in the first person by a teenager whose mother has died and whose father is addicted to opium, Yangsze Choo’s The Ghost Bride depends on the reader’s concern about her future: will she have to marry the ghost of … Continue reading →

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Hansel and Gretel in a Concentration Camp

Posted on February 11, 2019 by forstegrupp

Jane Yolen has written the novel Mapping the Bones about Jewish children surviving the terrors of occupied Poland and a concentration camp and she uses the structural framework of the fairy tale of “Hansel and Gretel.” In both stories, the … Continue reading →

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Bird’s Eye View of History

Posted on February 6, 2019 by forstegrupp

Yuval Noah Harari wrote his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind in 2015. The book provides an expansive overview of 202,000 years human pre-history and history in under 450 pages (including index). His most provocative tenet is that the … Continue reading →

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A book uniting two passions: fairy tales and knitting

Posted on January 30, 2019 by forstegrupp

Yesterday on the new non-fiction shelf of our local public library, I found a book with a pebbled blue cover and gold gilded lettering and design. It was clearly a knitting book as you can see from the front cover … Continue reading →

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Sometimes you forgot you already read a particular book

Posted on January 28, 2019 by forstegrupp

Leigh Bardugo‘s book The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic (2017) contains her six modern fairy tales with twists on old storylines to shake up the staid perspectives and assumptions of traditional fairy tales. I read this book on … Continue reading →

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Women are allowed to want.

Posted on January 18, 2019 by forstegrupp

Recently I just finished the third book in Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy about a woman in medieval Russia who takes on the responsibility of trying to save her people of Rus from human depredations and supernatural threats and negotiate a … Continue reading →

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The Girl in the Tower

Posted on September 20, 2018 by forstegrupp

Last week I finished the second book in Katherine Arden’s series about Vasilisa and her quest for freedom from medieval Russian norms for girls. The second book picks up exactly where the first book ends. But for those wanting to … Continue reading →

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No comments allowed by non-POC

Posted on July 12, 2018 by forstegrupp

Gabby Rivera’s book Juliet Takes a Breath is about the summer of coming out and self-discovery and intellectual risk-taking by a Puerto-Rican-American girl who has just finished her first year of college. She lands an internship with the author of … Continue reading →

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