Category Archives: book review

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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Atwood approved

Posted on July 8, 2018 by forstegrupp

Naomi Alderman’s novel The Power was published in 2016, and it certainly responds to the current political times in the guise of fictionalized history as modeled by Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.  The basic premise is that females of the … Continue reading →

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A novel with poems for chapters? Yes!

Posted on June 26, 2018 by forstegrupp

I read Elizabeth Acevedo’s novel The Poet X  in a single evening which does not mean anything at all negative. It means rather that the characters and the plot were compelling, but I was even more interested in the structure … Continue reading →

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A Unicorn disrupts 20th century Italy

Posted on June 14, 2018 by forstegrupp

Peter S. Beagle has written another novel devoted to celebrating unicorns. His first one, The Last Unicorn, was published in 1968. This one, In Calabria, was published in 2017, almost 30 years later. It is definitely a wish-fulfillment sort of … Continue reading →

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Jane Austen + Time Traveller

Posted on May 16, 2018 by forstegrupp

This is the latest book which I downloaded from the local library to read on my kindle (ipad). Kathleen Flynn’s basic premise is that the invention of time travel allows researchers to go back in time. The female narrator and a … Continue reading →

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Reading Again

Posted on May 1, 2018 by forstegrupp

For the last few years, I have not read new books during the school year. Maybe just tired after all the reading of papers and books and lessons that I must do as an English teacher. But recently I have … Continue reading →

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Leading in this age

Posted on February 7, 2017 by forstegrupp

Just a few minutes ago, I learned that Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education by the Senate. The vote was entirely by party lines, although two brave GOP senators joined the Democrats. Pence had to cast his vote … Continue reading →

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