White Witch, Black Curse
Aug 7
Book Name: White Witch, Black Curse
Author: Kim Harrison
ISBN: 9780061138027
Publisher: EOS
This one made me tear up more than once. We finally learn how and why Kisten was killed. Rachel gets herself into more trouble while fighting a banshee and the banshee’s weird family. We find out where Ivy’s wish from the first book went and we meet a ghost named Pierce who’s had a crush on Rachel since she was 18. I really like that nothing seems to go right for Rachel and I keep hoping that she’ll finally get a break. And I’m really sad that I have to wait a while to pick up the next one and find out how she gets out from under both Al and the coven that has it in for her.
The Outlaw Demon Wails
Aug 1
Book Name: The Outlaw Demon Wails
Author: Kim Harrison
ISBN: 9780061149825
Publisher: EOS
So happy to have another book from The Hollows series to jump right into. I think For a Few Demons More is still the strongest in the series, but this one was no less entertaining. Still mourning the death of someone very close to her, Rachel Morgan learns something shocking about herself, and her mom and dad. And then there’s the “usual” list of demon wrangling, a trip into the Ever-After with Jenks to save Trent’s sorry butt. And a potential new love. These books are entertaining as hell and I’m always sorry to finish one.
What I enjoy most about them is that not only are Rachel and Ivy strong independent women who have to solve the problems their flawed existences put them into, but Harrison has created a world we can all identify with. A world that is rich with all the tensions we humans deal with while trying to do more than just live, but to thrive. That Rachel calls down more problems on herself while trying to do the right thing, all the while doubting herself, is one of the big reasons I am drawn to these books. These books aren’t only about the universal themes of “Good vs. Evil” and love and friendship, they’re also about the choices we have to make to protect ourselves and the people we love, and how those choices often look like the wrong one to others. Rachel isn’t the most graceful of heroines but she’s got to be the one with the biggest heart.
For a Few Demons More
Jul 25
Book Name: For a Few Demons More
Author: Kim Harrison
ISBN: 9780061149818
Publisher: Harper Collins
This was probably the best of the series so far. Rachel Morgan is a flawed witch, in fact it’s sometimes hard to remember she’s not human, which is one of the strengths of Kim Harrison’s writing. In For a Few Demons More, Rachel faces demons, literal and metaphorical, as she tracks down who is killing random Werefolk in Cincinnati and tries to keep an all out war between Interland Species and demons from breaking out. Her losses and near losses are deeply personal as she learns more about what it is to love and protect those around her. What I like most about this series is how Harrison makes us believe that Rachel’s world does exist and makes us care deeply about what happens to it. She also has a way of making me stay up way past my bedtime because I have to know what happens next.
Book Name: A History of God: the 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity And Islam
Author: Karen Armstrong
ISBN: 9780345384560
Publisher: Ballantine
This book is chewy and full of big ideas. Connecting the history of the “Big Three,” Armstrong describes the evolution of the ideas of God, Christ and al-Lah over 4,000 years. Always asking, “How did Believers come by their ideas?” and “Where do Believers go from ‘here.” This is a good one for Searchers to have in their library.
Book Name: Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade
Author: Diana Gabaldon
ISBN: 9780385337496
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Ah, mid-eighteenth century when it was illegal to be gay, to the point of being hanged for it in the public square. Even worse was shaming the family honor by being some form of officer in the Queen’s army and titled. Forget the mystery surrounding Lord John Grey’s father’s murder (once thought to be suicide), this is the story of Lord John’s affair with his stepbrother as a substitute for his unrequited love for the very straight (and disgusted by the thought) Jamie Fraser (star of The Outlander series). Gabaldon writes about the joys of being in love and the physical sensations of that love (without being exceedingly graphic) and the pain of living a double life. There’s something about Gabaldon’s books that makes me read them almost straight through and then wish for more.
Book Name: God’s Problem: How the Bible Fails To Answer Our Most Important Question–Why We Suffer
Author: Bart Ehrman
ISBN: 9781607510659
Publisher: HarperOne
I’ve been wanting to read Ehrman’s work for quite a while, and this one did not disappoint. In God’s Problem Dr. Ehrman delineates the several kinds of suffering in the Bible; suffering because Believers turned away from God and His law, suffering because Believers are His chosen people, suffering to prove God’s greatness (i.e. Job), etc. Each level can be backed up with passages from the Bible, but what Ehrman does is point out where these themes of suffering clash with each other, and with life as we know it. Further, Ehrman contextualizes it in terms of the historic placement within society at the time of the biblical writing and compares it to how modern society (and Christians) view these writings. While Ehrman offers these comparisons, he’s not afraid to say that no one knows for sure why suffering happens and frequently wonders how if God is so loving, how He can let such horrendous things occur in our world. A question older than the writings in the Bible itself. Based on this book, I know I’ll be reading more of Ehrman’s work.
Dime Store Magic
May 14
Book Name: Dime Store Magic
Author: Kelley Armstrong
ISBN: 9780553587067
Publisher: Bantam
In theory, this book and the series it comes from sounds like something right up my alley, but it’s not. The first line on the back cover reads, “From one of today’s most original writers …” which is absurd because writing fantasy novels about strong, independent women who are also witches is hardly original. Paige Winterbourne is pretty standard boilerplate young witch in over her head with a teenage niece as ward, bigotry from the neighborhood of humans who don’t understand the supernatural, and the forbidden love interest from another race. Please.
I found the bigotry between “races” to be simply awful. Humans hate anything not human, witches hate sorcerers and sorcerers control the cabals and therefore, hate anyone that gets in their way. The misogyny of sorcerers and their attitude towards women, especially witches, was hard to take. And Winterbourne’s problems with the little old biddies in her coven are nothing new.
I did find some things that kept me reading, like the themes of “what awful supernatural prank is she going to play on her heroine next,” and “when is someone going to smack down her neice?” But overall, I give this book a great big “meh” and will wait patiently until I can get my hands on the next Kim Harrison book.
New to the Stacks
May 8
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman
The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels
Farewell, My Queen by Chantal Thomas
Review – A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam by Karen Armstrong