Sassy young women, time travel, months-long earthquakes, death, destruction, myth, tall tale, it’s all here. Candace Moonshower’s The Legend of Zoey has been too long on my to-read list. I’m ashamed that I only just now got to it for more reasons than one. First of all, Moonshower is an incredible writer. That much becomes [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

I wanted to love  Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs because I do love the cover and the title. And I love old photos. But it’s a lot like wanting to love the cute guy in your chemistry class; that’s all he might be, just cute. This book had the spooky pics [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

Don’t we all have that sick little Anne Frank fantasy where we wonder how we’d spend our time hidden away somewhere? How would we deal with all those hours of isolation? Would our spirits bounce, like Anne’s, or would we succumb? In Emma Donoghue’s ROOM, we meet Jack, our five-year old narrator who is locked [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

Halloween’s over, I know. But I just hate to let it go. We only just today threw out our jack o’ lantern. It’s my favorite holiday and it just whizzes right on past. There’s no decent mourning period. In fact, not only are we DONE with Halloween come about 10PM on October 31st, we have [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

Oh, Wendy McClure. You had me with your hilarious commentary on fish jello molds (the Weight Watchers recipe cards! The Amazing Mackerel Pudding Plan: Classic Diet Recipe Cards from the 1970s). But her book about a sojourn into Laura Ingalls Wilder world, The Wilder Life, had me more. The book is a journal of her [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

Anne Patchett’s just damned good at coming up with titles, isn’t she? Bel Canto, The Magician’s Assistant.  They are the kind of good titles that make me frankly hate her just a little because I think, “Damn, that’s good. I could have done that,” but of course I couldn’t or I would have. This novel, [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

Sometimes you want a book to swallow you whole. And that’s just what Karen Russell’s Swamplandia! did for me. We meet our cast of characters in their island theme park in the Florida Everglades–the Bigtree family: the Chief (that’s dad to you mainlanders), his wife Hilola, his father Sawtooth (yes, like the swamp grass), and [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

I’ve been lucky enough to see Lee a few times. She never fails to have a grin, a mischievous grin, plastered on her face, like she’s laughing at you and with you all at once. And I see why in this book. Fancy Strut is a TRIP. Smith takes us inside the world of Speed, [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

One of the very best things about making new friends is that you expose yourself to all kinds of new infective possibilities. I’m not talking about the flu; I’m talking about passion (and no, I’m not talking about STDs). Reading Patchett’s novel Bel Canto is one of those infectious opportunities. Her passion for a great [...]

Filed under: Uncategorized

The new feed location for Reader with a Capital R is: http://feeds.feedburner.com/ReaderWithACapitalR You can click here to join:   I look forward to seeing everyone on the new feed!

Filed under: Uncategorized