Jennifer Osterman's Blog (29)

I found this memoir to be exactly what Rob Sheffield described it as: "...powerfully sad and evocative...". I was drawn into the story of Nuzum's terror, his psychiatric decline, his experience as a misfit and social outcast, but it never struck me as hilarious. It was moving, sympathetic, intriguing, mystifying...amusing, but never all that funny, to me. That isn't to say that I wasn't raptly engaged in Eric's ghost hunt - both of the ghosts of the past and of the future. I found both parts…

The Guardian of All Things: The Epic Story of Human Memory by Michael S. Malone

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



This book is a…

Get Fluffy by Sparkle Abbey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



What a fun cozy mystery this is! This is the second book in the Pampered Pets series, after "Desperate…

When Your Centerpiece is Made of Play-Doh and the Dog Has Eaten Your Crayons: A Mother's Perspective on Parenting by…

Isaac: A modern fable by Ivan G. Goldman

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This fable was a quick and entertaining read. I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book, but the last 1/3…

The Inhabitants of Magnolia Park: A Collection of Short Stories by Tracy James Jones

My rating: 2 of 5 stars…

The Canary List: A Novel by Sigmund Brouwer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



The Canary List is a religious suspense thriller in the vein of Dan Brown. I…

Fat Girl in a Strange Land by various authors

I really enjoyed this selection of short stories. The subjects varied in style from sci-fi to fantasy as might be expected from the title's homage. Many of the stories stayed with me after reading, which to me is always a sign that I enjoyed the book. The protagonists in each story were larger-sized women, which in some cases was completely irrelevant to the story, and in some cases details about the character's weight seemed to be…

Dragons of the Valley by Donita K. Paul

My rating: 2 of 5 stars



I had such high hopes for this book because I love dragons and fairy…

The Dragon and the Lotus by Joseph Robert Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



The books Lewis has written about Other Earth are…

The Broken Sword by Joseph Robert Lewis

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



Having read the first book in this series, I was happy to return to the…

Aesop Revisited: Book 1 by Ethan Russell Erway

My rating: 2.5 of 5 stars



Aesop Revisited: A Collection of Classic Fables Retold for the…

Bats Sing, Mice Giggle: The Surprising Science of Animals' Inner Lives by Karen Shanor

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



When I started reading Bats…

Imagine a fractured world 400 years in the future. The human populace has been decimated by disease, war, and famine. This is the world of The Sword. In Chiveis (pronounced Shi-VICE - the German word for Switzerland, I believe. I note this here because I spent the whole book reading it as CHIV-ee-us and when the pronunciation was discussed in the last 1/3 of the book, I had a revelation as to the setting of this book.). The current religion of state is the worship of Astrebril and a…