Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963.
Even though his novels might be set in space, I always think of the late great Clifford Simak as a “pastoral” science fiction author, because of the simplicity of his settings. His characters seem simple, too, at first, but then their complexities blossom in the narrative.
NY: Harper, 2012.
A new book from Sir Terry is always a cause for celebration, and this one is no exception. It’s also somewhat unlike any he’s done before, being in the way of an “historical fantasy,” as he himself describes it.
NY: Putnam, 1978.
This is the second of three rather short novels about the early career of Richard Bolitho of the Royal Navy. The story is set in 1773, shortly after the events of the first volume, and the seventeen-year-old Bolitho has been granted a brief furlough
NY: Putnam, 1975.
Kent’s lengthy Royal Navy adventure series about Richard Bolitho is quite good (with one or two egregious exceptions), and this is the first installment by internal chronology. It’s 1772 and the sixteen-year-old Bolitho has already had four years’ experience at sea. It’s been pretty quiet, though, since Britain is temporarily at peace.
NY: Farrar, Straus, 1953.
Edward Waldo, whose name was changed to “Theodore Sturgeon” after his divorced mother remarried, began his writing career in the late 1930s; he was a close contemporary of the other greats of science fiction’s Golden Age, like Heinlein, Asimov, and Clark, though rather more highly regarded by literary critics than they were. He also had an enormous influence on the next couple of generations of SF writers.
NY: Random House, 2011.
Back in 1987, I was introduced to author Emma Bull at a con by another SF writer whom we both knew. Emma had just published her first novel, War for the Oaks, one of the pioneering works of what came to be called “urban fantasy,” and I was an instant fan of her work. She recommended I check out Terri Windling’s Borderland and Bordertown anthologies, published the year before, and I did. Now, four anthologies and three novels by various authors later, Bordertown is still one of my favorite universes.
NY: Putnam, 1973.
It’s difficult to write a review of a book like this. There’s so much the author has to say that ought to be noted, and there’s so much I need to say about my reactions to it. Very briefly, it’s 1955 and Henrietta Snow — known to everyone as “Snowy” — is fifteen and a sophomore at a small-town New Hampshire high school. Almost everyone she knows is blue-collar, but she and a small number of her friends are determined to go to college.
NY: Harper, 1979.
Leffland is a highly regarded novelist of slender output — five novels in thirty years, and nothing at all in more than a decade. This one, her third, has recently been republished (and marketed as a “classic”), but I came across it when it first appeared and I remember enjoying it very much, so when I came across a mention of the book in another review, I decided it was time for a re-read.
NY: Greenwillow Books, 1999.
What does a twelve-year-old girl do when her best friend since Third Grade sudden begins spending most of her time hanging out with someone else? Someone the protagonist doesn’t even much like?
NY: Knopf, 2008.
This is the second book about the four Penderwick sisters of Cameron, Massachusetts — Rosalind, Skye, Jane, ages twelve, eleven, and ten, and little Batty (short for Elizabeth), age four. It’s only a month since their return from their summer holiday, the story of which was told in the first book, and school is now upon them.
As a retired public librarian (very large system in a very large city), I've been writing book reviews for the consumption of other people for more than 40 years. Since 1999, I've been posting my reviews to a personal website, but I'm now shifting my reviewing jones to this blog.
I have been a semi-professional genealogist since the 1960s and I have another blog of book reviews in the field of family research! To read those, go to BookSmith's Genealogy Book Reviews.
