This blog is written for the people who text me from bookstores to ask what they should read next. I read a variety of fiction alongside the occasional non-fiction work (usually something medical-ish). Since I’m a hypochondriac and should be discouraged from reading about rare diseases and mental disorders, there will be a stronger showing of fiction than non-fiction. As for fantasy and sci-fi, I’m deeply out of touch with the former (though it may appear here eventually) and not a fan of the latter. My affection for sci-fi begins and ends with Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles; I’m not keen on Dune’s necessary dictionary and the genre’s tendency to end via a technological deus ex machina. (No pun intended.)
I will try to keep these reviews spoiler free. Reading is more fun as an unexpected journey than as a slog to a known ending. While small spoilers will come up in the course of discussing a book, there will not be anything that ruins the experience (I hope). So to those people running across this blog in search of answers for their English homework (judging from search phrases): sorry to not be of more help.
Hi, great blog. I’ve nominated you for a Liebster Award – http://keepwatchingthewords.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/the-liebster-blog-award-2/
Where did you go for several weeks this summer? I hope it was a lovely vacation! 😀
Thanks! No vacation though. I’ve been reading and working on my own writing. I’m not the most regular blogger, but I expect to have a string of reviews in the next couple weeks for the summer reading challenge. 🙂
I added you to my blogroll a while black as EF. Then it occurred to me that those may not even be your initials! Do you share your first name anywhere on the blog?
Thanks! E.F. is fine. 🙂 My first initial is E and Sunland comes from a misheard song lyric.
I converted the blog to my pseudonym when I dropped the dot wordpress from my web address a while back. I posted a couple original stories here years ago and have found it easier to write under a pseudonym for a couple reasons:
1) People make fewer assumptions about my characters. Now that my “name” isn’t on my stories, friends don’t immediately assume every middle-aged woman is a representation of myself surrounded by a supporting cast of real life family and friends. The pseudonym gives me the right amount of distance and I feel more free to create stories and characters.
2) I try to be low-key on social media and don’t want my blog to come up when people search for me. Up until a couple years ago, I was applying for work as an editor and lived in fear that a potential interviewer would stumble onto my site and straight into a typo. While my current job isn’t at odds with this blog, if I thought my boss were about to drop by unexpectedly, I’d agonize so much over my grammar that nothing would get posted. 🙂
Those are good points! One famous writer in the small press world never reveals her name because she would get in trouble. She goes by (get this) XtX.
Love your blog ❤️ It’s beautiful and a treasure trove of book recommendations!
Thank you for the kind words! I hope you find some good reads here. 🙂