• About this blog

feastonbooksblog

~ Time is precious – read the best first

feastonbooksblog

Category Archives: fantasy

When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill

21 Wednesday Dec 2022

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Uncategorized, United States

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

dragons, families, fantasy, feminism, lesbians, mother and child, nineteen fities, women

I loved this book.  Having grown up in the ‘50’s this book took me back to my childhood when I was trying to be the best I could be, but told to “let the boys win”.  Why did my mother wear high heels to vacuum?    Why one day did my father ask my mother to explain to me why I should stop playing neighborhood football with my buddies.  Rage, rage.rage….

“A deeply felt exploration of feminism in an alternate fantastical history…This allegory packs a punch.”—Publishers Weekly

“Completely fierce, unmistakably feminist, and subversively funny, When Women Were Dragons brings the heat to misogyny with glorious imagination and talon-sharp prose. Check the skies tonight—you might just see your mother.”—Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry

“A complex, heartfelt story about following your heart and opening your mind to new possibilities. This novel’s magic goes far beyond the dragons.” —Kirkus (starred review)

“Kelly Barnhill’s poetic, pointed tale tackles the era’s pervasive silence concerning all things female.”
—Christian Science Monitor

Find this book large print

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

13 Saturday Mar 2021

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Future

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

fantasy, future life

881 Holds on this book in Minuteman system! Nora wants to die when she finds herself with the opportunity to try out different versions of what her life could have been. Apart from the premise of a magical “midnight library” with an infinite number of possible lives, this novel is less fantasy and more about happiness, depression, and relationships. I loved this thought-provoking story.

“Haig is one of the most inspirational popular writers on mental health of our age and, in his latest novel, he has taken a clever, engaging concept and created a heart-warming story that offers wisdom in the same deceptively simple way as Mitch Albom’s best tales.” —Independent (UK)

“Although I don’t read fiction as much as I used to—because I’m always writing fiction—during these sad and difficult days in 2020 I broke that rule because I needed to ­escape into other people’s fictional worlds. One of my favorite books of the year was “The Midnight Library” by Matt Haig, a powerful and uplifting story about regrets and the choices we make.”—Alice Hoffman, author of Magic Lessons and Practical Magic

“Haig’s latest (after the nonfiction collection Notes on a Nervous Planet, 2019) is a stunning contemporary story that explores the choices that make up a life, and the regrets that can stifle it. A compelling novel that will resonate with readers.” —Booklist (starred review)

Find this book large print audio cd’s playaway

The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates

02 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, History, United States

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

escapes, life changing events, slavery, Southern states

Number one New York Times best seller

Oprah’s Book Club Pick

From the National Book Award-winning author of Between the World and Me, a boldly conjured debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom.

“The most surprising thing about The Water Dancer may be its unambiguous narrative ambition. This isn’t a typical first novel. . . . The Water Dancer is a jeroboam of a book, a crowd-pleasing exercise in breakneck and often occult storytelling that tonally resembles the work of Stephen King as much as it does the work of Toni Morrison, Colson Whitehead and the touchstone African-American science-fiction writer Octavia Butler. . . . It is flecked with forms of wonder-working that push at the boundaries of what we still seem to be calling magical realism.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“An experience in taking [Toni] Morrison’s ‘chances for liberation’ literally: What if memory had the power to transport enslaved people to freedom?’ . . . The most moving part of The Water Dancer [is] the possibility it offers of an alternate history. . . The book’s most poignant and painful gift is the temporary fantasy that all the people who leaped off slave ships and into the Atlantic were not drowning themselves in terror and anguish, but going home.”—NPR

Find this book           large print                audio cd’s                 playaway

The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo

01 Friday Mar 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Historical Fiction, murder

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

coming of age, dreams, Malaysia, mothers and daughters, step children, superstition

Yangsze Choo’s The Night Tiger pulls us into a world of servants and masters, age-old superstition and modern idealism, sibling rivalry and forbidden love. But anchoring this dazzling, propulsive novel is the intimate coming-of-age of a child and a young woman, each searching for their place in a society that would rather they stay invisible. (Amazon)  I dedicated one weekend to this lovely escape and I loved every reading minute.

“A sumptuous garden maze of a novel that immerses readers in a complex, vanished world.” ―Kirkus (starred review)

“Mythical creatures, conversations with the dead, lucky numbers, Confucian virtues, and forbidden love provide the backdrop to Choo’s superb murder mystery. Mining the rich setting of colonial Malaysia, Choo wonderfully combines a Holmes-esque plot with Chinese lore.” ―Publishers Weekly (starred and boxed review)

Find this book             audio cd’s

The Winter of the Witch (Winternight Trilogy, book 3) by Katherine Arden

01 Friday Feb 2019

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, magic

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

fantasy, good and evil, magic, young women

An immensely satisfying conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.  This third installment sees Vasya come more fully into her power, with all the mystical, moody atmosphere that Arden delivers so well. The vein of Russian folklore that pulsates through the narrative remains as rich and captivating as any modern entry in the fractured-fairytale genre.

“[Katherine] Arden’s gorgeous prose entwines political intrigue and feminist themes with magic and folklore to tell a tale both intimate and epic, featuring a heroine whose harrowing and wondrous journey culminates in an emotionally resonant finale.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Katherine Arden’s Winternight Trilogy isn’t just good—it’s hug-to-your-chest, straight-to-the-favorites-shelf, reread-immediately good, and each book just gets better. The Winter of the Witch plunges us back to fourteenth-century Moscow, where old gods and new vie for the soul of Russia and fate rests on a witch girl’s slender shoulders. Prepare to have your heart ripped out, loaned back to you full of snow and magic, and ripped out some more.”—Laini Taylor

Find this book

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

08 Wednesday Aug 2018

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

good and evil, magic, Russia, Spirits, villages, young women

The children of a family living in a small Russian village love listening to fairytales. As the youngest daughter Vasya grows up, she is drawn into real magic that threatens her family and community. Book 1 of the Winternight Trilogy.

“Stunning . . . will enchant readers from the first page. . . . with an irresistible heroine who wants only to be free of the bonds placed on her gender and claim her own fate.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Utterly bewitching . . . a lush narrative . . . an immersive, earthy story of folk magic, faith, and hubris, peopled with vivid, dynamic characters, particularly clever, brave Vasya, who outsmarts men and demons alike to save her family.”—Booklist (starred review)

Find this book            large print

The Power by Naomi Alderman

11 Friday May 2018

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

fantasy, muscle strength, sex role, social role, teenage girls, women

What happens when women suddenly inherit unlimited power which allows them to inflict pain and/or death to anyone who tries to attack them? Teenage girls start to run amok and the patriarchy is turned on its head for starters…but is the world where women are in charge more peaceful and less violent? The author goes to the extreme to make some points, but there is very interesting social commentary in this one.

“I was riveted by every page. Alderman’s prose is immersive and, well, electric, and I felt a closed circuit humming between the book and me as I read.”―Amal El-Mohtar, New York Times Book Review

“Sometimes lightning does strike the same place twice. Sometimes it strikes a whole bunch of times. In Orange Award winner Naomi Alderman’s chilling The Power, women across the globe discover a sudden ability to harness their aggression by inflicting electric shocks through their fingertips. Fans of speculative fiction (see also: Margaret Atwood and Ben Marcus) about empowered youth will be struck by Alderman’s speedy and thorough inhabitation of a world just different enough from ours to jolt the imagination.”  – Sloane Crosley, Vanity Fair

Find this book               playaway

To Say Nothing of the Dog or How We Found the Bishop’s Bird Stump At Last by Connie Willis

23 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Future, Humor

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

fantasy, time travel

In the not too distant future, historians at Oxford have found a way to travel back in time to study different time periods. A wealthy patron of the program is insistent on finding an artifact that belonged to one of her ancestors, and so Ned and Verity, two Oxford academics, are sent back to 1888 England, where many funny adventures ensue. This is a great choice for people who love Victorian novels.

“Willis effortlessly juggles comedy of manners, chaos theory and a wide range of literary allusions [with a] near flawlessness of plot, character and prose.”–Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The most hilarious book of its kind since John Irving’s The Water-Method Man and A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole.”–Des Moines Sunday Register

Find this book                 large print                 audio cd’s

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by Weston Public Library Staff in fantasy, Fiction, Science fiction

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

England, London, magic, quantum theory

This fantasy story is set in a world where there are four versions of London, each ruled by different leaders with varying amounts of magic. I loved the two protagonists – one a magician, the other a thief – and the novel’s humor and adventure.

“A Darker Shade of Magic has all the hallmarks of a classic work of fantasy. Its plot is gripping. Its characters are memorable. Its setting in four parallel, powerful Londons is otherworldly yet believable. Schwab has given us a gem of a tale that is original in its premise and compelling in its execution. This is a book to treasure.” ―Deborah Harkness, New York Times bestselling author of The All Souls Trilogy

“Schwab (Vicious) creates an ingenious set of nesting alternate Londons in this imaginative, well-crafted fantasy. Confident prose and marvelous touches-a chameleon coat, a scarlet river of magic, a piratical antiheroine-bring exuberant life to an exhilarating adventure among the worlds.” ―Publishers Weekly, starred review

Find this book                audio cd’s

 

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014

Categories

  • 20th century
  • action
  • adventure
  • anecdotes
  • Biographical fiction
  • Biography
  • case studies
  • chronically ill
  • Comedy
  • crimes against
  • cuisine
  • detective
  • Drama
  • England
  • fantasy
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • Fiction
  • Future
  • Graphic novel
  • Historical Fiction
  • History
  • homicide investigation
  • Horror
  • Humor
  • London
  • magic
  • meaning of life
  • memoir
  • murder
  • murder and investigation
  • mystery
  • nature
  • Non-fiction
  • poetry
  • romance
  • Science fiction
  • Sports
  • suspense
  • thriller
  • Travel
  • True crime
  • Uncategorized
  • United States
  • western

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
Weston Public Library 781 786 6150

Blog at WordPress.com.

  • Follow Following
    • feastonbooksblog
    • Join 142 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • feastonbooksblog
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...