tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16053840278457277052011-11-27T18:42:25.140-06:00The blog of San Francisco Book Review and Sacramento Book Review's literature columnist. Here you can find her musings on literature and lunacy as she is unleashed upon the world. Her motto: "More books, more often."bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.comBlogger211100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-19354912992847154832010-05-05T23:05:00.001-05:002010-05-05T23:23:37.039-05:00

Despite what many non-Mexican-Americans believe, Cinco de Mayo isn't Mexican Independence Day.  Mexico actually declared its independence from Spain on September 16th, 1810.  Nor is Cinco de Mayo an American holiday, although many will be celebrating Mexican culture today here in the States.  What Cinco de Mayo commemorates is the day that General Zaragoza led 4,000 Mexican soldiers into battle

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-30055394765945634552010-04-27T23:13:00.009-05:002010-04-28T20:33:33.329-05:00

Lena Harrison Spencer did everything "right": she married a charming and upwardly mobile man, she put her dreams on hold to support his career, and she gave birth to two beautiful children.  Despite having achieved the outward appearance of the perfect upper middle class family, however, Lena's personal life is far from ideal.  Her husband Randall is both distant and controlling, her teenage

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-19387729983129135282010-04-18T16:28:00.003-05:002010-04-22T19:17:19.322-05:00

What happens to a companion pony when its racehorse suddenly dies?  The analogy is a running theme in Jandy Nelson's young adult novel The Sky is Everywhere, a story about the grief sixteen year old Lennie struggles with when her older sister Bailey unexpectedly passes away.  In the days and weeks following Bailey's death, Lennie's search for her own sense of self leads her down a path filled

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-38686191797056471442010-04-07T16:15:00.001-05:002010-04-07T16:15:53.362-05:00

We've had a long, weird month of freedom to run around and to do our best to embody the saying, "mad as a March hare."  We've worn shorts to work, celebrated (or lamented) the passage of the health care reform bill, slept without blankets on the bed for the first time this year, contemplated women's rights and achievements, and griped our way through adjusting to Daylight Savings Time.  In short,

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-75864117273132331272010-03-30T21:26:00.002-05:002010-04-07T21:51:08.430-05:00

Brigid of Kildare: A Novel by Heather Terrell The history of Saint Brigid is largely apocryphal.  A 5th century Gael and one of three of Ireland's patron saints, her biographers agree on little, but the few details of Brigid's life that can be agreed upon are quite interesting.  The daughter of Dubthtach, a pagan king of Leinster, and Brocca, a Christian Pict and slave, Brigid's exposure to her

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-48499421459386654792010-03-26T17:30:00.001-05:002010-03-26T17:56:46.769-05:00

Southern Horrors: Women and the Politics of Rape and Lynching by Chrystal N. Feimster The most widely recognized -- and widely reviled -- portrayal of the postbellum South is a silent film by D.W. Griffith.  Premiering under the title The Clansman, we know it today as The Birth of a Nation.  In the film, Griffith shares an intensely racist and heavily romanticized narrative of the birth of the

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-38485722136604561852010-03-25T20:14:00.004-05:002010-03-31T13:29:59.184-05:00

Newsgirl by Liza Ketchum In Newsgirl, Liza Ketchum delivers that rarest of birds: a strong, plucky, stubborn, enterprising, headstrong, brave, likable, and above all believable female protagonist in twelve year old Amelia Forrester.  Fresh off a steamship from Panama, Amelia, her mother Sophie, and Sophie's partner Estelle Duprey have taken a chance at starting a new life in the rough and tumble

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-79025319648091508802010-03-24T19:54:00.000-05:002010-03-24T19:54:18.823-05:00

It's March!  March, that lovely month during which the weather in San Antonio turns from "occasionally really cold" to "occasionally really warm."  When flowers no longer need to fear frost, when I begin to never leave home without sunglasses, when the sliding glass door is wide open all day, when we put away our pants and sweaters in favor of shorts and t-shirts until September rolls around--

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-2454583217537570112010-02-13T23:59:00.000-06:002010-02-13T23:59:31.207-06:00

Valentine's Day as we know it now is a day for romance, love, extravagant displays of affection, playing "who loves me best" with suitors, picking up lonely single people at bars, "singles awareness," gorging on chocolate, sneezing over roses, and drowning in a sea of over-commericalized pink, red, and white hearts everywhere you look.  Before Hallmark put its unique spin on the day, the Feast of

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-22037548675717248872010-02-08T21:26:00.001-06:002010-02-08T21:41:13.055-06:00

It's been mentioned to me before on more than one occasion that my interests in books is, well, eclectic, to say the least.  I will read the latest winner of the Pulitzer or the Man Booker prize with gusto and great enjoyment, but I won't turn my nose up at the dog-eared James Patterson book lying around the hotel lobby when I'm on vacation.  It's a book!  It's a lovely, beautiful, fabulous book,

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-91640816307377337392010-02-05T18:44:00.000-06:002010-02-05T18:44:43.927-06:00

I promise a much longer post this weekend.  It will be brimming with books and wit and good humor and pithy observations on the human condition, I promise. This evening I can bring you only this: http://cookbooks.andrewsmcmeel.com/ I'm out of my gourd with excitement.  And to think that's only the short review.  A longer review of The Spice Kitchen and other cookbooks will appear on http://

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-86865584902725321062010-02-02T19:20:00.001-06:002010-02-02T19:41:43.202-06:00

Dr. Bibliovore here, armed to the teeth with a slew of new prescriptions.  Having water woes?  Aching for architecture?  Feverish with a lack of flavor?  I have your cure.  Below, find remedies for these problems and more.  I'm not a real doctor, of course, I just play one on a book blog (it's rather like being a traveling snake-oil salesman), so here's a handy little disclaimer: mixing

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-81239989114326036432010-01-30T14:31:00.002-06:002010-01-30T15:21:14.439-06:00

Most days I feel that my job is pretty incredible.  I wake up, have a few cups of coffee, make the very short commute from the dining room table to my office, check my email, update the review database, post reviews, email publicists about the reviews, check in with my reviewers, promote the site and the blog, read a book or two, write up a review, write a blog entry, open packages from

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-83663752915455961212010-01-27T16:45:00.002-06:002010-01-27T16:47:07.621-06:00

In 1985, Alison Bechdel drew a strip for her comic Dykes to Watch Out For entitled "The Rule."  It would become something of a standard to which movies, television shows, books and graphic novels would be held against.  The rule was simple.  As laid out by a character in DtWOF, she only watched movies that meet three requirements: It has to have at least two women in it, Who talk to each other,

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-32130979037531098032010-01-25T16:52:00.003-06:002010-01-25T18:12:44.887-06:00

My "books to read" pile is a bit shorter than usual this week, coming in at only a book a day.  It's an interesting variety of books -- one popular fiction novel, a cookbook, two historical nonfiction books, a book on poker, a book on the Bible, and a book on monsters (titled "On Monsters," appropriately enough).  Higher education wins the week, with Oxford University Press and Harvard University

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-79874327656351874092010-01-25T16:50:00.001-06:002010-01-25T19:54:43.483-06:00

I've had my nose buried in books for the better part of last week, and while I was busy getting lost in the pages of the books mentioned elsewhere on this site and on San Antonio Book Review, other people have been busy burying their respective noses in different books, interviewing authors, reporting on book festivals, and reviewing books I've yet to lay my greedy bibliophilic paws on.  Here are

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-60550738160042509282010-01-24T12:36:00.002-06:002010-01-24T14:37:46.230-06:00

At a loss for new reading material?  Feeling a bit overwhelmed by the wide range of choices?  Never fear, for Dr. Bibliovore is here to assess, diagnose, and treat your literary lurgy with just the book to set you to rights.  Whether you're a parent of young children, an amateur chef, a reality TV junkie, or an armchair activist, there's something here that's right up your alley. If your

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-37865023809911029702010-01-22T22:24:00.003-06:002010-01-23T12:41:57.207-06:00

Ever think to yourself after reading the inside flaps of a couple dozen books in the same genre that it seems like you're reading the summary of the same five books over and over?  Probably not, because if you've picked up the book in the first place, it's unlikely you'll stop reading before you hit the title page.  But if you, like I do, have the occasional nutty moment when it comes to books,

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-57050187122037077102010-01-22T01:50:00.001-06:002010-01-30T14:43:18.527-06:00

The process by which readers judge a book often begins before they've laid hands on the book in question.  They hear friends and coworkers discussing it, they hear the author interviewed on NPR, they see posters advertising its forthcoming arrival....  Depending on your personal mileage, it's entirely possible to get sick of a book before it even hits the shelves.  Who among us hasn't experienced

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-35851771624584442442010-01-21T01:36:00.004-06:002010-01-30T14:40:34.988-06:00

The actual number of books I'm obsessed with at the moment is much, much higher than what I'm sharing here.  I read at least one book a day.  On my days off, I can (and do) read around ten.  I hop between genres to make sure they don't all blend together.  Too many whodunnits in a row makes me lose track of which character killed who for what, and after a day of nonstop romance books, I just want

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605384027845727705.post-55333196142496108162010-01-19T18:15:00.008-06:002010-01-20T13:01:42.887-06:00

The thing about book reviews is-- No, that's not quite right. There are many, many things about book reviews. To begin with, they play a key role in the book business. Authors write the books, editors clean up the books, agents pitch the books, publishers print the books, and publicists get readers excited about the books. This is where reviewing comes in. Reviewers get their paws on books

bibliovorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18198239992708386418noreply@blogger.com0