I remember being completely enchanted when I realized the movie, Hugo, was not only about a boy who lived in a train station, but about Georges Melies, the famed French director, and his wonderful collection of films. It absolutely swept me up in it’s narrative. But I had never read Brian Selznick’s original book, which…
Category: The Book Shelf
Later (2021) – Stephen King
I have raved countless times about how much I love Stephen King novels. I love when I hit up one I have never read, though they are becoming fewer in number. Happily, Later was one that I hadn’t dug into yet and it absolutely delighted me. Later introduces us to Jamie Conklin, a young boy…
Star Trek: The Next Generation – A Call to Darkness (1989) – Michael Jan Friedman
We’re still early into The Next Generation novel series, this is only the ninth in the series. Set in the second season, while the third season was just getting underway on television, the book had to be written while the second season was in production. And that means not everything was going to work as…
The Queen (2024) – Nick Cutter
Canadian author Nick Cutter (aka Craig Davidson) really knows to deliver a tale that gets under your skin, and horrifies you, and he does it again with The Queen. Combining a coming-of-age tale with explicitly detailed body horror, this one was a page-turner from the beginning and is completely engrossing. Cutter plunges readers right into…
The Haunting of Velkwood (2024) – Gwendolyn Kiste
The Haunting of Velkwood is an original manner of ghost story. It took me a little while to really get into it, because I kept trying to figure things out a little more in terms of science, spatial and temporal issues of what was happening instead of settling in for a but of a supernatural…
What’s Next? (2024) – Melissa Fitgerald and Mary McCormack
I loved The West Wing, even if I came to it late. I remember working in the video store and as each season came in, cutting one for rent. I was fairly oblivious in my 20s, but as I grew, I became enchanted with Aaron Sorkin’s writing, and needed to watch the things he’d written….
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? (2017) – Alyssa Mastromonaco with Lauren Oyler
While I’m waiting to get my hands on the new West Wing book, this one popped up in my book recommendations, and I figured why not. A fun memoir written by Obama’s former Deputy Chief of Staff, Alyssa Mastromonaco, what’s not to like? I flew through this one, it was an absolutely engaging read that…
The New Doctor Who Adventures – Timewyrm: Exodus (1991) – Terrance Dicks
The second novel in the New Doctor Who Adventures continues the Seventh Doctor and Ace’s story, in fact this one continues the Timewyrn story that began in Genesis. The novel opens with the Doctor and Ace arriving in England in 1951, following the events of World War II. Unfortunately, someone or something has changed the…
Devil May Care (2008) – Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Faulks brings us the first post-Raymond Benson 007 novel. Picking up shortly after the final Ian Fleming novel, not short story collection, The Man with The Golden Gun finds James Bond on sabbatical in 1967. He’s not resting for long, as M calls him in to have him investigate Julius Gorner, who not only…
Star Trek: My Brother’s Keeper, Book One – Republic (1999) – Michael Jan Friedman
Launching with a couple of chapters reliving the climax of the iconic episode, Where No Man Has Gone Before, Micheal Jan Friedman’s first novel, in a three part series call My Brother’s Keeper, explores the early relationship of Lt. James T. Kirk, and Cadet Gary Mitchell when they first encounter each other at Starfleet Academy….
The Mind Reels 