Dusk continues Arnott’s tradition of exploring myth, human relationships and the natural world. Set sometime in the early 19th-century, Dusk is a Western of a different sort: reflective and understated. It is marked by the twins’ relentless yet quiet struggle to prove they are unlike their parents, prove they are […]
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Perilous Times, Thomas D. Lee
An immortal Knight of the Round Table faces his greatest challenge yet—saving the politically polarized, rapidly warming world from itself—in this slyly funny contemporary take on Arthurian legend. “A brilliant collision of ancient mysticism with modern madness.” -Robert Jackson Bennett, bestselling author of the Founders Trilogy
Read MoreHeavy Weather, Kevan Manwaring et al.
Heavy Weather: Tempestuous Tales of Stranger Climes: Since Odysseus’ curious crew first unleashed the bag of winds gifted him by Aeolus, the God of Winds, literature has been awash with tales of bad or strange weather. From the flood myths of Babylon, the Mahabharata and the Bible, to 20th century […]
Read MoreThe Beautiful and Dangerous Ecology in A Song of Ice and Fire
Click here to return to the series This article contains a few spoilers. To follow along, it’s helpful for the reader to be familiar with author George RR Martin’s series and the screen adaption Game of Thrones—this article is based off the novels, particularly Book 1. Update: I first published […]
Read MoreThe Middle Earth Universe, J.R.R. Tolkien
This is the 600th book post made in the years I’ve run Dragonfly, and I wanted to make it special on this fifth anniversary. Perhaps this should have been my first post ever, but it took me a long time to come up with a standard for any sort of […]
Read MoreOn a River’s Bank, A Madhavan
Unfortunately I cannot find this book at Goodreads yet, but the Hindu Business Line has an interesting article with the title: Unquiet Flows a River: The English translation of a famed 1974 Tamil novel lets a broader audience take in the ethos of a subaltern people in a fecund Dravidian […]
Read MoreThe Books of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the timeless and beloved A Wizard of Earthsea —“…reads like the retelling of a tale first told centuries ago,” (David Mitchell)—comes this complete omnibus edition of the entire Earthsea chronicles, including over fifty illustrations illuminating Le Guin’s vision of her classic saga. Goodreads Reviews Back […]
Read MoreThe Baron in the Trees, Italo Calvino
Now here’s a classic that truly belongs in the collection at this site (originally published in 1957). Cosimo, a young eighteenth-century Italian nobleman, rebels by climbing into the trees to remain there for the rest of his life. He adapts efficiently to an arboreal existence and even has love affairs. […]
Read MoreCirce, Madeline Miller
Threatened, Zeus banishes her [Circe] to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. Goodreads […]
Read MoreThe Merry Spinster, Mallory Ortberg
Unfalteringly faithful to its beloved source material, The Merry Spinster also illuminates the unsuspected, and frequently, alarming emotional complexities at play in the stories we tell ourselves, and each other, as we tuck ourselves in for the night. Goodreads Review Back to GoodReads
Read MoreIce, Anna Kavan
Anna Kavan’s novel “Ice,” a fantasia about predatory male sexual behavior that takes place during an apocalyptic climate catastrophe, was first published fifty years ago. (An anniversary edition has just been released by Penguin Classics.) It was the last novel that Kavan published before she died in 1968—there have since […]
Read MoreParadise Lost, John Milton
It’s been a while since I have had time to write a new Discover book feature. Partly it is just that this eco-fiction project is entirely voluntary. I also work full-time (in an engaging career) and run a small book publishing company. I want to thank a reader named Dylan […]
Read MoreThe Wolf’s Boy, Susan Williams Beckhorn
Beckhorn spent countless hours researching the history of canine-human companionship through the ages and learning about the behaviors of wolves and dogs. She also observed wolf behavior first-hand at the Wolf Conservation Center in New Salem, Albany County, and found listening to wolves “singing” to be a “life-altering experience.” –Democrat […]
Read MoreLost Horizon, James Hilton
I was happy to find this old book at the Value Village in Burquitlam. I have this book on Kindle, but can’t pass up such a classic hard copy in good shape. Though not really an unpopular book in need of rescue, it is quite old and probably not as […]
Read MoreThe Fox and the Hound, Daniel P. Mannix
Thanks to Stephen Miller for helping us fill out our database with this classic children’s literature title, The Fox and the Hound, by Daniel P. Mannix. Stephen’s review of it at his Travels with Tio website. “The Fox and the Hound” is perhaps the best animal story I’ve ever experienced. […]
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