I’m not a big fan of horror novels, but I’ve read my fair share of vampire fiction, everything from Bram Stoker’s Dracula to Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, and even Twilight, if for no other reason than to see what all the hype was about. This Halloween, however, has me thinking about one of the more…
Last week I finished reading The Scourge by Roberto Calas, and boy was it a gripping read! I ended up sacrificing the better part of a good night’s sleep to finish the final twelve chapters, and I’ve already started the second book in the series, Nostrum. My review follows this image of the book’s cover….
This Saturday I watched the U.S. premiere of The White Queen on Starz, a miniseries based on the Philippa Gregory novel of the same name. The story is set during The War of the Roses, which happened to be the inspiration for George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Needless to say, I enjoyed stumbling…
My post from a few weeks ago about Puzzle-like Plots made me think of one of my favorite books in that vein, Thomas Wheeler’s The Arcanum. While I prefer historical-based fiction set earlier in history (especially the Middle Ages), The Arcanum (which is set in 1919) concerns the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish text…
It’s a reference to the art of bookmaking during the Middle Ages. Back then, manuscripts were made from prepared calfskin called vellum or sheepskin called parchment, and making either was an arduous task. First, the skins had to be soaked for days in limewater before they were stretched on a frame and then scraped free of…