Wayward Bookshelf

Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett This book has been on my TBR list for YEARS, and with the upcoming release of the TV series on Prime, I figured I'd better finally get around to it so I could enjoy the book before watching the show. Oh boy, I should not have waited so long. If this is on your TBR & you like that hilarious whimsy that British fantasy writers have a particular knack for, with a generous splash of religious mythology, move this book to the top of the pile. It's fantastic. I won't be going into the plot too much to avoid spoilers, but I most definitely have a little bit of a crush on Crowley - and not just because he's being played by David Tennant in the show (squee!) - and I want to be best friends with Arizaphale, if for no other reason than all those antique books. There's a whole host of characters beyond our main two, the horsemen of the apocolypse are particularly well done, the sat...

Unmentionable: The Victorian Lady's Guide to Sex, Marriage, and Manners by Therese Oneill This book is a somewhat irreverant look at 'women's issues' in the Victorian era. And while the issues themselves are not fun, definitely not by today's standards, the author's voice is quite clever as she explores everything from hygiene & clothing, to menstruation & social etiquette. It is written as though she is taking all of us fans of Victorian novels & BBC dramas on a tour of her time, and includes little asides and commentary from our guide that make it fun. Without her being so tongue in cheek, the history presented probably would have infuriated me significantly more than it actually did. The downside of this is that about halfway through the book, the joke did start to wear a little thin, but that may have just been my inner feminist getting riled up. Now, if the cover turns you off, then this is probably not the book for you. It is a very frank ...

It Takes a Village Idiot: A Memoir of Life After the City by Jim Mullen I just moved from the greater LA area to small town Kansas, & came across this book in the local used bookstore making this a timely read for me. Mullen’s humor was pretty great, at times he finds just the right amount of over the top sarcasm to be downright hilarious. And alongside the humor there is also a warm story of finding home in the unlikeliest of places.