Category Archives: Adventure

Mary Stewart’s Heroines

Posted on January 31, 2022 by Lizzie Ross

January’s author-in-focus is Mary Stewart (1916-2014), who wrote romantic suspense novels, as well as a romantic fantasy series based on the King Arthur tales, and several children’s books. A year ago, a dozen of her romance novels found their way … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Romance, Thriller | Tagged Mary Stewart | 9 Comments

Modern Tempests

Posted on September 16, 2021 by Lizzie Ross

As I prep for Witch Week 2021, for which my co-host (Calmgrove) and I have chosen The Tempest as our Read-Along, I’ve been working my way through some of the modern works that are either inspired by or adaptations of … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Mystery, RIP, Shakespeare, Witch Week | Tagged Margaret Atwood, Mary Stewart | 8 Comments

Which Week Witch Week

Posted on September 1, 2021 by Lizzie Ross

Not long now until Witch Week 2021 comes to haunt us. An event first begun by Lory Hess at The Emerald City Book Review (she now blogs at Entering the Enchanted Castle), Witch Week is an annual series of guest … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Fantasy, Halloween, Mystery, Shakespeare, Witch Week | Tagged Diana Wynne Jones, Shakespeare | 4 Comments

#WitchWeek2020 Day 5: Gothic fantasy, with puppets

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Lizzie Ross

Puppet shows! Fun times for all, right? Not in this chilling Newbery Honor book. In 2007, Laura Amy Schlitz had won the Newbery Award for Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village. This 2012 gothic fantasy by the … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Fantasy, Gothic, Historical fiction, Mystery, Witch Week, YA Lit | Tagged Laura Amy Schlitz, M R James | 8 Comments

Have you forgotten something?

Posted on March 31, 2020 by Lizzie Ross

Despite being set in two different centuries, nearly 100 years apart, the books in today’s post share one element: a blinkered Euro-centric view of life “down under”. Read on to see what I mean. In A Town Like Alice (1950, … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Australia, Fiction, Historical fiction, History, New Zealand, Travel | Tagged Lady Barker, Nevil Shute, Paul Theroux | 2 Comments

In the near future

Posted on February 26, 2020 by Lizzie Ross

Lory at The Emerald City Book Review recently wondered if her readers had reading plans for the year. Excellent question, if only because it gives me a chance to prep you for what’s to come on this blog. My usual … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Australia, Fiction, Historical fiction, History, New Zealand, Travel | 11 Comments

Flotsam and Jetsam

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Lizzie Ross

4 books reviewed here, and from them you’ll get a sense of my odd taste in reading these days. No particular reason for it — each one spurred by happenstance, satisfying a yen, or whatever. Lud-in-the-Mist, by Hope Mirrlees (1926, … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Fantasy, Mystery, YA Lit | Tagged Elizabeth Alcevedo, Hope Mirrlees, Neil Gaiman, Rumer Goden | 14 Comments

“As the sun pulls away from the shore …

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Lizzie Ross

… and our ship sinks slowly in the west ….” I finished Moby Dick more than a week ago, on my last night on the road home from a holiday family visit in Oklahoma. The wide horizons of the Midwest … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Seafaring | Tagged Herman Melville, Nathaniel Philbrick, Spike Jones, T S Eliot | 5 Comments

Shore leave ends

Posted on November 23, 2019 by Lizzie Ross

Last night I finished The Secret Commonwealth (Vol 2 of Pullman’s follow-up series to His Dark Materials) and sent it back (virtually, and virtuously) to the NYPL. By now, another patient reader has begun this dark and compelling tale. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Am reading, Am revising, Fantasy, NaNoWriMo, Seafaring, short stories | Tagged Herman Melville, Philip Pullman | 7 Comments

Am writing, am reading, am really really busy

Posted on November 12, 2019 by Lizzie Ross

12 days into November, and I’m on track to finish NaNoWriMo well ahead of the deadline. It’s amazing how much I can accomplish when I have to. The reason I have to: I start a 2½-week trip on 24 November, … Continue reading →