read Archives

Raptor Red

“Survival is the only true measure of success.” Author: Robert T. Bakker Getting involved in the excitement of Jurassic Park: Rebirth reminded me of my undying love of all things dinosaurs, which started in my childhood when I saw the first Jurassic Park movie on a rainy night in a drive-in in Memphis. With equal parts nostalgia and continued obsession, I started to go through my library, looking at books that I’d bought with extreme excitement and just never gotten around to reading. I finally read and adored Footprints of Thunder and then, there it was, the discarded library book copy [...]

Frances Carden2025-12-01T11:57:08-07:00December 1st, 2025|Tags: book review, dinosaurs, fiction, raptor, read, reading, utah raptor, velociraptor|

The Last Chronicle of Barset

“Money is worth thinking of, but it is not worth very much thought.” Author: Anthony Trollope In The Last Chronicle of Barset Anthony Trollope brings the Barsetshire Chronicles to a close with a stimulating scandal, an unexpected death, a forbidden romance, and a failed romance. What better way to close out a rousing Victorian drama? This time, Barsetshire is consumed with the case of a supposedly stolen check. The proud but impoverished Reverend Josiah Crawley has cashed a note for 20 pounds to pay his butcher bill. He believes this money was given to him by his friend, Dean Arabin, but [...]

Frances Carden2025-11-26T16:16:01-07:00November 26th, 2025|Tags: Anthony Trollope, Barset, Barsetshire, book review, classic, drama, fiction, read, reading, victorian|

Ghost Camera

“That’s what we always fear the most: the things we can’t see, and the things we don’t yet understand.” Author: Darcy Coates I’m a novel girly, so usually I don’t find myself attracted to short story collections, even those by a favorite author. I came to Ghost Camera more through false advertising than anything else. It’s not clear that Ghost Camera is a novella followed by seven other short stories and one other novella. Normally, I’d be mad, but I actually loved this collection and all of the stories. The signature tale from which the collection derives its name concerns two [...]

Frances Carden2025-11-24T19:05:07-07:00November 24th, 2025|Tags: book review, Darcy Coates, ghosts, horror, read, reading, Short Stories|