ShellyKing.com

I never knew it could be like this: I arrived in Ashland around lunch yesterday and having a couple of hours before I could check into my room, I did what I always consider doing when I have a couple of hours to kill. I went to get a pedicure. I tried out a new [...]

A couple of years ago, I visited a friend in Australia and discovered Tim Winton. Every morning, while Hels was teaching school, I’d walk to this little restaurant overlooking the bay for breakfast, then take a long walk on the beach to this little bench I found in the dunes. There I’d bury my feet [...]

I’m a huge fan of Alison Weir’s nonfiction books. She focuses mostly on Englands Tudor era, but has also written impressive books on Eleanor of Aquitaine and Isabella (wife to Edward II). So I was thrilled to see a novel by her, [...]

The best Christmas presents in the world are books. I got several this year and have already finished one, The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. It’s spooky and perplexing and lush and thrilling as all books of mystery should be. I hate to use the phrase “literary mystery” but in this case it’s really applicable. [...]

Five years ago, when the book first came out, I listened to the audio version of Three Junes. This is not a book I could listen to while doing the dishes. I would find myself standing at the sink, staring into space, hands in quickly cooling water, completely transfixed by the words I was listening [...]

The Keep has so many things that make a great story. A creepy castle with mysterious deaths in its history, two cousins bound by a traumatic past, plot twists, “what the heck’s going on here” moments, prisoners serving hard time, and a ancient countess in the castle keep. Don’t ask how this all comes together [...]

Ellen Sussman has edited a essay anthology called Bad Girls. Don’t let the Rocky Horror lips fool you, this isn’t the confessions of jailed debutantes or coked up starlettes. These essays are by real women, writers who are bad girls only in the most entertaining and been-there-lived-to-tell-the-tale sense. Laura Lippman digs in her heals and [...]

I’ve only read one other Christopher Moore book, Lamb, but I’m starting to notice a pattern. A woman, a bit of a knockout, pairs up with sweet guy who makes up for what he lacks in “classically handsome man” qualities with humor and loyalty. Fun and hijinks ensue. No wonder he’s so popular. In Bloodsucking [...]

Harry Dresden is supposed to be a Sam Spade all Gandalf-ed up. He’s a wizard for hire in Chicago with wreck of a VW Beetle, a cat named Mister, and a helpful, potion-making spirit named Bob who is trapped in a skull. [...]

I’m taking Ellen Sussman’s class on 2006’s Best American Short Stories, edited by Ann Patchet (author of Bel Canto, which I loved). We discuss the 20 stories in the collection over four weeks.
This Saturday is the last class, so I’m a little [...]