I could not name a more famous writer than William Shakespeare. High school english looks at his plays; college classes dedicate whole semesters to the legendary iambic pentameter writer. He lived from 1564 to 1616, so why do we still study him today? People mention his complicated verbage or how he wrote all his plays…
Tag: writing
Bullet Train Book Review
I finally got around to reading the second book in Kotaro Isaka’s Assassins series. I stumbled upon this series by accident when browsing the good ol’ Barnes and Noble. When I read the back cover of Three Assassins and I knew I had to read it. After I started, I learned there were more books…
A Grief Observed Book Review
C.S Lewis has been a long standing favorite of mine. However, I have only really read excerpts of his works, apart from The Chronicles of Narnia. I love his history and his approach to writing. I love his intersections of religion and science and life. Despite only reading excerpts, I have collected a small portion…
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep Book Review
Welcome to our first book review of 2024! I am excited to review my favorite read from 2023 to introduce this year to many more book reviews. How can we be a book blog without the book reviews? There are books we put down, books we enjoy, and books we dislike. Some books we might…
2024 Word of the Year and Book Goals
Happy 2024! We are so happy you’re here. If you have followed along since the beginning, thank you. If you are just joining, welcome! We are happy to be back and sharing with you all. The break was refreshing and allowed us to make some goals, which we will be discussing with you as well….
The Magician’s Nephew Book Review
It wasn’t until my junior year of undergrad that I really fell in love with C.S Lewis’s writing. I was working for a family at the time and we’d often talk about books and authors we enjoyed. The grandfather mentioned to me his fierce enjoyment of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S Lewis. Honestly, it…
Umbra Ex Libris: A Year in Review
November marks our one year anniversary of the official launch of Umbra Ex Libris! This year has been a great learning experience for all of us. We still have a lot to learn and much more to write about. We have enjoyed every second of it. Thank you to our dedicated readers and to those…
Perfect Halloween Drinks to Enjoy this Season
Happy Halloween Weekend! Here at Umbra, we are big fans of the season. Between the costumes, the candy, the great reads, it’s a blast! One thing we are particularly fond of are the festivities. One thing we really enjoy are the Halloween parties. Unfortunately, there will be no party for us this year, but that…
Xeric’s Demise: A Short Story
Xeric walked down the spiral staircase into the depths below his tower. He still could not believe the wizard council forbade his research. What did those spell slingers know about the fine art of transfiguration anyways? No one in town cares about the neat trick changing mice into rats. They wanted to experience something truly…
The Bend: A Short Story
My grandfather once told me a story of an old road that twisted down from his mountain town. It wasn’t an unusual road. It wouldn’t be seen as strange from any out of towners. But for the folks living in the woods, it marked the spot of an unanswered mystery. The secrets still lurk in…