Imagine, if you will, that Jane Austen can somehow receive letters from her modern-day readers, asking for her sage advice in love and marriage. That’s the premise for this charming little book. Part “autobiography”, part self-help book, and part critical analysis, Dear Jane Austen is full of practical advice for all women, no matter what […]
Stefan Blau runs away from his home in Germany when he is a young man. He’s always dreamed of living in America. He eventually finds himself in New Hampshire, building a beautiful apartment building, running a restaurant, and doing his best to provide for his family. Honestly, this book might have suffered from too many […]
Miss Amelia Peabody is a confirmed spinster. Her father died and left her a comfortable inheritance and she has decided to start traveling to those ancient sites they both loved. She acquires the lovely yet troubled Evelyn as a companion in Rome and she sets off to visit Egypt. There, she meets the Emerson brothers. […]
Hart Bonner is the son of a formerly prosperous plantation owner. Jennie Grant is his cousin’s biracial cook. In South Carolina in the early 1900s, she is considered a “Negro” and it is a felony for a white man to have “relations” with her. She and Hart carry on a secret affair for years though. […]
I decided to read this because Thomas Wolfe was from my area and I only had to read one short story of his for an English class. I wanted to see what he was all about. This is basically the slightly fictionalized story of his childhood and young adult years growing up in the mountains […]
Bill Bryson is back and this time’s he’s tackling the question of “Where do we come from?” in a very accessible kind of way. He gives an everyman’s scientific explanation of the creation of the universe, the world, the atmosphere, evolution, human evolution, you name it. Pretty much all the sciences are covered, from astronomy […]
Synopsis from GoodReads: Stardust is an utterly charming fairy tale in the tradition of The Princess Bride and The Neverending Story. Neil Gaiman, creator of the darkly elegant Sandman comics and author of The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, tells the story of young Tristran Thorn and his adventures in the land […]
In Depression-era North Carolina, a timber baron marries Serena and brings her to the lumber camps to live. Her ambition outmatches his and she drives him to succeed, prosper, and expand at any cost. Wow. What a character Ron Rash has created in Serena. I detested her, but she is going to stick with me […]
Mercy Thompson is a walker. Not that kind of walker. A “skinwalker.” She can shift into coyote form easily and at will. Her sexy neighbor is the Alpha of the local werewolf pack. She’s good friends with a vampire. Her life isn’t exactly normal. When a new lone werewolf shows up at her garage one […]
The powerful wizard Crarnock has decided to wipe out humanity with the combination of his magic and his goblin hordes. In order to mount a resistance, the people opposing him must put aside their prejudices, band together and work as one. My huge problem was that this needed a lot more editing. I’m not talking […]
Honestly, I can’t help but feel that for me to sit in judgment of a memoir of the Holocaust would be terribly presumptuous. We can’t ever forget the Holocaust, and any work that reminds us of what happened is important and should be read as widely as possible. The style is a little sparse for […]