In Jackson, Mississippi during the Civil Rights era, a white woman stumbles on the idea of writing a book about the black maids of the area and the white families they work for. There have been so many great reviews written for this book, that I don’t know if I have a whole lot more Continue Reading…
She-Rain by Michael Cogdill: Book Review
Frank Locke is the son of an opium addict in the 1920s in the Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina. He’s quit school to work in a cotton mill and take care of his parents’ and grandparents’ farms. He’s bitter about his father, but he’s found a good woman to love. Then some big family Continue Reading…
Peace Like a River by Leif Enger: Book Review
Synopsis from GoodReads: Born with no air in his lungs, it was only when Reuben Land’s father, Jeremiah, picked him up and commanded him to breathe that Reuben’s lungs filled. Reuben struggles with debilitating asthma from then on, making him a boy who knows firsthand that life is a gift, and also one who suspects Continue Reading…
Ahab’s Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund: Book Review
Synopsis from the book cover: From the opening line–“Captain Ahab was neither my first husband nor my last”–you will know that you are in the hands of a master storyteller and in the company of a fascinating woman hero. Inspired by a brief passage in Moby-Dick, Sena Jeter Naslund has created an enthralling and compellingly Continue Reading…
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull: Book Review
Eddi McCandry is a rocker with a big heart. She attracts the attention of the Seelie Court and her life is turned upside down. I absolutely loved this. If you know me, and maybe if you don’t, you know that Charles de Lint is my favorite author. This is something very much in the same Continue Reading…
All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot: Book Review
I don’t have a review written up for this book, but I have loved it since the first time I read it. It was summer break, I must have been in high school, and I had finished all the books I had checked out from the library. I didn’t feel like re-reading anything, so in Continue Reading…
Persuasion by Jane Austen: Book Review
5 Stars. My favorite Austen! Captain Wentworth! *sigh* Or is it *swoon*? This was a nice blend of Austen’s pointed social commentary and a (bitter)sweet romance. Anne’s family is just awful. They are silly, vain and entirely too class-conscious. They insist on their “inferiors” showing them the proper amount of deference and […]
Fair and Tender Ladies by Lee Smith: Book Review
I’m an Appalachian mountain girl. I felt like I knew Ivy from the first sentence. She truly seemed to come to life on the pages. I came along a few generations after her time, but I felt like she could be one of my grandmothers. She talked the way I probably still talk 🙂 Education Continue Reading…
A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly: Book Review
Mattie Gokey is an intelligent high school senior living in rural New York in 1906. As this book unfolds, we are following two different, intertwined arcs of Mattie’s life: the earlier months when she is desperate to get to college and the later months when she’s working at a summer lake resort where a young Continue Reading…
The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan: Book Review
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief hits theaters today. I have to admit that I’m pretty excited to see it. I loved the book, the cast is amazing, and the trailer is exciting. I just wish that they had found an actor who is actually Percy’s age to play Percy. He’s what–12 in Continue Reading…
Soulless by Gail Carriger: Book Review
I have waited entirely too long to write this review and gotten too deeply involved in Ken Follett’s World Without End, so this review is going to suck a little. Which is a pity because I had thought of all kinds of witty things I was going to write and now I’ve lost them. Miss Continue Reading…