I cannot put it better than Bookpage’s on-point review of Blood Water Paint, but in the spirit of #MeToo, I will share my experience with this novel as well. Blood Water Paint is a vivid depiction based on facts of Baroque artist Artemesia Gentileschi. The story immerses the reader in Artemesia’s daily life and most intimate thoughts. Visceral descriptions of what it was like to be a woman, a daughter, and a female artist in the16th […]
This past October, in conjunction with Frankenreads.org, I hosted a month of programming centered around Mary Shelley and her Frankenstein at my library. The publisher was kind enough to send us a book club kit of TDDoEF, so we featured the novel as our October Young Adult Fiction for Adults book club pick. Overall, feelings from our book club attendees were lukewarm about Kiersten White’s spin on Mary Shelley’s dark fictional world and characters. The book was […]
I read this book when it first came out, but I am just now getting around to reviewing it on the blog. First, here’s a little history about the author. Melinda Metz is a librarian and the co-author of the original Roswell High book series that was eventually adapted for television as the CW’s Roswell T.V. show. The Roswell books and television series have a cult following and fans have been campaigning for a […]
Wow. If you start this book with looming deadlines or close to bedtime, be prepared to disregard both once you start reading Rea Frey’s immensely absorbing novel, Not Her Daughter. This is, hands down, one of the most compelling and complex books I’ve read so far this year. It is a fast-paced story that alternates between two female narrators, leading up to and during the kidnapping of a five-year-old girl. This book immerses the reader into […]
I love historical fiction novels that focus on women’s history, especially the women’s suffrage movement. If you can believe it, I have met people who had no idea that women were ever prohibited from voting–or how hard women fought to gain that right. Clarissa Harwood’s novel, Impossible Saints, is a passionate portrayal of the internal and external conflicts and ideological forces that women wrestled with in their day-to-day lives during the suffrage movement. Check out […]
I experience an urge to be scared witless from a book or film twice a year, usually in October and during the summer. It’s not quite summer, but I couldn’t resist checking out the new Netflix series Requiem. Long story short: this show was a gripping piece of art infused with suspense, psychological terror, Welsh mythology, and muted horror. I highly recommend adding it to your queue/watching it right away. My abbreviated plot synopsis: The […]
The One That Got Away by Melissa Pimentel is the perfect read to bridge your summer book binges over into your more selective fall reading schedule. This witty and poignant novel taps into the same vein of magic as Bridget Jones’s Diary, and any gal or guy who has loved and/or lost will enjoy the personal and romantic journeys of the two leading characters. I absolutely love modern retellings of romantic literary classics, and this […]
“She’s got a secret that’s long overdue.” I am blushing as I type this review post; but YES, I read a Harlequin Super Romance. As I went through one of the handy self-checkout stations at my local library, I convinced myself that this romance novel was probably going to be a DNFer. The synopsis did not sound especially intriguing to me, but the cover and the title were enough to make me risk my prudish […]
“A funny, fantastically entertaining debut novel, in the spirit of Wodehouse and Monty Python, about a famous poet who inadvertently sells his wife to the devil–then recruits a band of adventurers to rescue her.” This is a short and sweet book review. I read this book back in February because I was planning on reviewing it for National Poetry Month (in April), but April was busier than I anticipated. Thus, I am reviewing it now, […]
ENTER TO WIN a Hardcover copy of The Wonder below! US ONLY. Have you read Emma Donoghue’s Room, or seen the Academy award winning film based off of that book? I haven’t indulged myself in either of these yet, but I did recently read Donoghue’s, The Wonder, and I could not put it down. Set some years after the Crimean War, this story unfolds within the confines of a thatch-roofed home, in a small Irish village, […]
Sapiophiles unite. Heloise and Abelard are our heroes. Faith. Knowledge. Friendship. Lust. CASTRATION. Thus is the story of Heloise and Abelard. A love story steeped in provocative intellectual sparring and the knowledge of forbidden fruit. If you are a fan of the great and tragic romances of Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, or Tristan and Isolde, then you are a fan of Heloise and Abelard: star-crossed lovers whose characters were crucified for the love […]
This book goes beyond capturing the music, fashion, and style of the WWII era and paints a picture of the chaotic attitudes, theories, failed diplomacy, and missed connections that contributed to the start of the world’s bloodiest war to date. The tone of the novel is serious and the author does an excellent job of capturing the psychosis and sexism of not only the Nazi party but the culture in general. Pre-Nazi party, Berlin was […]
“Set against the golden age of Hollywood, the dark days of WWII, and the swinging ’70s, The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem follows generations of unforgettable women as they forge their own paths through times of dramatic change.” – jacket excerpt The Beauty Queen of Jerusalem is an absorbing novel that traces the familial and amorous relationships and life-shaping decisions of four generations of Israeli women. “The shop employed several seamstresses who made the clothes according to patterns […]
I enjoyed this story for the rich bits of history and biography revealed through long-lost discovered correspondence and the two main narrators of the story. The most entertaining character in the book was The Duchess of Marlborough, who tries her hardest to deny that she is, indeed, the duchess. The story does some time hopping as each chapter reveals another piece of the puzzle concerning the duchess and the main female protagonist’s parentage. The pacing […]
Check out my review of Jennifer Laam’s The Secret Daughter of the Tsar HERE. Catherine Zeta-Jones as Catherine the Great 1995 I enjoyed Laam’s debut, The Secret Daughter of the Tsar, and this follow up did not disappoint. Straddling the worlds of 18th century and 21st century Russia, the author bravely tackles some complex political and cultural issues that very much resonate with topics that are flooding American headlines today. It was absolutely genius how […]
As one customer aptly put it in her review on Amazon, “Reading this book is a GREAT idea.” I concur. If you are like me and have never had the pleasure of visiting Paris, then you probably have a stack of travel books and travel fiction as tall as the Eiffel Tower. Not to mention ones with the word “Paris” in the title. Queue my NON-reluctance to read JUST ONE MORE book set among the […]
Мать Россия!!! A little bird told me something. That Historians secretly love to read alternate histories. I’m here to qualify that secret. We love to read well-written and believable alternate histories. The Secret Daughter of the Tsar almost made me want to change my focus of study as a historian-in-training, and that is saying a lot. These days, I am lucky to finish a book in a week. I finished this one in a few […]
“Playing the violin again ignited a permanent glow that I carried inside me, which burned gently and steadily just beneath my breast bone. Before I left Maestro Vivaldi’s house, we agreed I should return at noon in three days’ time, but I knew my frequent comings and goings would not go unremarked upon for long. I was tempting il destino, but I couldn’t stop.” The man, the myth, the legend: Most ears […]
Check out another fantastic book I reviewed that centers around midwifery HERE. Here’s a vague, three run-on sentence long history of delivering babies: Skilled women helped other women deliver their babies and would pass the torch of ”mystical delivery” down to other women because, after all, a woman knows how women things work better than a man. Fast forward to the nineteenth century and the medical field becomes ”professionalized” and the field of gynecology was […]
Yeaaaaah, I was supposed to post a review about this AMAZING book (more than) a few months ago but lets move on, shall we? *clears throat* The thing is, I enjoyed this re-telling of Jane Eyre so much that I was waiting for my intellect to catch up. RE JANE was incredibly clever, insightful, poignant, and funny. Sometimes it’s hard to come up with the words to review such a smart book. I bow down […]
“Bennett’s sophisticated grasp of historical realities and psychological complexity gives power and depth to what might easily have been a clichéd romance.” – Sunday Times First, let me help you set the mood before starting this sweeping story of revolution, music, and romance. Do yourself a favor and Spotify or buy Anna Netrebko’s Russian Album to steep this reading experience in even more magic. Netrebko brings such rich, velvety tones and mastery of subject matter […]