I am always intrigued by fiction with a biographical twist. This book was from the point of view of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley. Through her eyes you saw the couple from the time they fell in love, through their divorce,  until his suicide. You saw firsthand the passionate love they shared in the beginning [...]

The Kitchen House is an intricate tale of the south. It takes us back to when servants were the property of their masters and could not speak up for themselves or their family members. Many of the intimate secrets of this family are shared with us as the book unfolds. The master, in [...]

This book was initially reviewed by Suzanne back in September 2009. Based on her review I added this novel to my “must read” list and am very glad I did. Like Suzanne, I was initially intimated by its large size, but the first chapter got me hooked. By the time I had come to the [...]

Grand tales of high adventure as northmen go a-viking in pursuit of silver and gold across a tumultuous Europe of the Tenth Century A.D. are spun by Frans G. Bengtsson in “The Long Ships”.  He brings alive this time when the continent trembled at the approach of the men in the dragon ships and people [...]

Come one, come all, step right up and pay your nickel to meet the freaks in Ellen Bryson’s book “The Transformation of Bartholomew Fortuno: A Novel” wherein she brings alive the world of P.T. Barnum’s American Museum through the eyes of the title character Bartholomew ‘Barthy’ Fortuno A.K.A. The World’s Thinnest Man. The [...]

I love epics. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that before on this blog, but I love a good epic. Gone With the Wind, (John Jakes’s) North and South, and The Thorn Birds all rank among my favorite books. The coming on of autumn put me in the mood to read a good epic [...]

Allende in her last masterpiece will show us an internal, emotional and personal vision of slavery in the Caribbean during the colonial period. At the same time, we’ll share with Zarite her dreams, her pain, and her love in a journey thru exotic places, which ones are very influential to the way people act and [...]

Allende en su ultima obra nos muestra una vision interna, emotiva y totalmente personal de la esclavitud en el caribe durante el periodo colonial. A su vez, compartimos junto a Zarite sus sueños, su dolor, su pasion y su amor en un viaje por lugares exoticos, muy arraigados con la forma de ser, actuar y [...]

I tend to view books and articles about Arctic exploration to be dull, but I found The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish to be very interesting and suspenseful.  This amazingly- and intricately-illustrated picture book written following extensive research is based on a true story and includes black and white photos of the Inupiat family [...]

This book is the U.S. debut novel for author Tatiana de Rosnay.  The story revolves around an American woman, Julia, who moves to Paris at age 20 and marries a french man.  She is a writer assigned to a story about the alarming role that France played during WWII.  Her investigation concerns the 60th anniversary of the “roundups” that took place [...]