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The Shore: A Novel by Sara Taylor

February 15, 2017

shore

  The Shore by Sara Taylor may qualify as one of the most unusually formatted books I’ve read in a long time. Take a family tree composed of over fifty members, stretching from the 1850s to 2143. Close your eyes, throw a dart at the tree and wherever it land--that’s a chapter.  So, even though Medora Slater is the matriarch who gets this clan started, she doesn’t make an ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: family saga, historical fiction, Hogarth, literary, social issues, Southern life

The Chosen Maiden

January 27, 2017

chosen maiden

  If you’ve ever loved dance, specifically ballet, then you know the name Nijinsky. What you are less likely to know is that the world-famous Vaslav Nijinsky had a sister who was also a dancer. Thankfully, author Eva Stachniak rectifies that in her new novel, The Chosen Maiden, which is the story of Bronia Nijinsky. The novel begins when she is three and follows her life ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: ballet, Doubleday, historical fiction, Russia

The Second Mrs Hockaday

January 9, 2017

second mrs hockaday

  Placidia is seventeen when she meets Major Hockaday and when he proposes that very same day she says yes. That he is a widower and has a small son makes little difference to her. It’s 1865 and given the war there’s no point in waiting for a proper courtship and wedding. In fact, the very next day they set off for the Hockaday’s home. From there, Susan Rivers’s novel The ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Algonquin Books, Civil War, debut, historical fiction, marriage, mystery, Southern life

The Ornatrix: A Novel

December 5, 2016

ornatrix

  Those of us in the contemporary world often believe that our problems are new to civilization and have never been experienced before, but Kate Howard shatters that belief in her debut novel The Ornatrix. She takes three women and seals their fate to their faces in this gothic tale of beauty set in Italy in the 16th century.  Flavia is a country girl whose face is half ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, historical fiction, Italy, The Overlook Press, W.W. Norton

Victoria: A Novel

November 21, 2016

In 1837, barely after turning eighteen, Princess Alexandrina Victoria of Kent became the queen of England. She stood a mere 4’11” tall and had led a life largely isolated from society. For modern day readers it is almost incomprehensible to imagine that a tiny teenager could rule one of the most powerful and widespread empires in the world. Thankfully, author Daisy Goodwin’s ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, England, historical fiction, royalty, St. Martin's Press

News of the World

November 16, 2016

news of the world

  Jefferson Kidd is a reader. Not like you or me, but an elderly, retired Army captain who earns his living by riding through Northern Texas in 1870, stopping in towns to read the major newspapers to the townspeople. His is a solo act until he meets a man in Wichita Falls who has recovered a little girl kidnapped four years ago by the Kiowa Indians after they killed her ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, historical fiction, William Morrow

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