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Belle Cora

January 20, 2014

belle cora

  I know a man who had a colossal stone mansion dismantled to be taken by sea from New York to California, with every block labeled and numbered so that the house could be reassembled at its destination. Whenever in my life I have moved a great distance to a new place and new circumstances, I have felt like that house. I seem to have spent some time in pieces, waiting for ... Read More...

11 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, debut, Doubleday, historical fiction, San Francisco

The Gods of Heavenly Punishment

January 17, 2014

gods of heavenly punishment

  There are numerous novels about World War II and the events leading up to it but TheThe Gods of Heavenly Punishment: A Novel comes from a perspective not often seen—that of life in Japan in the late 1930s. Author Jennifer Cody Epstein intermingles the lives of disparate characters that come together and move apart against the backdrop of war. Anton Reynolds is an American ... Read More...

3 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, historical fiction, Japan, W.W. Norton, WWII

Farewell, Dorothy Parker

December 20, 2013

farewell dorothy parker

  Have you ever played the history game where you can choose points in history you’d like to visit? For me, the era of the Algonquin Round Table in Manhattan is one such time. Men of great wit and intelligence drinking cocktails and being dominated by one of the greatest wits of all: Dorothy Parker. Given that choice, finding Ellen Meister’s novel, Farewell, Dorothy Parker was ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Berkley, chick lit, humor, Manhattan, pop culture

The Lion Seeker

December 18, 2013

lion seeker

  The son of Lithuanian Jews who left the country in the 1920s and moved to South Africa, Isaac Helger grows up believing the only way to have self-worth is through money. “Working” for a living, as his watch repairman father does, is embarrassing. As the protagonist in Kenneth Bonert’s novel, The Lion Seeker, Isaac embraces his mother’s credo of “Are you a stupid or a ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, cultural, historical fiction, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, South Africa

Guests on Earth

December 6, 2013

guests on earth

  Guests on Earth: A Novel by Lee Smith is the story of an orphan, thirteen-year-old Evalina Toussaint, who, after her mother dies, is sent to the Highland Hospital in Asheville, North Carolina, because she stops eating. Highland is a renowned mental health institution knowing for principles of healthful eating and activity as a cure for mental and emotional problems. It is ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1930s, historical fiction, Zelda Fitzgerald

The Valley of Amazement

November 18, 2013

Valley of Amazement

  Amy Tan is another author returning this year after a multi-year absence. In The Valley of Amazement she weaves a tapestry of the lives of three generations of women, one silken thread at a time. The novel is a portrait of life in a courtesan house in Shanghai at the turn of the century. Violet’s mother, Lucia, is the proprietor. As she is growing-up Violet believes that ... Read More...

11 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: China, cultural, ecco, historical fiction

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