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Mademoiselle Chanel: A Novel

March 25, 2015

chanel

  When you think of Chanel it is likely as a luxury brand of clothes, accessories, and perfume. I know for me it is because owning a vintage Chanel suit is on my bucket list. Forget seeing the pyramids, I want that boucle jacket with the gold chain sewn into the lining to make sure it hangs straight. It is fascinating, then, to read C.W. Gortner’s novel, Mademoiselle ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, fashion, historical fiction, William Morrow

Dead Wake

March 11, 2015

dead wake

When it comes to taking historic international events and looking behind the scenes there are few who do it as well as Erik Larson. Even when the event itself is substantial in its importance he is able to dig into it and find an aspect to make it even more momentous and, at the same time, personal. His newest work is Dead Wake and it’s about the last crossing of the Lusitania, ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, Crown, history, World War I

Life from Scratch: a memoir of food, family, and forgiveness

March 4, 2015

top

It’s often said that fact is stranger than fiction but as I’m a big fiction reader I don’t often test that theory. All that changed when I read Life From Scratch by Sasha Martin. Martin is well-known for her blog, Global Table Adventure, where, in the span of four years she cooked a meal from every country in the world. That alone is accomplishment enough to fill a memoir but ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, food, memoir, recipes

The Sacrifice

February 18, 2015

sacrifice

Joyce Carol Oates is not one to shy away from the tough subjects. The last book of hers I read was Daddy Love and it was a very difficult look at child abduction and pedophilia. In The Sacrifice she is back with the story of a black teenage girl found in an abandoned factory, raped, beaten, covered in feces and with racist obscenities scrawled on her torso. For those of you ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, ecco, historical fiction, Manhattan, mystery

I Think You’re Totally Wrong: A Quarrel

January 30, 2015

  I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel is an intellectual version of the Bickersons, as authors David Shields and his former student Caleb Powers spend four days in a cabin in the Cascade mountains of Washington and disagree about everything from movies to major life issues. In the course of this dialogue there are no holds barred and, in its own way, it has a certain ... Read More...

4 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: Knopf

The Undertaker’s Daughter

January 21, 2015

undertaker

Kate Mayfield takes readers into the world of her childhood in The Undertaker’s Daughter, a memoir that combines the unique circumstances of growing up in the 1960s in a small town in Kentucky while living above a funeral home. Through her we learn about a life and family held tight by the rituals of death. For Kate and her siblings, life was an odd combination of normalcy and ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Non-fiction Tagged: book clubs, coming-of-age, Gallery, memoir, Southern life

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