Unbecoming follows a young woman named Grace from present day Paris to New York City and even Garland, Tennessee, slipping back and forth as her story and life unspool. In Paris, she is not even Grace but calls herself Julie and works for a woman who restores antiques and pays cash. As a young girl there was no stability in her life so when she met Riley in the fourth grade ... Read More...
The Other Typist
Suzanne Rindell sets her novel The Other Typist in 1920s New York City where Rose is one of a new kind of working woman, earning her living as a typist for the police department. She is an orphan living a quiet simple life despite working in a job that exposes her to some of the roughest men in the city. When Abolition begins, the department needs additional typists as ... Read More...
July Reading Recap
Yes, it’s August first and this is a July reading recap but I like to make sure the month is well and truly over before I post something called a “recap”. That’s just me. July was an interesting month. Despite hitting a patch of reading blahs when I couldn’t find anything I wanted to read on my shelves (pretty sure that’s one of the signs of the Apocalypse) I ended up reading ... Read More...
Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives
Apparently, I’m getting all adventurous and flexible in my old age. Penguin Books was kind enough to send me a new anthology of crime fiction short stories. Crime? Short stories? Neither is a genre I read. I don’t look down on them either, but there are only 24 hours in a day. So, it was with great surprise that I thoroughly enjoyed myself with Troubled Daughters, Twisted Wives ... Read More...
Sometimes a Great Notion
When I learned that Ken Kesey grew up in Oregon I thought I was long overdue to read one of his books. I had seen One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and didn’t think I needed to revisit that subject so I opted for his second novel, Sometimes a Great Notion. The story is set in Oregon logging country in the early 1960s. It catches the Stamper family (aptly named) at the height of ... Read More...
