If you’ve read the Jane Austen novel Pride & Prejudice or seen the movie you know that Lydia Bennet was one of the most annoying little sisters in the fictional world, nearly bringing down her family’s reputation with her foolish behavior and hasty decisions. But what if there was more to her than that? Melinda Taub answers that question in The Scandalous Confessions of ... Read More...
Mrs. Osmond by John Banville
“You seem to me, Miss Archer, a person possessed of a large potential; do be careful not to underspend your resource.” I read Henry James’s Portrait of Lady a long time ago, but still remember how bad I felt for its heroine, Isabel Archer. She’s a young American who goes to England and comes into a small fortune, is taken in by a worldly older woman who educates ... 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...
The Way We Live Now
I just finished The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope (like he didn’t catch shit in school) and while you might think 738 pages is a slog far too great for any book that isn’t part of the The Girl series it’s not for this one. My biggest complaint is that as I read lying in bed it did hurt my wrist to hold the book up but hey, suffering is a part of art. If you want true ... Read More...
