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April Reading Recap

April 30, 2018

april

Don't faint, but I'm not going to complain about my reading this month! Nope. Suffice it to say, April was a month of more highs than lows. It was also one for the record books. I read more non-fiction this month than I have all year. Thanks to super recommendations from bloggers I trust and the Seattle Public Library’s Peak Picks program  (every branch has limited copies of ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: contemporary life, cookbook, historical fiction, lists, mini-reviews, social issues

Where’s an Editor When You Need One?: Mini-Reviews

April 6, 2018

editor

  We’ve all read novels by authors who have a way with words, know how to shape a sentence, generate tension…all the good stuff, right? But what about when that good stuff keeps going and going until what felt like a perfect balance turns into words and plot piling on unchecked? I’m left either annoyed or crushed under the weight of too much verbiage. It’s at that point ... Read More...

8 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1950s, Blue Rider Press, childhood, contemporary life, fantasy, historical fiction, Italy, marriage, mini-reviews, political intrigue, St. Martin's Press

I Was Anastasia: A Novel

March 28, 2018

anastasia

I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon achieves quite a feat—taking a subject about which there is no longer any mystery and making it mysterious. Thanks to DNA testing, it is now known that Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia died with the rest of her family in the summer of 1918, slaughtered by the Communists in the basement of a house in the town of Ekaterinburg. But, for ... Read More...

10 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 20th century, Doubleday, historical fiction, mystery, Russia

White Houses

March 7, 2018

white

Lenora Hickok was a formidable woman for her time. In fact, she’d probably still be considered a formidable woman. From a childhood of deprivation and abuse she went on to become a renowned reporter, which in the 1930s, was a huge achievement in and of itself. In 1928 she interviewed Eleanor Roosevelt for Life magazine, went on to cover Eleanor’s part in her husband’s 1932 ... Read More...

11 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1940s, historical fiction, Random House, women

Song of a Captive Bird

February 19, 2018

song

Remember its flight, for the bird is mortal.  -Forugh Farrokhzhad I was looking forward to learning about a time and culture, far away from my own, but I never thought I’d be so thoroughly seduced by Jasmin Darznik’s debut novel, Song of a Captive Bird. It is a fictionalized account of Forugh Farrokhzhad, the first woman in Iran to defy her country’s cultural bias and ... Read More...

1 Comment
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Ballantine, book clubs, cultural, debut, historical fiction, Iran, literary, women

January Reading Wrap-Up

January 31, 2018

january

  It may be a new year, but my 2018 reading is starting off much like 2017—disappointing new releases and powerhouse backlist books. I bought Sarah’s Reading Tracker so am hoping to be able to quantify my reading missteps and make better choices. Until then, here’s what worked and didn’t work in January.   I’m able and willing to read novels with multiple ... Read More...

12 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Feature Tagged: historical fiction, lists, mini-reviews, mystery, Viking

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