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The Marriage of Opposites

September 16, 2015

marriage of opposites

Beginning in 1795 on the island of St. Thomas The Marriage of Opposites is Alice Hoffman’s newest novel. It is the story of Rachel, a strong willed and intelligent woman, bound by the confines of the times but with dreams of traveling far away to Paris and living a life on her own terms. As the daughter of a wealthy Jewish businessman she is brought up as young ladies were but ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, book clubs, family saga, historical fiction, Paris

Circling the Sun: A Novel

August 10, 2015

circling the sun

I have a chart that traces my route over the Atlantic, Abingdon to New York, every inch of icy water I’ll pass over, but not the emptiness involved or the loneliness, or the fear. Those things are as real as anything else, though, and I’ll have to fly through them. Straight through the sickening dips and air pockets, because you can’t chart a course around anything you’re ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical fiction, South Africa, women

Crooked Heart

August 5, 2015

crooked heart

  Noel is a ten-year-old who has been living with his godmother in London, until she dies. He moves in with her nephew and his wife but they are not well suited for a child of Noel’s personality and use the excuse of the impending war to send him to the suburbs to live with a foster family. Vera Sedge is the frazzled woman who sees Noel less as a child to be helped and ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Harper, historical fiction, London, WWII

The Book of Speculation

July 8, 2015

Debut novelist Erika Swyler does not waste any time before throwing the reader into the deep end of The Book of Speculation. The novel begins with Simon Watson, a librarian with the ability to hold his breath for underwater for almost ten minutes at a time, a skill passed on to him by his mother before she drowned herself when he was seven. Now, he lives alone in the family’s ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: debut, historical fiction, magic, mystery, St. Martin's Press

Girl at War: A Novel

June 24, 2015

girl

Ana is from Croatia but now lives in America and attends college in New York. Despite having been in the U.S for a decade she suddenly finds herself overcome by memories of her life in Croatia in 1991—the beginning of the Yugoslavian civil war. These memories increase in intensity until she can no longer sleep at night. In desperation, she decides to go back to Croatia to try ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, debut, Eastern Europe, historical fiction, war

The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton

June 10, 2015

miniaturist

Set in 1686 The Miniaturist by debut author Jessie Burton is the spellbinding story of an eighteen-year-old girl married off to an older merchant who lives in Amsterdam. She arrives on his doorstep with no idea of what marriage entails or the fact that she has been procured to enhance his reputation, for her family is poor but with a pedigree. Little does she know that her ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, debut, ecco, historical fiction

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