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The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts

April 7, 2025

wildes

Coming from a family where wit (largely sarcasm, but still) is a love language I’ve always been intrigued by Oscar Wilde. I’ve read his works, seen movie adaptations of his plays, and even read about his tumultuous and ultimately tragic life. Now comes The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard, an inventive take on the impact on his family of Wilde’s personal life. In ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: England, historical

Kate & Frida: A Novel of Friendship, Food, and Books

March 24, 2025

kate

It begins with a letter sent from Paris to Seattle. Nothing romantic or between friends, but business because in 1991 that’s how these things were done. Frida writes to the Puget Sound Book Store looking for a book. Kate is the employee delegated with filling this customer request. Neither could know that this brief correspondence would grow into an intense and wonderful ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1990s, book clubs, friendship, historical, women

The Stolen Queen by Fiona Davis

February 13, 2025

stolen queen

A novel that includes the Egyptian wing of the Metropolitan Museum, Vogue editor Diana Vreeland, and ancient Egypt is not one I’m likely to miss out on. Fiona Davis’s The Stolen Queen follows two women and two timelines right up until they intersect on the night of the Met Gala in 1978 when a priceless Egyptian heirloom is stolen. Charlotte Cross is a young woman who refuses ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: fashion, historical, mystery, vacation reading

Behind the Scenes at the Museum

February 7, 2025

behind the scenes

Ruby Lennox has no intention of waiting to be noticed. She is the front and center, the axis in the familial wheel that is Kate Atkinson’s Behind the Scenes at the Museum. The novel begins with her announcing her own conception when her father drunkenly impregnates her mother. From this instant on we journey with Ruby through a family saga that sifts and shifts from the late ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: childhood, coming-of-age, England, family saga, historical

Babylonia: A Novel

February 5, 2025

babylonia

Orphaned as a baby after her mother killed herself, Semiramis has been believed to be cursed or a witch her entire young life. But she doesn’t care what the ignorant people of her tiny Assyrian village think. She knows she’s destined for greatness and when the opportunity arises, she grabs it. This is Babylonia, historical fiction blended with myth from the ancient world about ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: historical, Middle East, mythology

Instructions for a Heatwave

January 16, 2025

instructions

In 1976 England was in the midst of a terrible drought and heat wave. It’s an inauspicious and unexpected time for a happily married, retired man to go missing, but Robert does, taking only his keys and his passport. His wife Gretta is left in a frazzled state and his adult children have all been called to come home and look for him in Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, Instructions for ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, England, family, historical, literary

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