Well, all righty, the first month of 2017 is wrapping up. I’ve already noted that my reading is still in an odd place, but I’m working very hard to get my head and heart back into the game—what’s happening now is going to keep on happening. One very positive thing I did in January was participate in the Women’s March in Seattle. The city had planned for 40,000 people ... Read More...
The Chosen Maiden
If you’ve ever loved dance, specifically ballet, then you know the name Nijinsky. What you are less likely to know is that the world-famous Vaslav Nijinsky had a sister who was also a dancer. Thankfully, author Eva Stachniak rectifies that in her new novel, The Chosen Maiden, which is the story of Bronia Nijinsky. The novel begins when she is three and follows her life ... Read More...
Nonfiction November: My Year in Nonfiction
Anyone who knows me and what I like to read is probably rolling on the floor laughing right now because I don’t read nonfiction. Stop it! You’re hurting my feelings. I don’t consciously discriminate against it, but if faced with two books and one is fiction and one is not, I’m going to dive at the fiction. This is scientifically borne out in my reading stats for 2016: ... Read More...
A Gentleman in Moscow
When he is thirty-three Count Alexander Rostov finds himself sentenced by the Bolsheviks to house arrest at the Metropol, a prestigious hotel in the theater district of Moscow. Initially, it doesn’t seem a particularly harsh sentence because he has already been living there in a posh suite for four years. But now, he may not leave and the suite is no more. Instead, he is ... Read More...
Good Wives: Mini-Reviews
There are Biblical verses, poems, and a plethora of folksy sayings about the value of a good wife or what it takes to be a good wife. There is also no shortage of wives as the mainstay in fiction throughout the ages. I recently read two new novels with wives as the focus: one that looked at the criteria needed to be a good wife in modern day Houstonian society and the other ... Read More...
The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
I could not pass up the opportunity to share the love again for a book that I adored. I'm not a big short story reader, but Marra connects the dots so well that The Tsar of Love and Techno reads like an abstract art of a novel. It comes out in paperback tomorrow so if you missed it the first time around, read it now! For art to be the chisel that breaks the ... Read More...
