Posts Tagged ‘book reviews’
Book review: The Hunting Party
I picked this novel up after having read good reviews about it. I liked the idea of a murder mystery set in a remote Scottish hunting lodge, cut off from civilization during a blizzard. This novel started off very well, and kept me quickly turning the pages. Nine old friends – most of them classmates…
Read MoreBook review: The Devil Wears Prada
This is one of the book turned movie novels that I’ve only gotten around to reading recently. I enjoyed this movie, but had never thought to pick up the book. I only read it recently, and I’m glad I did. With summer upon us (today!), this is a great summer read. Andie is a recent…
Read MoreBook review : Fog Island
I picked up this novel for the same reason I suspect many other readers did. I read the author biography, and was curious to see how the author would handle a thriller set in a modern-day cult. The novel’s author, Mariette Lindstein, is a Swede who spent twenty years in Scientology, including years at their…
Read MoreBook review: The Great Alone
I didn’t love the only novel I’d read by author Kristin Hannah, The Winter Garden. To me, it seemed a pale copy to Helen Dunmore’s much more impressive The Siege. But I was intrigued by the storyline of The Great Alone and decided to take a chance on this novel. I’m glad I did. I…
Read MoreBook review: The Rosie Project
I enjoyed reading The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion, an amusing, lighthearted novel about a highly intelligent but socially awkward man who has devised a ‘foolproof’ test for finding a wife. I always have a soft spot for novels about social misfits, and Professor Tillman fit the bill perfectly. What is perhaps most interesting about…
Read MoreBook review: Middle England
I somehow missed this novel by Jonathan Coe, and only learned about it when a colleague suggested I read it, and lent me her copy. This novel is set in London and ‘Middle England’, which I learned to be Birmingham, opens in 2010, in the wake of the worldwide financial crisis, and as London is…
Read MoreOn Women’s Day, celebrating women writers
Happy International Women’s Day! To celebrate, I thought I would play homage to some of my favorite female authors. Of course, there are my perennial favorites – Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters and Edith Wharton. But I decided to celebrate some of my favorite contemporary authors, by including some of the book reviews I’ve written…
Read MoreBook review: A Gentleman in Moscow
I adored this novel, the story of “former person” Count Alexander Rostov. In 1922, Count Rostov – recipient of the Order of Saint Andrew, member of the Jockey Club and Master of the Hunt – is declared an enemy of the state and informed he will be shot if he ever ventures out of his…
Read MoreNovels in the mountains
I always love reading, but there’s something special about books I take with me to read when I’m out in the mountains. I spend a lot of time out in the mountains, both in the spring and summer for hiking and in the winter for skiing. On a recent skiing escape in Abruzzo, I read…
Read MoreBook review: The Stars are Fire
Author Anita Shreve is a master at penning realistic characters and delving deep into their psyches, and The Stars are Fire is a brilliant illustration of her significant talent in bringing her characters to life. Grace Holland is a young mother of two toddlers in post World War II Maine. Her husband, Gene, has retruned from…
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