Book review: Paris Time Capsule

In Paris Time Capsule, by Ella Carey, New-York photographer Cat Jordan is stunned to learn she has inherited an apartment in Paris from Isabelle  de Florian, a woman she’s never heard of. She leaves behind her society boyfriend and travels to France to handle the practicalities. There she learns that Isabelle de Florian and her…

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Book Review: The Improbability of Love

I didn’t know anything about this novel until I saw it shortlisted for the Bailey’s Prize – always a source of inspiration for my reading – and loved its premise. I wasn’t disappointed at all. This was a fabulous find, and its interesting plot and cast of whimsical characters kept up a quick pace throughout…

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Book Review: Along the Infinite Sea

I’ve already reviewed A Hundred Summers,  a book I enjoyed by author Beatriz Williams,                                   in an earlier post. You can see my earlier review here. After having enjoyed Williams’ debut novel, I was happy to  (bad pun alert) dive back…

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Book review: The Storm Sister

I’m usually not a fan of book series. I know they’re all the rage, and authors and readers swear by them, but personally, I tend to avoid them. I picked up, The Seven Sisters,  the first book of this series by Lucinda Riley last year without knowing it was part of a developing series. I…

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Book review: A Hundred Summers

Plot in a nutshell: Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Years later, boy returns into girl’s life, now married to girl’s best friend. Classic story, but it’s what the author does with it. This wonderful debut novel by Beatriz Williams is told in alternating story lines. The first unrolls in 1931 as smart, ambitious Smith…

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Book review: The Good Girl

This psychological thriller by Mary Kubica is being promoted for fans of Gone Girl and The Girl on The Train. This isn’t my normal genre, but I was curious to read this book after reading about it and finding the plot intriguing. I’d read both Gone Girl and The Girl on The Train. Despite being…

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Book review: How to be Single

I was looking for a fun, light read, and this book started out quite promising. The author had a great voice in the first pages, introducing a series of women and explaining how these bright, intelligent women living in New York had arrived to their mid and late-thirties without ever having married. The stories explaining…

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Favorite reads so far for 2016

I’m always pleased to get a good reading start to the new year. Luckily, despite a few duds, 2016 has started out quite well for me as a reading year. Here are my favorites so far (and I’m hoping there will be many more): The Last Summer Judith Kinghorn I enjoyed this atmospheric story, a…

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A Nobel laureate’s views on women’s stories

Women tell things in more interesting ways. They live with more feeling. They observe themselves and their lives. Men are more impressed with action. For them, the sequence is more important. Svetlana Alexievich 2015 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature quoted in the New Yorker, 26 October 2015 I was struck by this observation by Svetlana…

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Wrap-up of the Matera Women’s Fiction Festival 2015

Wow, another amazing year in southern Italy at the annual Matera Women’s Fiction Festival. I have been going for the past few years, and I always enjoy this yearly pilgrimage to this beautiful Italian cave town, and the chance to learn about trends in publishing and writing, to attend writing workshops and one-on-one sessions with…

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