Historical

The Priory

The Priory by Dorothy Whipple For Jane Austen fans! Although not as subtle as dear Jane’s works, The Priory, published in 1939, will appeal to many Austen fans. Christine and […]

Someone at a Distance

Someone at a Distance by Dorothy Whipple The best birthday gift, a box of books! This pretty box of books is from U.K. based Persephone Books. If you are not […]

Royal Spyness Mysteries

Royal Spyness Mystery Series by Rhys Bowen Having a nasty cold has some drawbacks, but the opportunity to stay in bed all afternoon with deliciously silly mystery is not one […]

Pachinko

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee I loved this sprawling saga about a Korean family living in Japan. If you are looking for an engrossing read, this is it. Living a […]

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay

Our Hearts Were Young and Gay by Cornelia Otis Skinner and Emily Kimbrough In keeping with my retro reading theme, I just finished for the dozenth time, Our Hearts Were […]

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day

Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day by Winifred Watson First published in 1938, Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day is a completely silly, dated, and beguiling novel.    Middle-aged Miss […]

March

March by Geraldine Brooks I was not especially eager to read my book club’s recent selection, March by Geraldine Brooks for two reasons. First, it is a Civil War novel. […]

Loving Frank

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan In 1903, Mamah Borthwick Cheney and her husband commissioned their neighbor Frank Lloyd Wright to design a home for them in Oak Park, IL. By […]

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven

Good Evening, Mrs. Craven: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Downes I am always looking for a good Bedside Table Book (BTB), so I was pleased that my pretty box from […]

Fever

Fever, A Novel of Typhoid Mary by Mary Beth Keane At the turn of the last century, Irish immigrant  Mary Mallon, nicknamed  Typhoid Mary by the press, was the first […]

Diary of a Provincial Lady

Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield Published in 1930, Diary of a Provincial Lady is the gently satiric fictional diary of an upper-middle-class lady living in a Devonshire […]

Cloud Atlas

Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell When the review in The New York Times stated, “it is not unheard of for a novelist of exceptional talent to write a deliberately difficult […]

City of Girls

City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert After that ridiculous Eat, Pray, Love, I removed author Elizabeth Gilbert from my reading lists, forever. But on the recommendation of a friend, I […]

City of Thieves

City of Thieves by David Benioff At first glance, a novel about two young men who meet in Leningrad during the Nazi siege sounds unpromising. Russian novels (about or by) […]

Circe

Circe by Madeline Miller The witch Circe, a resident of the island of Aiaia and a rather minor persona in the pantheon of Greek gods and goddesses, is best known […]