Book of the Month This month, I was most impressed by The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation. It’s a fantastically-written revisionist view of the American War of Independence, largely from the point of view of a slave who has grown up as the subject of experimentation by his white masters. I’ll […]
And now I’m off for a week visiting friends in Quebec — including a jaunt to Quebec City, setting of one of my favorite books from last year, Shadows on the Rock by Willa Cather. Of course, I need to reread that now… Things will be a bit slow around here for a while, what […]
Review of the Month This month, I had to pick a review that simply made me laugh: Jenny’s hilarious tear-down of The Little Paris Bookshop at Shelf Love. There’s no accounting for taste, as this has been an international bestseller with some rave reviews — but I think I’m going to trust Jenny’s opinion and […]
Paris in July is an event hosted by Thyme for Tea that encourages us to enjoy and blog about all things French — books, movies, food, what have you. In a burst of synchronicity, when I learned of this event I already had not just one, but four books on my shelf to go with […]
This is my first time taking part in It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? hosted by The Book Date, a popular meme that many bloggers I follow participate in. Kathryn of TBD is my partner for the July Comment Challenge, which inspired me to finally join in the fun. Three Men in a Boat is […]
As promised, here are a few pictures from my recent trip to Washington, DC. On the first day we visited Washington National Cathedral, where I sang 32 years ago on a choir tour. It was as beautiful and impressive as I remembered, with amazing stained glass windows (fortunately undamaged by the recent earthquake) that depict […]
When I heard of Edith Maxwell’s new “Quaker midwife” mystery series, I was immediately intrigued. What a fun way to investigate a corner of New England history — the series is set in late nineteenth century Amesbury, Massachusetts, a former mill town at the mouth of the Merrimack River north of Boston — from an […]
Just letting you know I’m away for a few days visiting family in Washington, DC. It’s been a long time since I was there, and I’m excited to see some literary landmarks: the Library of Congress, the Folger Shakespeare Library, and the Kennedy Center are on my list, and I also want to hit some […]
An earlier version of this question was about the definition of science fiction / fantasy / speculative fiction, but then Falling Letters beat me to it with this well-expressed post. And then from The Worm Hole came the question of whether translated fiction should be considered a genre. This got me thinking about genre classifications […]
Edith Wharton, Ethan Frome (1911) After reading one of the funniest books ever (according to multiple top ten lists, anyway), I moved on to what has to be one of the most depressing books of all time: Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. I am SO glad that I was not made to read it in […]