THE DISTANT HOURS by Kate Morton ~ A Book Review
It wasn’t until Edie Burchill finally went to Milderhurst Castle to meet the sisters Blythe, that the engine of this story started. This is a long novel and readers should be warned that the beginning half of it is rather slow. It concerns reclusive writer Raymond Blythe, his two wives and three daughters, and how […]
FARO’S DAUGHTER by Georgette Heyer ~ A Book Review
Faro was a popular card-game in 18th-century England that originated in France in the 17th-century, while Faro’s Daughter refers to the spirited protagonist of this volume, one Miss Deborah Grantham. Miss Grantham is 25 years old and should already be married (this novel is set during the time of Jane Austen). Instead she leads a […]
THE BOOK OF TWO WAYS by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
It is wonderful to see how such a magnificent author such as Jodi Picoult can evolve. I salute Ms. Picoult for writing such an entirely different book from her usual fare of fraught social issue followed by courtroom drama. As a British person I am endlessly grateful to Ms. Picoult for explaining American public schools […]
WISH YOU WERE HERE by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
This is the first novel I’ve ever read about the COVID-19 crisis, and in Jodi Picoult’s hands those now far-distant-almost-forgotten-bad-memories become real and vivid. Jodi Picoult does what every great author does ~ puts her characters into impossible situations to give the reader the pleasure of watching them escape. So we have two ambitious millennials […]
A SPARK OF LIGHT by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
As I experienced this novel as an audiobook, I would like to address those issues first before moving on to the content of this thought-provoking novel. It is amazing to me that a “professional” outfit like Random House Audio can actually make a book more difficult to understand than the author intended. In this novel, […]
SMALL GREAT THINGS by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
This book took a long time a-coming, which is not surprising when you realize that in this novel, Jodi Picoult takes on the fraught issue of race. The protagonist is Ruth Jefferson, an African-American nurse who is superb at her job (delivering babies) and devoted to her patients. The antagonist is Turk Bower, a White […]
LEAVING TIME by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
LEAVING TIME is one of those punning titles that I love about Jodi Picoult novels. To me, a woman who grew up in Britain, it sounds as if Ms. Picoult is talking about a public house (or pub), those last orders for drinks. But this whole novel is all about leaving, loss and grief, and […]
THE TENTH CIRCLE by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
Hmmm. I feel a bit mixed about this one. The positives for me were the link to Dante (one of my favorite authors) and how Jodi Picoult’s wonderful imagination created a Tenth Circle of Hell for the self-deceptive, for the people who lied to themselves, who pretended that everything was just fine when it was […]
An Essay I wrote about traveling the day I left for Europe
I am one of those people who loves to travel. I make my travel plans a year ahead. Once I have found the perfect tour with the perfect travel company (I like Odysseys Unlimited) I then have plenty of time to dream and niggle those travel plans until I find the perfect add-ons for my […]
VANISHING ACTS by Jodi Picoult ~ A Book Review
I love Jodi Picoult’s punning titles and I loved the way this novel began with the protagonist, Delia, six years old, being part of her father’s magic act: “The first time I disappeared I was six years old,” she says in the memorable opening line. Delia Hopkins lives in New Hampshire with her widowed father […]
