#LetsDiscuss2020 – Am I a Politically Correct Reader? – #DiscussionSunday #10.

With the #BlackLivesMatter protests taking place across the globe, together with June being Gay Pride Month, I noticed that many bloggers have been putting up posts with their top ten books by authors of color, or their top ten LGBTQ+ books. Now, I don't like to mix politics with books on my blog. Still... I … Continue reading #LetsDiscuss2020 – Am I a Politically Correct Reader? – #DiscussionSunday #10. →

Border Life

Book review of All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan. Liat is spending time in the New York apartment of friends, while she studies for her translation degree. Hilmi is living in Brooklyn, trying to make it as an artist. Their whirlwind romance would be uneventful except for the fact that Liat is Jewish and comes … Continue reading Border Life →

Nine Times November 11, 1918

Book Review of "Fall of Poppies: Stories of Love and the Great War" by various authors. It isn't often that a group of authors come together to make a collection of short stories. From what I can see, most collections with various authors are ones that a publisher collected, often from a slew of single-author … Continue reading Nine Times November 11, 1918 →

Maine Women Stories

Book Review of "Goodnight, Beautiful Women" by Anna Noyes. This is a collection of short stories all surrounding women living near the coast of New England. Debut author Noyes brings us such varied stories as a woman watching her husband go crazy before disappearing, the life-long guilt of one girl's childhood lie, disastrous affairs and … Continue reading Maine Women Stories →

The Merchant Prince’s Woman

Book Review for "What the Lady Wants: A Novel of Marshall Field and the Gilded Age" by Renee Rosen. One of the first jobs I ever held was as a salesperson for Marshall Field & Co., in their Evanston branch (just north of Chicago). At the time, all new employees had to undergo three days … Continue reading The Merchant Prince’s Woman →

A Frankly Amazing Woman

Book Review of "Loving Frank" by Nancy Horan. Anyone interested in early 20th century architecture might recognize the name Mamah Borthwick Cheney as being the woman who was Frank Lloyd Wright's lover - for whom he left his wife and family, which caused a scandal that rocked not only Chicago's society, but also the world … Continue reading A Frankly Amazing Woman →

A Dream within a Dream

Book Review of "Sleeping Patterns" by J.R. Crook. What is the relationship between the writer and his audience? J.R. Crook’s debut novel investigates this through a group of characters – himself included – living together in student accommodations in London. The main story here centers on an artist Annelie Strandli, known as Grethe to her … Continue reading A Dream within a Dream →

The Other Side of a Journey

Book Review for "The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy" by Rachel Joyce. Readers of Joyce's debut novel The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry will know Queenie Hennessy, or at least know of her. She is the woman Harold Fry worked with, who is dying of cancer. When Harold Fry gets the letter telling him … Continue reading The Other Side of a Journey →

A fine (gay) romance

Book Review of "The Apple Polisher" by Heidi Belleau. Christian wants to be a preschool teacher, and he's enrolled in a prestigious MA program where he has to be a model citizen. But that isn't as easy as it seems when you're gay. With no money, he finds the only place he can afford. When … Continue reading A fine (gay) romance →

Bringing Worlds Together

Book review of "The Distance Between Us" by Maggie O'Farrell. Jake's single mother gave birth to him, and raised him in Hong Kong. In 1993, Jake was caught in the Chinese New Year's crush, resulting in an almost fatal injury for the girl he was dating. In London, at the same time, Stella thinks she's … Continue reading Bringing Worlds Together →