The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman is historic fiction set at the time of the fall of Jerusalem (70 C.E.) to the Romans, specifically the Jewish stronghold of Masada where over 900 Jews committed mass suicide rather than be taken as slaves by the Romans. Hoffman tells the story through the voices of four different women who came to Masada and became the dovekeepers there. The language is mesmerizing; she beautifully weaves their stories, their lives, their voices together as if…
Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, is such a well plotted, suspenseful novel, with so many twists and turns, I kept having to go back to see what I had missed. Set in 1860’s London, amongst a group of petty thieves, known as fingersmiths, a plot is hatched to make them all rich, or is it? Waters is a master of her craft. Hers is a dark world to enter into, but even so, almost impossible to put down. Paying Guests remains…
If you like time travel, historic fiction or romance novels, you will love Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsly. Set on the coast of Scotland in present day and 300 years ago during a Jacobite uprising, a writer rents a small cabin only to discover she is reliving her ancestors memories and her life beings to parallel that of the past. Kearsly has beautifully crafted the story. A great book to escape into, I was transported to Scotland past and present…
Maybe This Time by Jennifer Cruise is a slightly entertaining, mostly silly book about ghosts haunting a castle where two orphans are left alone living with the housekeeper. A woman gets sent down there to take care of them by her ex-husband, craziness and seances ensue, the ex’s get back together, adopt the kids and all live happily ever after. Now you can skip the book, its not worth reading.
The Portable Veblen, by Elizabeth McKenzie, is a brand new novel that’s been labeled quirky, original, highly entertaining. All these things and more are true, it’s fresh, and unexpected, and I loved the pictures. Veblen is a thirty something woman working as an office temp, translating Norwegian, with a passion for studying the economist Thorstein Veblen, her namesake. She also talks to squirrels. Her fiance is a neurologist working on an invention that could make him rich fast and allow…
I just read Fear of Flying by Erica Jong, which was republished 40 years after it originally came out. Apparently a big sensation in 1973, Isadora Wing, the protagonist travels all through Europe having sex with many different men, fantasizing about even more men, while freely and openly exploring her sexuality and talking about it. I found her to be whiny, spoiled and totally annoying. Is this the picture of a feminist? She can’t imagine spending one second without a…
After Before by Jemma Wayne is a novel that tells the story of three women whose lives overlap one British winter, all struggling with different issues. Lynn, not yet 60 is dying, Vera, a newly converted Christian engaged to Lynn’s son is battling with secrets from her past, and Emily, Lynn’s caregiver is trying to forget the horrors she survived during the Rwandan genocide that killed the rest of her village. Sad, tragic and at times difficult to read, yet…
How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz is a novel about three female college friends who manage to stick together through thick and thin over the course of 20 years. Jumping back and forth through time and space, at first I found the novel’s format disconcerting, but once I surrendered to it, everything fell into place by the end. Lutz has created unique, well drawn characters that are impossible not to care about. Quirky, witty, clever, sad, beautiful, brave,…
The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman is historical fiction based on the life of Camille Pissaro, the Father of Impessionism, and his mother Rachel Pomie Petit Pizzaro. Both born and raised in St. Thomas and later living in Paris, this is an imagined story of the painter’s early life and ancestry on this little island in the Carribean. Beautifully written, Hoffman brings to life 1800’s St. Thomas and one fierce girl who always dreams of Paris. Hoffman is a…
Act of God by Jill Cement is slim novel about a glowing mushroom found in a corner of a closet in Brooklyn that turns into a super mold that destroys blocks of the city, leaving many homeless and some dead. Part comedy, part horror story, and totally original, it is really the story of a small group of people coming together and what it means to be a family. I found it so compelling that I couldn’t put it down…