The beginning: Oddly gripping from the get-go! In Unfinished Desires (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), Old, blind Mother Ravenal, long-time headmistress at Mount St. Gabriel’s school, is asked by some adoring students to record her memories of her years as a nun, teacher, and headmistress. In alternating chapters are her very Catholic musings on the school’s history and principles, and the story of the high school class of ’55, whose behavior caused her to take a leave (enforced leave???) of absence. The important figures in the class are brash, clever, impetuous Tildy; her former partner-in-crime, Maud; and the new girl, quiet…
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So I’m trying out a new format for reviews, in keeping with the way I actually read. Y’all will have to let me know what you think. I am not wedded to this. It’s just something I’m trying. The beginning: Patroclus (the beloved of Achilles, you’ll remember) tells the story of his early life, how he is exiled from his home and send to live in Phthia (which is in Thessaly, ugh), where he meets Achilles. They soon become inseparable friends, for reasons Miller isn’t great at making clear, and after they hit puberty they become lovers. It’s all very…
24 CommentsThis week, the demographically similar Jennys are here to talk about J. K. Rowling’s excited new pseudonym, discuss things we’re willing to stand in line for, review Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah (affiliate links: Amazon, B&N, Book Depository), PLAY A GAME, and update you on a new polar explorer we read up on! You can listen to the podcast in the embedded player below or download the file directly to take with you on the go. Episode 3 Or if you wish, you can find us on iTunes (and if you enjoy the podcast, give us a good rating! We will…
6 CommentsVerdict: Odd and good. More of both than I was expecting. Okay okay. I admit that I should have read The Land of Decoration (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) a while ago, when Mumsy told me to. It’s really quite good. I resisted it because it’s an odd little book. It’s about a little girl called Judith growing up in an unknown period in British history. Richard Dawkins exists but computers don’t seem to, and many of the adult characters work in a factory. Judith and her father are members of a church of Brothers that takes them out to witness…
11 CommentsMaggie O’Farrell and Kate Morton are inextricably linked in my mind. I am not sure whether it’s because they’re truly similar — with olden-times Britain and modern-day family members finding out secrets — or because they’re very faintly similar and I encountered them at the same time in my life. Weigh in if you have an opinion! And now on to Maggie O’Farrell’s brand new book. Instructions for a Heatwave (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) is less suspenseful than the previous books by Maggie O’Farrell that I’ve read (or else I am maybe remembering her previous books all wrong). Gretta Riordan’s…
4 CommentsThis is the Tudor segment of the Tudors-and-Plantagenets pair of posts that you may expect from this blog. The second episode of the Reading the End Bookcast, which appeared last Wednesday, does also mention the Plantagenets, although quite a bit farther back in time (Henry II). (PS I love the Plantagenets.) So, the Tudors! Susan Bordo has written this book (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) that is right in my wheelhouse, a biography slash cultural history of Anne Boleyn as a person and as a semi-mythic figure. In the first half of the book, she explores what is known about Anne’s…
23 CommentsAnd now, the Plantagenets and the Wars of the Roses. Can someone British please tell me how British schoolchildren feel about learning the Wars of the Roses? Because I can see it two ways. On one hand, I can imagine it would be a great relief to get out of the thicket of battles and mess and dethronings and usurpations and arguing that went on all through the fifteenth century. On the other hand, I love political scheming and the Wars of the Roses are all schemes all the time. The Sunne in Splendour (Amazon, B&N, Book Depository) is about…
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