Tobias “Thorn” Daultry is the eldest of the Duke of Villiers‘ seven illegitimate children. He spent the first part of his life, before he was rescued and taken in by his powerful father, as a mudlark in the Thames, risking his miserable life on a daily basis to dive for trinkets in the dangerous river currents. As an adult, he has made his own fortune, completely independent of his father, and is looking to settle down. He’s decided that Letitia “Lala” Rainsford is the perfect bride […]
Wait, This Was a Mystery? The Case of the Overloaded Historical Fiction Novel
I don’t remember where I first saw this mentioned, but I’m pretty sure it was a book blog, and I liked the cover as well as the premise so I thought it would work well to fill my historical mystery fix. While the novel was entertaining enough, the mystery was rather beside the point (it isn’t until page 250 of a 400 page novel that someone even thinks a body looks a bit odd, even though there are journal entries from the killer throughout so […]
A Tragic Time in History Used as the Backdrop for a Bad Love Story
Oddly enough, this is the second novel I’ve read this year about Cambodia, and neither one were recent purchases. Unfortunately, I didn’t find either one completely satisfying, and think I might need to move on to some non-fiction to get a better picture. Having said that, In the Shadow of the Banyan was the better of the two novels, but I think sometimes it used art too much to escape. I can see that as a valid coping method, but it is also kept me […]
Love, Travel and Illness: Louis and Fanny
Fanny Van de Grift Osbourne has packed up her children and moved from San Francisco to Europe to get away from her philandering husband. While she is in France, she meets and eventually develops a relationship with Robert Louis Stevenson, a man ten years her junior, who will become famous as the author of pieces such Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (unfortunately, that’s the only thing of his I’ve read). Their life and their relationship ends up being very determined by his […]
Surprise! We don’t all believe the same thing
I’ve been struggling with writing a review of this book for a couple of weeks. Stephen Prothero is a religious studies professor. His thesis is that all religions are are different and that their differences matter. He refutes the bromide that all religions are separate paths to the same goal and therefore we should all just get along. Religions are distinctly different, beginning with the human problems they are trying to solve. For example Christians believe the problem is original sin, for Hindus the problem […]
Ruthless people
I heard about Serena from a Buzzfeed list of books to read before they become movies; as a huge fan of Jennifer Lawrence I knew I’d be seeing the movie so the book climbed my “to read” list. Set in the wilderness of North Carolina in the 1930s, Serena is the story of a wealthy married couple in the timber business who crush anyone who gets in their way. Pemberton impregnates a 17-year old girl, Rachel, before Serena joins him at the logging site but […]
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