A lovely and simply told tale of grief and loss, survival and renewal. This is the story of Nora Webster, a newly-widowed 40-year-old woman in a claustrophobic Irish town who must suddenly face not just the challenge of financial security and raising her children without a husband, but how to step back into the mainstream of life after 21 years of housekeeping and childrearing. She is depressed, angry, secretive, and resentful in turns, and often too self-absorbed to help her children with their grief. She […]
Amy Poehler is basically perfect.
I have been slacking. I’ve been slacking big time. A large part of that is due to a lit class that required me to read 7 novels in 7 weeks and effectively burned me out on reading, period. I should probably review those, but frankly, they were pretty boring books that I don’t want to think about. Instead, I give you my palate cleanser. I love Amy Poehler. I loved her on SNL, I love her on Parks and Rec. I think she’s hilarious, smart, […]
Sexism and Murder: Women Pioneers in Atlanta in 1974
Before reading Cop Town (2014), I was unfamiliar with Karin Slaughter and not looking to read any bestselling thrillers. But then I happened to see the author on television, talking about her latest book. Slaughter mentioned that she set Cop Town in Atlanta, Georgia in 1974 because she was interested in the restrictions and challenges facing women in that period. She talked about women not being able to find housing or even get a credit card without their husband’s approval. A restrictive society, indeed, and […]
Who run the world? Girls.
Rarely have I felt like fist-pumping a book while I was reading it. But then, I had never read Diana Peterfreund before. I fell in love with For Darkness Shows the Stars and then realized that there was a companion novel. I was so excited. Across a Star-Swept Sea is not a direct sequel, but it involves the same world and even has a few cross-over characters (I won’t say anymore–it would spoil the surprise). This time, Peterfreund draws from the Baroness Orczy’s The Scarlet Pimpernel. […]
Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Too
This review will be woefully inept as I finished this book over a month ago. I remember really liking it but I was surprised I gave it four stars rather than five. This is Tina Fey’s autobiography and the audiobook is narrated by Tina. If I read this book without any context I could still identify it as her work. Maybe that is because I loved 30 Rock but in any event this book is thoroughly Tina. In the book she discusses more of […]
A Feminist Post-Colonial Coming of Age Story
Set in the US in 1969, Lucy is the story of a 19-year-old who has just moved from the British West Indies for work and school. She becomes an au pere for an affluent family with 4 daughters and attends school briefly for nursing. This novel is her reflection on that year and on herself. One could read it as a sort of coming of age story, about growing up. Lucy is trying to break from her old life and especially from her mother with […]