28 posts tagged “female authors”
I finished A Catch of Consequence over the weekend, moved on to Taking Liberties (which I just finished at lunch today), and am now on The Sparks Fly Upward. I think all in all, this book series only cost me about $12. It's worth that and more!
Amazon recommended a Maisie Dobbs book to me a few weeks back, and intrigued, I decided to try out the first book. Now I've finished the first two books of the series in less than a week . . . I can't wait to get the third one from the library!
I am so glad I happened upon The Serpent Garden at a local library months ago.
Since reading that, I've been trying to get my hands on every other novel by Judith Merkle Riley. Just today I finished A Vision of Light, and now I've been sucked into the world of Margaret of Ashbury, a woman (unfortunately for her) before her times. The character is a bright midwife in the Middle Ages who receives a gift of healing. A lot of other stuff happens, as well, and she decides to have a book written about her life. My only complaint is that A Vision of Light seems too long at times -- I admit that I skimmed some of Brother Gregory's passages. Still, I greatly enjoyed it, and can't wait to read the next book of the trilogy.
But as I finished the last page, I groaned. I really expected more from Robinson - I remember liking her Gilead very much.
Overall, a disappointing read.
When the Bryant Park Project's Book Club started, I attempted to read the book chosen, but it didn't work out. Then I skipped the next month's book and had already read last month's pick. But I really wanted to give this month's book a try.
Petropolis, which I at first got confused with Persepolis, is a darkly humorous tale about the coming of age of Sasha Goldberg, a Jewish Siberian girl on a quest to find her father. Her story includes that of her passive-aggressive mother, her first lover, her delinquent father, and all the people she comes to know in America. It's definitely not all sunshine and lollipops in this book, but I found it a very enjoyable read. Once I got into it, I was really into it, cramming reading time into my lunch breaks and staying up late in bed to finish it.
Tomorrow author/BPP Book Club maven Sarah Goodyear and I will chat about the book's endearing qualities. Or something like that. I'll let you know when it's posted (I think the audio will go up on the blog rather than on the air).
Good stuff!
A lot takes place in the year portrayed in Sofer's debut novel. Indeed, a couple scenes were difficult for me to read, only because I had come to love all the family members and didn't want any harm to befall them (spoiler: they all survive in the end).
Last night I was slightly disappointed to finish the novel, because I wanted to keep reading about the Amin family and their plight in 1980's Iran. I don't want to give you the wrong idea about the Amin family, because they are not absolutely lovable. The parents are wealthy and slightly hypocritical, but they realize their true selves during the imprisonment of Isaac, the patriarch. Farhaz, his wife, comes out of her funk in an attempt to free him. Their young daughter takes to stealing files from a friend's house and hiding them in the garden. The son, at school in the States, is depressed at the separation from his family and country, but comes to feel welcomed by a Hassidic family.
I have nothing but high praise for this novel and Sofer's writing style. It was a deeply engaging read, and I look forward to more from her.
I don't want
Admission: I stayed up late last night to finish this book. It's funny because it took me a while to get into the modern-day part of the story, but the historical sections drew me in. Eventually I was deep into the modern-day sections also.
I was excited when Red Pen posted this book, because I hadn't realized that Brooks had a new novel out. I read her novel March when that came out a few years ago and loved it; I went on to read her Year of Wonders and loved that also.
Brooks is just able to capture the feeling of different eras so well. The chapter of the story about a young Jew in Sarajevo during WWII seemed as vivid and real to me as the chapter from the viewpoint of an African slave in Spain in the late 1400's.
It did take me some time to cotton to the character of Hanna, the modern-day book conservator, but I was able to. Her character does go through a transformation of sorts during the book, and she was much stronger at the end.
And I love that this book is all about the life of a book: a Spanish Haggadah with an amazing history. I knew it was fictional, but Brooks makes it feel authentic.
