On her way by train to visit her old friend Jane Marple for Christmas, Mrs Elspeth McGillicuddy is shocked to realise that she’s witnessing a murder in the train running parallel. A tall, dark man in a dark coat is strangling a blond woman in a fur coat and there is nothing Mrs McGillicuddy can do. As soon as the train stops, she notifies the ticket inspector and the station master of what she saw, and when she arrives at Miss Marple’s, the two talk […]
Just say yes!
There are things Beverly Jenkins does really, really well, and two things that I like much less about her work, that were all evident first when I read Topaz and appeared here in Indigo. So let’s get this compliment sandwich going! This book is about Hester Wyatt, a freed former slave and operator on Michigan’s Underground Railroad. She’s decidedly non-romantic after seeing how passion and love led her father to take on the shackles of slavery to be closer to her and her mother, only […]
…would probably be just fine, thank you
Written in 2007, Alan Weisman’s The World Without Us examines exactly that: what would happen to the world if all the humans suddenly disappeared? The answer basically boils down to: the world would probably be much happier and healthier, thank you very much. “All of us humans have myriad other species to thank. Without them, we couldn’t exist. It’s that simple, and we can’t afford to ignore them, anymore than I can afford to neglect my precious wife–nor the sweet mother Earth that births and holds us […]
Everyone Give it up for America’s Favorite Fighting Frenchman
Like many people, I’ve been listening to the Hamilton soundtrack non-stop and learning more about the American Revolutionary War than I ever did in school. Lafayette is easily one of the coolest characters in the musical, but also in real life. I’d been meaning to get to one of Sarah Vowell’s books, so when she published Lafayette in the Somewhat United States in October, it was kismet. Vowell tells the story of the teenaged Marquis de Lafayette leaving his family in France to join the […]
Interesting Characters, Incredible Writing
Isabel Allende’s Portrait in Sepia, which I read earlier this year, is the sequel to Daughter of Fortune. I read them in the wrong order, but it doesn’t matter too much in this case. In Portrait in Sepia, we find out what happens to Eliza’s granddaughter, Aurora del Valle — a young lady being raised in San Francisco. In Daughter of Fortune, we learn how Eliza Sommers made it there in the first place. “She has a fixation on love. Strong trouble. The girl left her window open one […]
Wherever Historians Go, Chaos is Sure to Follow
A few days ago, one of my far flung internet friends asked if I wanted to read something delightful. Natalie rarely recommends books, and each recommendation has ended up in my pantheon of favorites. I said yes, and here I am with a delightful book to recommend to you. One of Natalie’s previous recommendations was Connie Willis’ To Say Nothing of The Dog, which I also strongly recommend. A good chunk of the early part of Just One Damned Thing After Another reads like Jodi […]
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