3.5 stars Sir Richard Kenworthy has less than a month to find a bride, and secure her hand in marriage. She can’t really be an heiress or a diamond of the first water, because it’s really quite imperative that she accept his proposal, no matter what. When he spots Miss Iris Smythe-Smith suffering behind her cello at her family’s infamous annual musicale, he is intrigued. Very blond and pale-skinned, she should be unremarkable, but she’s clearly good at playing her instrument, which can’t be said […]
Spoiler: She dies at the end.
“It is not difficult to understand why Caesar became history, Cleopatra a legend.” I heard of this book thanks to The Daily Show. I love bios about royal women and the author is obviously super-smart. So I went out and bought the book, and I promptly left it unread for a couple of years. (That’s a bad habit of mine.) The whole kerfuffle over Sony’s film adaptation brought it back to my attention. Stacy Schiff gleefully debunks everything you thought you knew about Cleopatra. No, she wasn’t Egyptian. Not only was she Greek, she came from the same Macedonian stock […]
Based on a semi-true story?
They had me right up until the last few chapters. In the beginning, you fall in love with the characters. Grand pere is the loving grandfather, protecting his granddaughter. Adrienne is the main character (the granddaughter), a four year old when we meet her. Her mother is young and beautiful, and not too interested in being a mother, but don’t worry – Adrienne has a nanny named Lucie who cares about her more than her real mother. And then there’s the nearly comically evil aunt […]
So much better than the film
When Susanna Kaysen was 18, she went to see a new psychiatrist for a conversation after what appears to have been a suicide attempt. She swallowed a large amount of sleeping pills, then regretted her decision and wandered out into the street to get help. The psychiatrist claimed to have spoken to and evaluated Ms. Kaysen for more than three hours, Ms. Kaysen herself claims the meeting was barely half an hour. The end result was nonetheless that she ended up committed to McLean Hospital, […]
In Our Family Portrait, We Look Pretty Happy
First things first: The Lives of Others is a very good book. It is skilfully written, the imagery is vivid and the portrayals are, as far as I can tell from my limited experience with Indian culture, realistic and poignant. It is also, at times, an infuriating and frustrating read. Make no mistake: this is not a story about a quirky but essentially kind-hearted Indian Addams Family. If you’re looking for something to cheer you up, look elsewhere. The Lives of Others focuses on the […]
Bad Ass Ladies
Ah, another Ken Follett book. Let’s see how this one adds up: Historical background? Check = the last days of WWII, just before D-Day Great bad guy? Check = Dieter Franck, Nazi tortuer extraordinaire (and his beautiful Jewish sidekick, Stephanie) Feisty chick? Check, check, check = our heroine, Felicity “Flick” Clairet, the beautiful British leader of a French resistance group and all around bad ass; plus a bonus feisty chick: a Gypsy murderess named Ruby, plus a collection of crazy women willing to go along on the mission (all of […]
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