2.5 stars The Norwegian Peder Jensen is the second mate on a sailing ship, the Nepture, on route from Manilla to Marseille, in 1899. In the prologue it is revealed that six months after this ship set sail, it is still missing without a trace. In the novel we discover what happened to the ship and the crew. As second mate, and third in command on the ship, Jensen also has to be the crew medic, and spends a lot of his time patching up […]
I don’t like Beckett, I don’t like Pinter – I certainly don’t like this
A couple, he somewhere in middle age, around his fifties (according to the stage directions), she in her thirties arrive at a house by the ocean, in a remote and lonely location. Here they are finally going to be alone, alone together, away from everyone and everything. But she is worried. “Someone is going to come” she laments. Their perfect solitude will be shattered by outsiders, she’s convinced of this. He tries to reassure her that no one will come, they will just be alone, […]
Another Historical Romance, But a Twofer with Displaced Princesses
New author! Juliana Gray is a very strong historical romance writer with a wonderful turn of phrase, a gift for simile, and great smolder. It is such an unexpected pleasure when a book randomly selected from the romance spinner at one’s library results in a new novelist to enjoy. I went back the next day, and the next, to get more of her books. Gray will be going on my woefully short good authors list and may well end up as an autobuy. The Princesses […]
An Old Man Remembers the Blues
It’s been a long time since I read Walter Mosley’s great Easy Rawlins mysteries, set in post-war Los Angeles. Many years ago a friend gave me RL’s Dream, Mosley’s first foray outside the detective genre. I tucked the book on the shelf to read later. Almost twenty years later I found the book on the shelf last week. Curious to see what I’d missed, I plunged into the book that was described as being about the blues. RL’s Dream is set in 1990s New […]
It Really Was All Too Brief…
My book club picked The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz for our February get together. This is the reason I love book club, because I would never have picked up this book on my own. Also, like every other female book club, we drink large amounts of wine. But we always read the book! The novel is centered around Oscar, a tragic and hopeless lame teenager, during his high school and college years. Oscar is overweight, socially awkward, and just […]
Hey, if you want someone to clean your house, hire a maid
I have to admit, I picked this book out because of the title; it tickles me to read it in public with a contemplative face. Anyway, it is not actually a self-help book, but as you might guess, Marta is a “good wife.” She cleans, prepares dinner for her husband, and takes care of all things domestic so that her husband does not need to worry himself with such concerns. However, Marta has recently stopped taking her pills (the actual reason for medication is left […]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 104
- 105
- 106
- 107
- 108
- …
- 137
- Next Page »