I did not do myself any favors waiting so long to review The Serpent Garden, because now what I remember is that this book alternates between being pretty interesting and completely off-the-wall crazy. Let’s start with the good, for which I’ll just refer to the Goodreads summary: “The book opens in Tudor England, where Henry VIII and his Machiavellian counselor Cardinal Wolsey are scheming to put an English heir on the French throne. They are arranging to marry Henry’s pretty, frivolous younger sister, Mary, to […]
In Which Inspector Javert Goes to America
I read ‘Heyday’ for my MFA, and while I was skeptical in the first few chapters due to the distinct lack of plot, I fell in love with this book by the last chapters. It’s 1847 and the heyday of America, and the whole 19th Century really. The story follows 5 characters: Duff and his sister Polly, their journalist friend Skaggs, an aristocratic British immigrant, Ben Knowles, and the one character that I guess was suppose to provide the plot, Inspector Javert , I mean, […]
“I think it’s a good bet that you never know who is going to tear the tits off a cow on any given day…”
First of all, that quote is my new life motto. Second, Mindy McGinnis has written another great YA novel. This one is far different from the survivalist Not a Drop to Drink. It’s set in 1890 at an insane asylum in Boston. Grace was committed by her father for getting pregnant. She doesn’t speak or react at all to the cruel nurse and awful treatments. Her desire is to have the baby and just fade away. Even after being thrown in the damp, dirty cellar […]
The Adventures of Anne, NOT the Perils of Pamela
Anne Beddingfeld’s father is a famous archaeologist and anthropologist. He dies, leaving Anne mostly penniless, but hungry for adventure. She kindly rejects the proposal of the village doctor and accepts her father’s solicitor’s invitation to stay with him and his wife for a time in London. Shortly after her arrival in the capital, she is witness to an accidental death. A man in a large overcoat reeking of mothballs falls onto the tracks of the train station, and a tall, bearded man claiming to be […]
No vampires, obsessive fans, evil clowns, psychic teens or weary gunslingers in this one. There is a ghost, though.
21-year-old college student Devin Jones gets a summer job at old-fashioned carnival and amusement park Joyland, trying to mend his broken heart, after his girlfriend left him for another. Working at Joyland, he’s taught the ways of the experienced carnies, discovers his knack for entertaining children while “wearing the fur” of park mascot Howie the Hound, lays the foundation of some life-long friendships and discovers the legend of the genuinely haunted House of Horror, where a young woman in a blue dress and an alice […]
A cozy romance with some history thrown in
This one didn’t leave much of a lasting impression, but it was a perfect read for the mood I was in. The main character Nicola lives in present day Great Britain working in a gallery, but she has a secret. When she touches objects, she can sometimes see the history of its previous owners. When a woman comes into the shop claiming to possess a wood carving given to her ancestor by Catherine the Great, Nicola gets a short glimpse of Anna, the woman’s ancestor. […]
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