Marie-Laure is a blind Parisian girl whose father works at the Museum of Natural History. When she goes blind at age 6, her father builds a to-scale model of their neighborhood so she can learn her way around gradually. Then the Nazis occupy Paris. They flee to Saint-Malo, where they find refuge with extended relatives, Madame Manec and shell-shocked Etienne. Oh, and Marie-Laure’s father carries a jewel with him that may or may not be magical but is most certainly valuable, which is sought tirelessly by a German jeweler, von Rumpel. Meanwhile, […]
How did everything get so fucked up?
Wow, WOW, W O W. This book definitely lived up to the hype and punched me right in the heart with its awesomeness. Celeste Ng combines tight and thrilling storytelling with a beautifully lyrical writing style. The way she shifts from character to character and past to present seamlessly is beyond remarkable. I can’t believe this is a debut novel. It’s the kind of story that seems effortless when you’re reading it, but in hindsight you can see just how complicated it must have been […]
It’s about more than the sinking of the Titanic
This novel, published in 1996 and winner of the Whitbread Prize (shortlisted for the Booker), is set on the Titanic’s fateful voyage, and it is about loss, but not just the loss of those who set sail. Every Man for Himself is about the loss of love, the passing of an old world, and the painful birth of the new one as exemplified by our 22-year-old narrator. Morgan has known both deprivation and privilege, having had a foot in both worlds. Yet, he is not […]
“He held my hand and it was the hand of the man I had married, lost and found again.”.”
In the novella Whisper of Jasmine, dashing explorer and archaeologist Gabriel Starke meets quiet dreamer Evangeline Merriweather at a New Year’s party thrown by their socialite friend Delilah Drummond. While Delilah most certainly intended to matchmake at the party, she had picked out completely different partners for both of them. Instead, Gabriel and Evie are instantly smitten with each other, and over the course of an evening, fall hard enough for each other that they decide to elope to Scotland. There are quite a few […]
“I would kiss the ground where your shadow fell just to be near you.”
4.5 stars Penelope “Poppy” Hammond flees her high society wedding with the aid of a charming curate calling himself Sebastian Cantrip and persuades him to drive her to the little village in Devon where her estranged father lives. Poppy’s mother, wealthy American stepfather and a large amount of the wedding guests, including Poppy’s jilted fiancee follow, up in arms about the scandal she’s caused. Poppy’s mind is not to be changed, however, she knows she and Gerald are a poor match and that life as […]
So nice to catch up with old book friends
Disclaimer! I was granted a copy of this through NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review. This is one of the novellas Deanna Raybourn wrote about her intrepid heroine Lady Julia Grey, who the reader can follow in five very enjoyable Victorian set mysteries, where she solves murders along with her delightful husband Nicholas Brisbane. While this novella can absolutely be read on its own, you shouldn’t deny yourself the pleasure of starting at the beginning, with Silent in the Grave. The large […]
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