Molly Hughes’ memoirs, about her childhood in London in the 1870s give a vivid account of what it was like to be a child at that time. The youngest of five children, […]
A LONDON CHILD OF THE 1870s by Molly Hughes
Being kind makes anyone a princess (A LITTLE PRINCESS)
I loved this novel as a child, so it was a pleasure to read a re-issue of it which contains some material that had previously been cut out. A LITTLE PRINCESS is […]
Sentimental, yes, but still charming…(LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY)
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY has been a byword in my family for a spoiled, too-perfect little horror dressed in black velvet suits with lacey collars. Having nothing better to do, I sat down […]
THAT SUMMER IN SICILY by Marlena de Blasi
When Marlena de Blasi was given the assignment of writing about the interior regions of Sicily, she suspected that she got the job because others had turned it down. For “the center […]
Charles Stein’s PERSEPHONE UNVEILED: Seeing the Goddess and Freeing your Soul
This is a magical book. Author Charles Stein takes us on a journey into the heart of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a spiritually transformative process that culminated in a rite at the temple […]
THE STONE BOUDOIR by Theresa Maggio
THE STONE BOUDOIR is a wonderful title for a book about Sicily, because Sicily is mountainous, and stony. And the people not only live in stone buildings redolent of history, or even […]
Ian McEwan is not a bad name for a writer (PAN E POMODOR)
PAN E POMODOR is the delightful tale of how an English couple, Margaret and Ian McEwan, bought a house near Vico in the Gargano region of Puglia, southern Italy, and set about […]
ON PERSEPHONE’S ISLAND: A Sicilian Journal by Mary Taylor Simeti
I was delighted to see that Mary Taylor Simeti had done a travelogue of Sicily, because I remembered her charming tale of Queen Constance and her various travels around Italy that I […]
THE FALCON OF PALERMO by Maria Bordihn
Maria Bordihn’s THE FALCON OF PALERMO is an ambitious biography of an ambitious character. Emperor Frederick II (1194-1250), was known to his contemporaries as Stupor Mundi (the wonder of the world), because […]
THE INVISIBLE MOUNTAIN by Carolina de Robertis
This haunting novel begins in 1900, when many people in Tacarembo explained things to themselves by means or folk-tales or legends. It is a novel with three protagonists. The first one, Pajarita […]
MOON TIGER by Penelope Lively
I can see why Penelope Lively’s novel MOON TIGER won the Booker Prize in 1987. It is a beautifully written novel, awe-inspiring over its control of multiple points of view and in […]
THE WITCH’S DAUGHTER by Nina Bawden
I loved this book as a girl, another favorite I read over and over again. But what intrigued me so much about it then was Perdita, the witch’s daughter, the shy, neglected […]
Paullina Simon’s THE SUMMER GARDEN (BRONZE HORSEMAN #3)
After the epic struggles of THE BRONZE HORSEMAN and TATIANA & ALEXANDER, THE SUMMER GARDEN, the third volume in the series, is a comparatively quiet book about how the main characters manage […]
Paullina Simon’s TATIANA & ALEXANDER (BRONZE HORSEMAN #2)
TATIANA AND ALEXANDER is Volume 2 of Paullina Simon’s THE BRONZE HORSEMAN trilogy. Unlike most second novels, this one doesn’t disappoint, even though I had some problems with it that I didn’t […]
The intensity of emotion on the page makes this novel transcendent (THE BRONZE HORSEMAN by Paullina Simon)
What I love about THE BRONZE HORSEMAN by Paullina Simons is the intensity of emotion on the page which lifts a boy-meets-girl story and makes it transcendent. Seventeen-year-old Tatiana Metanova has led […]
Simon Brett’s THE TOMB IN TURKEY (FETHERING #16)
One of the joys of listening to a Simon Brett FETHERING mystery is that the characters are so well-drawn. In this episode, we have two women who seemingly could not be further […]
THE STRANGLING ON THE STAGE by Simon Brett, narrated by the author (FETHERING #15)
This is another alliterative title (#15) from Simon Brett’s Fethering series. Here we find out two beloved friends, Jude (who has many surnames and whose past is obscure) and her rather pent-up […]
THE CORPSE ON THE COURT by Simon Brett, narrated by the author (FETHERING #14)
This volume finds Jude entangled in a passionate love-affair with a silver-tongued gentleman by the name of Piers Targett. Carole Seddon, hurt at being abandoned by her friend & neighbor for a […]
