A Girl Walks Into a Bookstore...

Pages: 356 Original date of publication: 1993 My edition: 1993 (Penguin Books) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Philly used bookstore, July 2012 Although the back cover of the book states that the book is about several generations of one family, Away only really focuses on two generations: Mary, who experiences a vision when a stranger washes up on the Irish shore. To release her from her “demons,” she must marry, and with her husband Brian has two children: Liam and Eileen, on whom most of the second half of the novel focuses. From the Irish potato famine to the Canadian wilderness, this is a pretty amazing story about familial bonds. The story is structured pretty well, and I loved the historical details. There are some truly interesting characters, too, in particular the two eccentric Sedgewick brothers, the Irish landowners who dabble in naturalism; and the mysterious Aiden Lanighan, with who Eileen falls in love. But particularly interesting was...

Pages: 188 Original date of publication: 1995 My edition: 2001 (Penguin) Why I decided to read: How I acquired my copy: Waterstone’s, Piccadilly, London, September 2011 In the late 14th century, a young, errant cleric comes across a troupe of traveling players. One of their party has recently died, and the cleric, Nicholas Barber, steps in to play parts. Their travels take them to a town where a woman of the town has recently murdered a young boy, apparently. Although players in the middle ages only focused on religious subjects, this troupe decides to stage a theatrical version of the murder as a Morality Play. But as they perform it, they discover that the truth is far from what they thought it was. I thought it was a great idea—and I love everything related to the middle ages, so I thought I would love this book. But I didn’t really. It’s a short book, but it drags in places due to the author’s laborious attempt to sound like a medieval person. There’s a heavy-h...

The Wreath is the first book in a trilogy focusing on the life of Kristin Lavransdatter, a fictional woman living in early 14th century Norway. The trilogy covers her life from early childhood until death; and in one volume, is about 1000 pages (I’m reading the trilogy in the individual volumes published by Penguin classics, so that all of this doesn’t become too overwhelming). The Wreath covers Kristin’s childhood and teenage years, as she falls in love, and has an illicit relationship, with Erlend Nikulausson, an older man with a shadowy past. The three volumes of Kristin Lavransdatter ( The Wreath , The Wife , and The Cross ) were originally published in the early 1920s. Apparently, Sigrid Undset’s writing was largely informed by her Catholic religious beliefs, and I do believe that this is very much in evidence in The Wreath—starting with Kristin’s trip to the church at Hamar and the author’s descriptions of the church, the influence of religion is very strong in our heroine’s li...

On June 25, 1906, wealthy millionaire Harry K. Thaw killed his wife’s Evelyn Nesbit’s, former lover, the famous architect Stanford White, at Madison Square Garden. Evelyn, age 20, had spent the past five or six years of her life in the public eye as a model in Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and New York, but nothing could have prepared her for the publicity that occurred in the aftermath of the killing. American Eve is primarily about Evelyn’s life, and not quite so much about the murder and subsequent trial. Evelyn was born outside of Pittsburgh in 1885. After her father’s death, her mother tried to make ends meet by hiring Evelyn out as an artists’ model (as long as the artists were female or elderly men). Because of her timeless beauty, Evelyn soon found herself modeling in Philadelphia and New York, where she met much-older Stanford White, who set himself up as her father-figure and protector. Soon, however, he became much more. Evelyn met her future husband Harry K. Thaw “of Pittsburg...