Lately it seems as if everything I read reminds me of another book or author. This is not necessarily a bad thing because it often leads to playing a favorite game of “This and That.” You know: “If you like this, then you should read that.” Or vice-versa. To wit, if you like Kate Atkinson’s crime [...]
Posts Tagged ‘historical fiction’
If you like it
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Thoughts on Books, Uncategorized, tagged Abdication, Downton Abbey, Edward and Mrs. Simpson, Emily St. John Mandel, historical fiction, Juliet Nicolson, Kate Atkinson, Kate Morton, Katherine Webb, noir, The King's Speech, The Lola Quartet, The Unseen on May 22, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Novel history
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Thoughts on Books, Uncategorized, Writing and Reading, tagged A Good American, Alex George, Amsterdam, historical fiction, History of a Pleasure Seeker, Jonathan Odell, Kate Alcott, Mississippi, Richard Mason, The Dressmaker, The Healing, Titanic, World War I on March 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
Good historical novels mix fiction with fact as they anchor readers in past time and place. So I’ve recently sweltered under the sun at an antebellum plantation in the Mississippi Delta, survived the sinking of the Titanic and its aftermath, enjoyed the pleasures of belle epoque Amsterdam, and listened to the tales of a German-American [...]
More murder, she read
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Uncategorized, tagged crime fiction, Deborah Crombie, Elizabeth George, Elmore Leonard, historical fiction, Justified, mystery, Sara Paretsky, Scotland Yard, Tessa Harris, Timothy Olyphant on February 8, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Reading Elmore Leonard’s new novel Raylan, I can no longer separate the title character from Timothy Olyphant, who plays Raylan Givens on TV’s Justified on TV. Of course, the FX series is based on a couple of earlier Leonard tales about the laconic U.S. marshal, and lean, blue-jeaned Olyphant has made the part his own. Leonard [...]
Coming to America
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Thoughts on Books, Uncategorized, Writing and Reading, tagged historical fiction, internment, Japanese, Julie Otsuka, picture brides, The Buddha in the Attic, World War II on September 8, 2011 | 2 Comments »
The Japanese men advise their “picture brides,” newly arrived by boat to California: “Be humble. Be polite. Appear eager to please. Say ‘Yes, sir,’ or ‘No, sir,’ and do as you’re told. Better yet, say nothing at all. You now belong to the invisible world.” But this invisible world is teeming with stories, and in a [...]
The Tiffany Girl
Posted in Fiction, Reviews, Thoughts on Books, Uncategorized, tagged Clara and Mr. Tiffany, Florida, historical fiction, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Morse Museum of Art, stained glass, Susan Vreeland, Winter Park on January 11, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Peacocks and dragonflies. Wisteria and daffodils. Cobalt blue. Iridescent green. Opalescent purple. Gleaming gold. Louis Comfort Tiffany made a name for himself as an American master of stained glass, drawing inspiration for his designs from nature’s brilliant hues. Thanks to Winter Park’s Morse Museum of Art, Central Floridians are not only familiar with Tiffany’s name [...]
Happy birthday, Holmes
Posted in Fiction, Thoughts on Books, Uncategorized, Writing and Reading, tagged Bram Stoker, detective fiction, Dracula, elementary, Graham Moore, historical fiction, London, Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the Baker Street Irregulars, the game's afoot, The Sherlockian on January 6, 2011 | 1 Comment »
January 6 has long been considered the birthday of the great detective Sherlock Holmes by members of the Baker Street Irregulars, the foremost society of Holmes’ scholars and enthusiasts. That Holmes is the fictional creation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle matters not. As T.S. Eliot wrote in a 1929 review of The Complete Sherlock Holmes [...]
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