Category: Book Critic

Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova

by The Lit Bitch2 Comments on Review: Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes by Maria Konnikova

Sherlock Holmes blew Victorian England’s mind with his powers of deduction in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic detective novels!

Who hasn’t wanted to know how to be as observant as Sherlock Holmes? Well after reading Mastermind, you might have a few new tips and tricks to help you be more observant!

Sherlock Holmes has been and will continue to be one of literature’s most popular characters. His wit and intelligence being two of the driving forces behind that popularity. His abilities aren’t super human–meaning anyone of us could learn his trademark deductive skills.

So needless to say that’s why I picked up this book for review. Who wouldn’t want to know how to be as observant and intelligent as Holmes? I don’t review a lot of non-fiction on my blog but with this I made the exception.

I was hoping that this book was going to be pretty straight forward, lots of break down and research about Holmes’s deduction and observation process. And while there was that basic structure, it was a bit overwhelming at times.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

by The Lit Bitch2 Comments on Review: The Time Regulation Institute by Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar

Set in post-Ottoman Turkey, we meet a host of colorful and eccentric characters struggling to adjust in a rapidly developing modern world.

This book is full of allegorical references and presents a colorful and unique view of Turkish culture and society.

The book describes the setting up of the modern bureaucratic state. At the center of the story itself is our charming antihero, Hayri Irdal.

He has been described as infectiously charming and be becomes entwined with some interesting people–a television mystic, a pharmacist who dabbles in alchemy, a dignitary from the lost Ottoman Empire, a clock whisperer-at the Time Regulation Institute.

The Institute it self is described as a “vast organization that employs a hilariously intricate system of fines for the purpose of changing all the clocks in Turkey to Western time”.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: The India Fan by Victoria Holt

by The Lit Bitch10 Comments on Review: The India Fan by Victoria Holt

Blackmail. Murder. Scandal. Lies. Deceit. Romance. Adventure. This book has it all!

Growing up, I loved Victoria Holt but sadly I haven’t read her in a number of years…..nor have I read many of her novels.

But she is the queen of a genre that calls to me–the gothic romance genre. When I saw The India Fan on Amazon, I knew it was time to it up this talented authoress again and see if she could still seduce me with her tales of suspense.

Drusilla Delany is the rectors daughter and has always grown up in the shadow of Framling House and the Framling family.

Fabian Framling has always been a spoiled child….over indulged by his domineering mother. Then there is his sister, the beautiful and impetuous Lavinia–she is everything that Drusilla is not.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books, Literary Criticism, Reading

Review: Helen Keller in Love by Rosie Sultan

by The Lit BitchLeave a Comment on Review: Helen Keller in Love by Rosie Sultan

Many of you know Helen Keller as the ‘miracle’. The def/blind/mute that graduated from the prestigious Radcliffe College in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Keller toured the country telling the story of her life, giving lectures, and motivational speeches to thousands. But the story we didn’t get to hear was the one of how she fell in love.

In this fictional account of Keller’s love affair with her secretary Peter Fagan, the audience is treated to a unique world of people with disabilities who struggle to live normal lives.

Keller first meets Fagan when her long time companion, Annie Sullivan, grows ill on a tour. Fagan is dispatched to be Keller’s secretary but after meeting him, Keller is infatuated by him.

Both Keller and Fagan are socialists and opposed to the Great War. They are outspoken and find they have a lot in common. Fagan makes Keller feel things that she knows she shouldn’t–feelings that she should fight.

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Book Critic, Book Review, Books

Review: Belle Cora by Phillip Margulies

by The Lit Bitch3 Comments on Review: Belle Cora by Phillip Margulies

Arabella Goodwin has grown up in a life of privilege. In the sheltered streets of New York City 1838, she enjoys luxurious clothing, reading fancy books, and imported toys.

Her life is already planned out for her, she will be a lady who marries and has a husband and family of her own like any other society girl. That is until the death of her mother and soon after, her father.

With their deaths, her life changes forever. She and her other siblings are sent to live with their wealthy grandparents. She hopes her life will continue much how it was before. But that is not the case.

At that time, it was believe consumption was passed on genetically to children. Since her mother died of consumption, a doctor is called in and he identifies Arabella and her brother has having the “consumption gene”.

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