Literary Criticism
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Review: The God’s of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein
Yoshi Kobayash is a young fifteen year old girl living in Japan like many others when one night her life changes forever. The Doolittle regiment dumped napalm on her city, changing her life inexplicably–thousands are dead and her city is in ruins. The book opens with the courtship and marriage of Cam and Lacy in New York and then shifts to Japan where we meet Billy Reynolds, an American boy whose father designs public buildings in Japan. Billy’s mother gives him a camera for his birthday which is a central theme in this story. We then meet Kenji and Hana Kobayashi and their daughter, Yoshi.
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Review: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
Hetty and Sarah have grown up very differently. Hetty (“Handful”) was given to Sarah on her eleventh birthday as a slave. Sarah is from a wealthy family in pre Civil War South Carolina….one of the ‘first families’ in fact. Though she tries to free Hetty, her parents remind her that she is expected to own salves and she must simply make the best of things. So the two girls who are similar in age grow up together. The story of these two girls is told in two separate narratives. We learn a little about each of the girls families and upbringing as the story goes along. Sarah and Hetty grow…
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Review: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
In the exotic vacation destination of Monte Carlo, we find a quiet and insecure woman on holiday. The young lady is a companion to a wealthy eccentric woman. While in Monte Carlo the young lady meets a dark, mysterious widower named Maxium de Winter. They fall in love and marry almost immediately. Maxium is a wealthy man who’s wife just passed away back in England. The circumstances surrounding her death don’t sounds sinister in nature but they are horrific. Supposedly the first Mrs de Winter was killed in a boating accident. Many years his junior, the new Mrs de Winter returns with Maxium to his country estate of Manderley on the…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Review: Tiger’s Destiny (The Tiger Saga #4) by Colleen Houck
Kelsey Hayes life has been one wild roller coaster ride over the last two years. She has embarked on an impossible mission to break an ancient curse placed on the two brothers that she loves: Ren and Kishan. She’s fought flying monkeys, krakens, sharks, dragons, and evil sorcerers but yet the brothers remain in tiger form! She has one last task to complete but this task will come at a huge cost. The goddess Durga has one remaining gift The Rope of Fire, hidden on a volcanic island in the Bay of Bengal. Once Kelsey and the brothers retrieve the rope, they will face an epic battle between good and…
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Review: City of Lost Dreams (City of Dark Magic #2) by Magnus Flyte
Vienna and Prague are world renowned as cities full of music and the arts….and maybe even a little magic. It is here in the magical city of Vienna that we find musicologist Sarah Weston. Sarah lives in a world where alchemy, science, and magic all exist together and create a wonderfully rich story….not to mention you throw in all the time travel through the beautiful streets of Prague and Vienna and you have a lyrical read! Sarah is in Vienna looking for a cure for her friend Pollina who is on death’s door while her other friends, Max and Nico are also searching for a cure. Nico is looking for an ancient…
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Review: The Tenth Saint (The Sarah Weston Chronicles #1) by D.J. Niko
Sarah Weston is in the middle of the biggest dig of her career as an archaeologist in Ethiopia, when she is approached by a local claiming he has ‘rare artifacts’ to show her. Sarah is skeptical, she knows that most locals are simply out to make a buck but the artifacts have all the authentic markers. She asks the man to show her where he found the artifacts and what she discovers will change the direction of her exposition. She finds a sealed tomb with inscriptions in an obscure dialect. When the director of the exposition hears that Sarah has basically gone on a wild goose chase, he sends in…