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

Review: Re Jane by Patricia Park

by The Lit Bitch1 Comment on Review: Re Jane by Patricia Park

This is the year of all things Jane Eyre! With it being the 200th anniversary for Jane Eyre, there are TONS of retellings out there right now!

Jane Eyre isn’t my most favorite Bronte book but I do admire Jane’s spirit and it’s always fun to read modern retellings of classics!

So even though this book sounded a little different….I like different…..so I agreed to read it and see what it’s all about!

For Jane Re, half-Korean, half-American orphan, Flushing, Queens, is the place she’s been trying to escape from her whole life. Sardonic yet vulnerable, Jane toils, unappreciated, in her strict uncle’s grocery store and politely observes the traditional principle of nunchi (a combination of good manners, hierarchy, and obligation).

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

Review: The Gilded Cage by Judy Alter

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This book sounded like it was kind of ‘off the beaten path’ as far as setting goes, which was why I decided to read this

It’s rare for me to read a historical fiction novel that’s set in America, and when I do it’s usually an east coast setting so this whole Chicago setting sounded intriguing and I thought I would try it out!

Born to society and a life of privilege, Bertha Honoré married Potter Palmer, a wealthy entrepreneur who called her Cissy. Neither dreamed the direction the other’s life would take.

He built the Palmer House Hotel, still famed today, and became one of the major robber barons of the city, giving generously to causes of which he approved. She put philanthropy into words, going into shanty neighborhoods, inviting factory girls to her home, working at Jane Addams’ settlement Hull House, supporting women’s causes.

It was a time of tremendous change and conflict in Chicago as the city struggled to put its swamp-water beginnings behind it and become a leading urban center. A time of the Great Fire of 1871, the Haymarket Riots, and the triumph of the Columbian Exposition. Potter and Cissy handled these events in diverse ways.

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Special Feature: UNDER THE HARROW by Flynn Berry

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This summer has been a major in-house favorite at Penguin Books and it’s also been getting rave reviews from early reviewers!

I love a good thriller as much as the next person and I am so mad that I couldn’t fit this one into my review schedule for the summer but I wanted to make my readers aware of this new release that sounds unbelievably chilling and haunting!

Claire Messud said, “It’s like Broadchurch written by Elena Ferrante. I’ve been telling all my friends to read it — the highest compliment. Flynn Berry is a deeply interesting writer.” Beneath the mystery of UNDER THE HARROW is a heartbreakingly honest portrait of sisterhood’s contradictions and complexities, and a keen understanding of grief and trauma, what Kirkus called “the deep, all-encompassing loss felt by those left behind.”

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

Review: Just Life by Neil Abramson

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As a general rule, I typically decline any and all books to do with dogs because they just give me too many feels…..good bad or otherwise!

However, there was something about this one that sounded really intriguing…..maybe it was the hint of a scientific type of story line…..I don’t know but something just said ‘read me’ about this book.

An unidentified virus is spreading through the New York City neighborhood of Riverside, near Central Park.

Despite the desperate need for answers, the medical community can only determine the cause is zoonotic, suggesting birds one day and dogs the next as the possible source.

Despite the lack of information, the politically ambitious governor orders the National Guard to enforce a quarantine of all dogs. At the heart of this conflict, veterinarian Samantha Lewis is struggling to keep her no-kill shelter open.

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Review: Marlene: A Novel by C.W. Gortner

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C.W. Gortner has been putting out some great reads this last year or so!

Gortner always does a fantastic job at profiling historical female figures…..most of which are famous queens etc but lately he’s been branching out to historical pop culture icons like Coco Chanel and now Marlene Dietrich.

I was really intrigued by this novel because I don’t know much about Marlene Dietrich and with Gortner’s fantastic story telling abilities, I was really excited to read this one!

Maria Magdalena Dietrich dreams of a life on the stage. When a budding career as a violinist is cut short, the willful teenager vows to become a singer, trading her family’s proper, middle-class society for the free-spirited, louche world of Weimar Berlin’s cabarets and drag balls.

With her sultry beauty, smoky voice, seductive silk cocktail dresses, and androgynous tailored suits, Marlene performs to packed houses and becomes entangled in a series of stormy love affairs that push the boundaries of social convention.

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