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Review: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice (The Mary Russell #1) by Laurie R. King
I desperately needed something fun and easy to read….and this time of year I just love a good mystery….something about the turning leaves and the cool, slightly foggy mornings….geese flying south for the winter, the pumpkins ripening….I just love fall and always associate mysteries as the season’s preferred genre….maybe it’s the spirit Halloween (incidentally that is my fav holiday as well)! I just finished reading The September Society by Charles Finch and was hungry for another mystery but was waiting for my mom to give me back my copy of the next book in the series (The Fleet Street Murders) that I plan on reading next. So I was stuck…
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Review: The September Society (Charles Lenox Mysteries #2) by Charles Finch
How perfect and fitting that I am finishing this book today on the first day of September! I’ve just come off a string of long and content heavy books. So I just mentally needed a break from reading things that were hard/complicated, wordy, and had long, extensive family trees (which is so typical of English literary classics and British based books like Outlander or Through a Glass Darkly!). So, I was eager to read something else historically based but yet something I also knew to be a little less complicated and easy to read/understand….I immediately turned to the next book in the Charles Lenox Series, The September Society by Charles…
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Review: Through a Glass Darkly by Karleen Koen
For my birthday a few months ago, my sister got me this book. Both her and I have very similar literary tastes so when she got me this book I was very excited to start reading it–I totally trust her literary judgement, since she is a librarian she knows all the good books/authors :). She had heard lots of good things about it and said she thought it was part of a series but wasn’t sure. She knew the author had written other historic works such as Before Versailles: A Novel of Louis XIV which I saw featured on Goodreads around the same time. Karleen Koen has written four books, Dark Angles,…
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Review: A Beautiful Blue Death (Charles Lenox Mysteries #1) by Charles Finch
In between books I picked up the first book in the Charles Lenox Mysteries, A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch. I read this book as part of the Historic Fiction Reading Challenge hosted by Historical Tapestry. The HF Reading Challenge required one thing….the book must by set in a historic setting so that means any genre (mystery, sci-fi, YA, fantasy….anything. I don’t really know too much about the series but the books sounded like they would be right up my alley. I saw the series listed on Goodreads and they had favorable reviews from readers. The are more or less a remake of the Sherlock Holmes Mysteries and since I have read many…
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Review: Leaving Van Gogh by Carol Wallace
What is better than getting presents on your birthday….getting unexpected gifts on your birthday :). I had seen the book Leaving Van Gogh by Carol Wallace listed as a free advanced copy giveaway on the Goodreads website. There were many others I could have entered but I was immediately drawn to this one. Without reading the description I knew I would instantly fall in love with the book as I simply love the subject of the book (Impressionist art) without question, one of my favorites being Van Vogh himself. I was thrilled to get the email that I had won the book on my birthday! I started the book Friday…
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Review: Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
I chose to read Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay for the Jewish Literature Reading Challenge. I initially picked the book out at a bookstore because I really liked the cover (The Luxembourg Gardens was one of my favorite places in Paris so of COURSE the cover grabbed my attention!). The summary sounded intriguing and moving so I added it to my TBR list. Lots of Jewish Literature focuses on Holocaust remembrance and Sarah’s Key is no different. The book initially takes place in occupied France during 1942 where we meet 10 year old Sarah Starzynski, a little Jewish girl who’s family is seized during the Vel’d’Hiv’ Round up–which took place in Paris and involved the…
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Review: An Echo in the Bone (Outlander #7) by Diana Gabaldon
I am JUST NOW getting around to blogging about the last book in the Outlander series, An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon. I completed the book on the way back from Aruba….surprisingly, I didn’t read much while I was on vacation. I was SURE that I would finish at least two books while there….I was lucky to finish the one we were so busy! Then when we came back from vacation I was busy blogging about our trip so it’s taken me a few days to muster the energy to blog about AEITB :). But at any rate here you have it….I have finished the last book in…
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Review: A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander #6) by Diana Gabaldon
Lots of things have happened over the last few weeks since I finished The Fiery Cross but I have now I finally finished Book VI in the Outlander Series, A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon! I have to say, I am completely agog at how much happens in one single book! I swear I have been reading the Outlander Series for about six or seven weeks now and everything seems to be running together. I feel like all of the characters have come so far and changed so much since the first book, which I suppose is the concept of this really really really long story. I read somewhere…
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Review: The Fiery Cross (Outlander #5) by Diana Gabaldon
I feel like it’s been forever since I posted last and I suppose it has, two weeks almost! The last couple of weeks have been so crazy though, it’s a wonder I haven’t gone completely off the deep end yet! So I admit, I have been dragging my feet a little finishing up the latest Outlander installment, The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon for the Outlander Series Reading Challenge. I have been entirely consumed by Outlander drama. One of the things I loved about FC was that Claire finally reflected on her time with Jamie and likened their relationship to sponge which just sucked her in–Claire I know EXACTLY how you…
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Review: Drums of Autumn (Outlander #4) by Diana Gabaldon
I am cruising along through this series! I just finished the fourth book in the Outlander Series: Drums of Autumn by Diana Gabaldon. When I started the Outlander Series Reading Challenge I had no idea I would be flying through these books like no other…..well I suspected but was not entirely convinced. I guess thats what being a book-a-holic is all about though and I should just go with it. As I have mentioned before in my other posts, if you have not read the books up until this point, read ahead at your own risk….this review might contain spoilers. Let’s get right in to the good stuff and talk…