Category Archives: Historical fiction

Amuse bouche: magical realism version

Posted on October 27, 2018 by

The Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie (Random House, 2008) Here, I offer you another tidbit to tempt your palate for other-worldly tales: a story of a mysterious European and of Akbar, the 16th century Mughal emperor. The European goes by … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Historical fiction, Magical realism | Tagged | 4 Comments

Backward Rambles

Posted on July 23, 2018 by

Little Follies: The Personal History, Adventures, Experiences and Observations of Peter Leroy (So Far) (1995), Eric Kraft What do you remember from your childhood? How far back do your memories go? More importantly, how much can you trust your memories? … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical fiction, Humorous, Memoir, Series | Tagged | 3 Comments

Tidying the village

Posted on July 9, 2018 by

‘Miss Read’, 37 novels set in 3 fictional Cotswold villages (Fairacre, Thrush Green, and Caxley). Titles include Storm in the Village (1958), The Market Square (1966), and Return to Thrush Green (1978). Also Time Remembered (1986). One of my followers has recently suggested that … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Historical fiction | 2 Comments

This and that and some other things

Posted on January 22, 2016 by

For the past 3 weeks, it hasn’t been Radio WTWP (wall-to-wall Proust, with a tip of the hat to Prof. Peter Schickele) on my reading shelf. Here’s some other stuff I’ve been clearing out: Desmond Seward’s The Demon’s Brood, a 300-page bare-bones … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Graphic Novel, Historical fiction, History, reading | Tagged , , , , | 9 Comments

Why I love libraries

Posted on August 31, 2015 by

I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir, but I’d like to point out what can happen in a library that can’t happen anywhere else: discovering old books you never even knew had been written. I’d gone to my college libe to borrow … Continue reading →

Posted in Biography, Historical fiction | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

When you run out of Jane Austen and the Brontës, try Mrs. Gaskell

Posted on August 1, 2015 by

Three more books to discuss for the 2015 Reading Challenge. I have to start with three quotes: [Mrs. Forrester explained] … in her day the only use people made of four-syllabled words was to teach how they should be spelt. … Continue reading →

Posted in 2015 Reading Challenge, Classic, Historical fiction, Romance | Tagged | Leave a comment

Summer omnibus, part 2

Posted on September 15, 2014 by

More from my summer’s reading: Aaron Starmer, The Riverman (2014). In upstate New York, near the Canadian border, Alistair Cleary lives a normal life of taking dangerous dares and avoiding nosy neighbors. Then Fiona Loomis, not yet 13, asks him to write her biography. She tells him about an … Continue reading →

Posted in Adventure, Classic, Graphic Novel, Historical fiction, short stories, YA Lit | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments