I recently finished Tatiana de Rosnay's Manderley Forever, a carefully researched and annotated biography of Daphne du Maurier that reads like a novel. Some of you might remember my scathing reaction to Rebecca back in 2012. In short, I despised the unnamed heroine of...
This past fall I decided to update the look of my website. As always I wanted something Gothic and a bit creepy, but I also yearned for warmth and color. Again and again I came back to this image: It struck me as both bleak and beautiful. Moreover it reminded me of...
Patrice Kindl's A School for Brides: A Story of Maidens, Mystery, and Matrimony is a delightful romp for fans of quirky characters and unusual conflicts, not to mention all things Regency. It's a companion to an earlier favorite of mine from Kindl, Keeping the Castle,...
To celebrate Valentine's Day here on the blog I searched my bookshelves and Goodreads reading list for stories that struck me as delightfully romantic. I'm leaving out category romance and trying only to include books that feature a pairing or a moment that really...
I only read 48 novels in 2017. Not a terrible total, but I can do better. I may never again equal the years when I read 100+ books, but I aim to improve in 2018. Here are my favorites. (I purposefully didn't include books from my Miss Marple re-read since I already...
Recently I was asked my opinion on what makes for an ideal reading nook. The first thing to come to mind was an image from my childhood copy of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women: "Jo! Jo! Where are you?" cried Meg at the foot of the garret stairs. "Here!" answered a...
It's that time of year when I crave cozy holiday stories! Here are three I enjoyed recently: For young (and young-at-heart) readers: Eleven-year-old Nikolas—nicknamed “Christmas”—has received only one toy in his life: a doll carved out of a turnip. But he’s happy with...
For various reasons this has not been my best year for reading, but the situation seems to be improving of late. Today I have two books to recommend, and though they don't have that much in common, they both celebrate female relationships. A Secret Sisterhood...
A couple of things to share today, and though it may seem like a stretch, they actually are related. Favorite thing #1. More than thirty years after first seeing it, I re-watched Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966), starring the late David Hemmings. I first saw...
One thing that really grabbed me during the spectacle and whimsy of the opening ceremonies in Sochi was the reference (during the Cyrillic alphabet intro) to "Hedgehog in the Fog." What a phrase! I had to know more. Steve did a quick google search and read from the...
Thank goodness for the Brontë Blog -- it keeps me informed of all sorts of lovely Brontë-related things, including this book recently released in the UK:How to be a Heroine: or What I learned from Reading Too Much On a pilgrimage to Wuthering Heights, Samantha Ellis...
I recently listened to an audiobook of Daphne du Maurier's REBECCA. Having read the book as a teen and enjoyed many viewings of the Hitchcock film since then, I was looking forward to revisiting the story, especially because I've long considered it the best of all the...
