I’ve read a lot of World War II fiction in my time, but the majority of it has focused on Britain, Germany and/or France. This was one of the first historical novels that I read set in Mussolini’s Italy — specifically, in the 1930s when Mussolini was working to drain the Pontine Marshes. The story itself was so-so, but I’m interested in recommendations for others set during this time, if y’all have any? 10 years ago, in a plaza in the beautiful town of Bellina, Isabella Berotti and […]
Run from the Potato Girl!
I’ve read two other books by Jennifer McMahon — The Night Sister and The Winter People. Promise Not to Tell did not quite match up to the excellent creepiness of those two later novels, but as a debut, it was still pretty good. “The dead can blame.” Now in her 40s, Kate Cypher (really? Cypher?) has returned to the small town/hippie commune where she grew up to deal with her mother, who suffers greatly from Alzheimer’s and recently burnt down the teepee (hippies) where she had been living. […]
Watered down Gillian Flynn
It seems like every mystery/suspense book written by a woman, starring a woman, in the last few years has been compared to Gone Girl (on the cover blurb, at least). This book was not — the Goodreads blurb mentions that fans of Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone will like it, which I disagree with. Instead, this book strongly reminded me of Gillian Flynn, but not of Gone Girl. More like Sharp Objects or Dark Places — an unlikable female protagonist who spends most of the book drinking, making bad decisions and running […]
Way better than that Jim Carrey movie
I went out of town for a week on business and read like, six books and have not written any of them up yet. Apologies for the incoming flood! My “interactions” with Shonda have always been limited to Grey’s Anatomy, which I love dearly and have watched all the way through several times (I like to leave shows on when I’m cooking and cleaning, and pretty much rotate through Grey’s, Gilmore Girls and Scrubs). I’ve never gotten into her other shows (I’m a lazy TV […]