Ooh, this was a good read. If you liked the parallels in The Girl You Left Behind, you might like this one, even though the setting is very different. “If there is one lesson I wish to bestow upon you, one shred of wisdom I have gained from my living, dying days, it is this: let your heart lead you, do not be afraid, for there will be much to regret if reason and sense and fear are your only markers.” In Virginia, in 1852, seventeen […]
The light has gone dark
I read this one because it’s going to be turned into a movie starring two of my Pajiba Ten — Michael Fassbender & Rachel Weisz. Unfortunately, having read the book, there is no way in hell that I’m going to go see the movie. “You only have to forgive once. To resent, you have to do it all day, every day. You have to keep remembering all the bad things.” So, the basic summary of the plot: Tom and Izzy Sherbourne live on the deserted Janus […]
“And if the man who once upon a time had been a boy who promised he’d never fall in love with another girl as long as he lived kept his promise, it wasn’t because he was stubborn or even loyal. He couldn’t help it.”
For the first half of this novel, I was not expecting it to finish as something I would rate with 4 stars. It took a while to get started, but once it did — I was in love. I have a feeling that if I were to reread it again, I would love it even more. “We met each other when we were young, before we knew enough about disappointment, and once we did we found we reminded each other of it.” The History of Love is […]
“Live by lies”
I really liked the writing style of this book, probably even more than the content. Nordlinger has a very casual way of communicating with the reader, and throws in some occasional (usually dark) humor as well. His mission, as he lays out in the introduction, is to examine the children and grandchildren of 20 dictators that rule or ruled in the 19th and 20th centuries. He explains that many of these people are shrouded in mystery, so some of his research has holes, but overall, I […]