Oh look, it’s another Margaret Atwood book that I devoured and adored. I know, I know, you’re all amazed. “She wasn’t ready to settle down, she told her friends. That was one way of putting it. Another was would have been that she had not found anyone to settle down with. There had been several men in her life, but they hadn’t been convincing. They’d been somewhat like her table – quickly acquired, brightened up a little, but temporary. The time for that kind of […]
#YesAllWomen –The Novel
I happened to be reading The Handmaid’s Tale when the story about the UCSB shooting spree hit the news. By now, most likely you’ve read that the shooter hated women because he couldn’t get a date and that he left behind a “manifesto” and many videos in which he presented his misogynistic ideas. In response, and as an empowerment for women, the hashtag #YesAllWomen has gone viral, with women and men speaking up and speaking out against the culture that creates men like the shooter. […]
Lady Oracle by Margaret Atwood
“I planned my death carefully, unlike my life, which meandered along from one thing to another, despite my feeble attempts to control it.” Our narrator, Joan Foster, states this early in the novel, and spends the rest of the novel explaining what she means. She did not plan to commit suicide; rather, she faked her own death. She then fled to Italy, where she reminisces about her childhood, her relationships (and ultimately her marriage), and her career (both as a world-renowned poet and a secret […]
Cold in Iceland
Burial Rites is Hannah Kent’s first novel and an auspicious start to her career. Set in 1828-1830, the plot is based on real people and factual events surrounding the last execution of a criminal in Iceland. For those who prefer their fiction historical and who have enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s Alias, Grace or the novels of Geraldine Brooks (who is thanked in the author’s note), this is a book you will want to read. In 1828, a well known herbalist and healer (some said sorcerer) named […]