Nor is this the end. Desecrated as the body is, a vengeful ghost survives and hovers over it to scare. Espied by some timid man-of-war or blundering discovery-vessel from afar, when the distance obscuring the swarming fowls, nevertheless still shows the white mass floating in the sun, and the white spray heaving high against it; straightway the whale’s unharming corpse, with trembling fingers is set down in the log—shoals, rocks, and breakers hereabouts: beware! And for years afterwards, perhaps, ships shun the place; leaping over […]
12th Century Boss Lady
Even as a self-proclaimed Anglophile, and British history major in college, I must admit that I did not know much about Eleanor of Aquitaine. I am very glad to have stumbled upon this completed three-part series by Elizabeth Chadwick. Chadwick is a new author to me, but I enjoyed her style of writing and great attention to historical detail. Historical fiction cannot be easy to write but is so wonderful to read when an author gets it right. The books begins when Aelinor (the actual […]
Good for Francophiles; for others, not so much
I hate not finishing a book. The literature student in me feels compelled to give every author his due, and there was a time when I would have slogged through anything no matter how disinterested I was. Now that I’m older and one would hope wiser, I’ve realized that life is short and there are times when I should cut my losses and move on to something that makes me happy. I’ve always had a love–meh relationship with Julian Barnes, so it surprised me at […]
Another breezy contemporary romance from the south of France
Lucien Rosier grew up in a very tight knit group of cousins, with a strong sense of family. So when at eighteen, he discovered that he was in fact illegitimate, and not actually a Rosier, he ran away and joined the French Foreign Legion, where he crafted himself a new identity and support network of fellow soldiers. Fifteen years later, a determined woman has managed to locate him and figure out who he once used to be. His great-aunt wants to give him a legacy […]