This book chewed me up and spit me back out. In a good way, of course. But seriously, I had a major book hangover after finishing this one. The writing, the story, the characters were all so, so beautiful. I started sobbing after it was over because I was so overwhelmed with how lovely what I just read was. The story follows Cyril Avery’s life, born in the 1940s, all the way up until present day. His mother was cruelly kicked out of her rural […]
Tana French – take my money.
I have been recommending Tana French ad nauseum every time someone asks me for a book recommendation, ever since I discovered her delightful series in 2007. I have two left to read and I purposefully wait as looong as I can manage before reading one because they are so good and knowing I have one on the horizon makes me happy. That being said, imagine my delight as I’m perusing the “Hot Picks” aisle at my local library and see she has a new one […]
The Queen is in the Building. Tell me how you feeling?
If you’ve followed me on GoodReads, you are well aware of my affinity for Tana French. A former parishioner of mine turned me onto her books three years ago. I liked In The Woods well enough but at the time, I felt there was something lacking. I didn’t know that…a. I was unfamiliar with French’s style (subsequent readings would help me appreciate it more) and b. it was a first novel and I’ve since learned to be more graceful with first novels. I then read The Likeness and […]
Bingo! Bingo! Bingo!
First Bingo!!!! I’m going to be teaching “Dubliners” to my Advanced Fiction students this semester, so what luck that we had a square for old books :) Written in 1914, James Joyce hoped to capture the tenor of his city in a series of short stories that act like windows into the lives of Dublin’s inhabitants in the early 20th Century. Did I like this book? It grew on me. It’s not thematic or cyclic, nor does it have any reoccurring characters. At its core, […]