For the past 15+ years, I’ve been the target audience for the Man Booker awards: literary fiction snob leaning to British Commonwealth authors. Though I have been branching out into other genres over the last few years, I still look to the Booker long- and shortlists for recommendations and usually pick up at least a few each year. For some reason, I haven’t looked much into other prizes until this year when I realized the Baileys (formerly Orange) prize lists would be a great resource […]
Just Your Average, Forgettable World War II novel …
I have been interested in the Holocaust and World War II since I was about 8 years old and have read quite a few novels, fictionalized accounts and nonfiction books on the topics as a result. I have certainly taken breaks at various points but always tend to come back to the topic. It also means there are certain types of books I am less likely to pick up based on previous experience. While I liked Sarah’s Key on initial read because of the view […]
If I told you her real name, I’d have to kill you…
I wasn’t sure what this book was about, just that it was good. So I took a chance and was thrust into the interrogation of a Scottish World War II war prisoner for the Germans. The subject of the interrogation? Not your usual WWII prisoner, as it’s a female. And she seems especially…perky?…for being interrogated. Okay, maybe perky isn’t the best choice of words, but she’s definitely not short on wits, snark, or even a sense of humor. And who can resist someone who says […]
Now This is Literature or a Defense of Kindness
It’s been such a long time since I read Kate Atkinson’s Life After Life that I realized a few chapters in that I was slightly confusing certain aspects about the family with Kate Morton’s novel The Lake House. Mostly just birthing order and Teddy’s age – I thought he was the youngest and conceived after his father’s return from World War I when he was actually born in 1914 and not the last sibling. However, I definitely remembered that he was Ursula’s favorite sibling, his […]