Stepmother, reimagined

I just finished reading Lady Tremaine, a debut novel by Rachel Hochhauser that reimagines the Cinderella story. But honestly, this is less the story of Cinderella (her stepdaughter Elin) than it is of the protagonist, Ethelreda the stepmother…. Read More

Mad Mabel

I was really looking forward to a new Sally Hepworth novel. Although I have felt lukewarm about a couple of her titles, I liked The Good Sister well enough to read it twice, and so many people raved… Read More

At the base of the tower

I have previously spoken here of how delightful I find the fantasy tales of T. Kingfisher. While she does write completely original stories (as well as some that are more horror than fantasy), many of her books are… Read More

Bonecrack

I was in the mood to pick up another Dick Francis novel last week, and this one was much more suspense than mystery. From the beginning we know who the bad guy is, and the plot becomes an… Read More

Blood sport

There seem to be several opinions about why horse racing has been called a blood sport. One definition I found submitted that it was because of the term “bloodstock”—the selective aristocratic breeding of thoroughbreds from pure bloodlines. But… Read More

Letting go before the end

Today I decided not to finish a book, which is a rarity for me but does happen. I had been waiting weeks on the library waitlist for Never Let Me Go, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I never picked this… Read More

A mesmerizing tale

I just finished reading The Thirteenth Tale, by Diane Setterfield. It’s kind of a mystery to me—not the book itself, but my history with it. My Goodreads listings show that i read the book in 2015, and that… Read More

Calamities

Calamity is somehow such an East Coast word, isn’t it? and specifically more of a Southern one. I mean yeah, its word origin traces back to Middle French and, before that, Latin, but it’s not a word that… Read More

The Orchard

I have been quite baffled by the last few books I have read by Peter Heller. His earlier books had a plot, an arc, and a conclusion, if not the perfect resolution, and then I ran up against… Read More

Continued enjoyment

I read two books this week. One was the sequel to the cozy mystery I reviewed in my last post. The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Orchid Hunting, by Naomi Kuttner, would seem to follow one theme from the… Read More