Month: March 2019

Explore: Literary Places

This is a wonderful book for armchair readers and explorers.  25 fictional places are featured and paired with the novels that made them well known.  Some of my favorites were New York City/Catcher in the Rye; Yorkshire Moors/Wuthering Heights, Bath/Northanger Abbey and Persuasion, Naples/My Brilliant Friend, Alabama/To Kill a Mockingbird and really just about every place and book mentioned.  The author and illustrator are well matched; the text is informative and helps the reader to imagine the place described at the time that the book was written as well as now, while the drawings are just slightly whimsical and very appealing.

This book will inspire you to look at old favorites, find new ones and think about either real or virtual travel.  I recommend it highly.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-galley.  I enjoyed my journey!

YORKSHIRE MOORS

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (1847)

Wuthering Heights is believed to be based on Top Withens, a long-abandoned 16th-century farmhouse a few miles southwest of Haworth. Its structure doesn’t match Emily’s creation, but its remote, windswept position fits the bill. Walk across the moor from Haworth parsonage – now the Brontë Museum – to reach the exposed stone ruin and it’s easy to think yourself into the pages of a Gothic romance.

DUBLIN

Ulysses by James Joyce (1922)

Ulysses follows Leopold Bloom, a Jewish ad canvasser for The Freeman’s Journal, as he wanders around Dublin on 16 June 1904. He attends a funeral, goes to the pub, ducks into a museum (to avoid the man sleeping with his wife), pleasures himself by Sandymount Strand, enters the red-light district. The novel is a chaotic stream of consciousness, performing stylistic acrobatics to try to render the human experience.

#LiteraryPlaces #NetGalley

Some fiction e-book bargains for March

A Well-Behaved Woman: A Novel of the VanderbiltsThe Rosie Project: A Novel (Don Tillman Book 1)The Thing About Clare by [Clark, Imogen]Winter Hours: Prose, Prose Poems, and PoemsThe Library at the Edge of the World: A Novel (Finfarran Peninsula Book 1)Reservoir 13: A NovelDear Mr. Knightley: A NovelFriendship Cake: A Novel (A Hope Springs Book)The Age of Innocence (Knickerbocker Classics)Persuasion (Knickerbocker Classics)

There is quite a mix here.  There is historical fiction (A Well Behaved Woman), wome’s fiction (The Rosie Project, Friendship Cake, The Library at the Edge of the World,Dear Mr. Knightley), poestry and prose (Mary Oliver), classics (Wharton and Austen) and two other books that looked interesting (The Thing About Clare) and Reservoir 13).

Happy reading!

March Mystery e-book deals: Part 2

Death in Brittany: A Mystery (Brittany Mystery Series Book 1) by [Bannalec, Jean-Luc]Evil Under the Sun: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot series Book 23) by [Christie, Agatha]Irish Eyes: A Callahan Garrity Mystery (Callahan Garrity Mysteries Book 8) by [Andrews, Mary Kay]Rose Cottage by [Stewart, Mary]The Potted Gardener: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin Mysteries Book 3) by [Beaton, M. C.]

One Was a Soldier: A Clare Fergusson and Russ Van Alstyne Mystery (Fergusson/Van Alstyne Mysteries Book 7)Murder on the Iditarod Trail: An Alaskan Mystery (An Alaska Mystery Book 1) by [Henry, Sue]Invisible City: A Novel (Rebekah Roberts Novels Book 1) by [Dahl, Julia]So here is something for everyone…travel to Provence, England, Georgia, Alaska, upstate New York or Brooklyn.

I give a special shout out to the book by Julia Spencer Fleming.  Please think about reading the whole series in order; it is one of my most favorite.  I got very attached to Clare and Russell and wish that the author would write a new book.

Enjoy!