![]() ![]() ” -David Brion Davis, American Historical Review “In this book, Berlin has produced a masterly synthesis of the vast body of research hundreds of scholars have done on the first two centuries of slavery in British, French, and Spanish North America, a portrait of highly fortuitous change that should leave a telltale stamp on all future treatments of New World slavery. ![]()
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![]() ![]() The moment is one of great significance for fans of Sayers’s work. Strong Poison was published in 1930, but the meal at Norman Urquhart’s was rooted in the Victorian era, serving a fish dish prior to a poultry dish. Looking on from the audience, the famous amateur detective Lord Peter Wimsey writhes in misery he believes Harriet Vane is innocent, and he has fallen suddenly and completely in love with her. The judge’s oration is another strike against the accused, a bohemian mystery novelist named Harriet Vane, who saw Boyes on the night he died, and had both motive and opportunity to poison him. The point of the description is to show that Boyes couldn’t have been poisoned, since every dish was shared, with the exception of a bottle of Burgundy (Corton), which he drank alone. ![]() A judge tells a jury what he ate: the meal starts with a glass of 1847 oloroso “by way of cocktail,” followed by a cup of cold bouillon - “very strong, good soup, set to a clear jelly”-then turbot with sauce, poulet en casserole, and finally a sweet omelet stuffed with jam and prepared tableside. The deceased, Philip Boyes, was a writer with “advanced” ideas, dining at the home of his wealthy great-nephew, Norman Urquhart, a lawyer. Dorothy Sayers’s Strong Poison opens with a description of a man’s last meal before death. ![]() ![]() ![]() I liked this unique spin on a classic tale. ![]() The bones are there, but the story has some twists that are not in the original. Think you’re reading Beauty and the Beast? Well…this is kind of that story. ![]() It doesn’t really seem to slow her down much (is that realistic?), but I do like the inclusion of a perfectly-capable, quick-thinking, disabled protagonist as a love interest. Goal achieved! Despite a few slightly slow parts, I was engrossed in the book and read it in just a couple of days. I read it compulsively! At 500 pages, this whopper of a book needed to grab my interest quickly and keep it. WHAT I LIKED ABOUT A CURSE SO DARK AND LONELY But the ending? Um…I’m not sure what to think about it to be honest. The next minute, she finds herself in a medieval kingdom, trapped inside a gorgeous castle and kept prisoner by a scary royal guard and an arrogant prince. One minute, Harper is on a Washington, DC street. ![]() Harper rushes at the man to stop the kidnapping, and she ends up kidnapped herself instead. Harper is serving as a lookout for her brother’s crimes when she sees a man attempting to kidnap a young woman. ![]() ![]() A novel like Wilkie Collins’s The Woman in White, published in 1860, had yielded a host of spin-off products, including hats and cloaks, a perfume, and even a type of waltz. Not just for novel tie-ins – that in itself was nothing new. In time, even when the novel was largely forgotten, its title would be immortalised in the name of a hat.Īlthough it was published in the 1890s and so was technically a Victorian novel, Trilby was, in many ways, the start of a peculiarly modern craze. He certainly succeeded: Trilby would become the sensation of the age, not just in Britain but in the United States. But owing to failing eyesight, du Maurier had begun to complement his illustrating work with novel-writing as a way of continuing to make a living from his pen. ![]() Du Maurier had made his name as an illustrator: in 1895 he was responsible for the famous ‘ curate’s egg’ cartoon (with its complaisant curate assuring the vicar, concerning the bad egg he’d been served up, that ‘parts of it are excellent’), and he’d even been responsible for coining the phrase ‘bedside manner’ in a medical cartoon of 1884. The cartoonist’s name was George du Maurier and the novel is Trilby (1894). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() EVERYTHING is connected in the end (from book#1 to now), and because of this, I can’t even give one part away, without *ruining* something else. You won’t ever be bored (but you will need to come up for air at times). And, when have I ever steered you wrong? This book is deeply satisfying. What? I’ve said that before? Well… it couldn’t be more true in this case. If you came here cause you’re interested in this book, and wanted to know how I reviewed it, it’s a 5 star for sure! Action packed, unrelenting, wickedly infuriating, and at times, deliciously sexy (in it’s own way). MARYSE’S SURPRISE FROM HER FAVORITE BOOK BOYFRIEND’S.ALL MY REVIEWS (ALPHABETICAL BY AUTHOR). ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We are all in it together looking for clues and asking questions. The plots are always well done and draw the reader right into the period between the Great Wars. Even the lowest secondary characters add to the story. But, Lennox and Swift move forward at a steady pace. Lennox asks questions, looks at places and people and uses his powers of deduction and commons sense.Īnd there is always food, atmosphere and humor. This series is always filled with a good mystery. The suspects are many and right at the scene of the crime. Everyone else at the dinner were relatives of those people who died in the explosion. It is believed the man who died was responsible for an explosion which killed 8 people. So, if one were seeking a hero, he is perfect for the job.Īt an exclusive dinner in a private club, a gentleman has died. That is unusual because in the past their investigations have not always been welcomed by The Yard. Heathcliff Lennox and his good friend retired Scotland Yard Inspector Swift have been asked to come to London and help with a murder investigation. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Nannies, cousins, ponies, big family dinners, bickering aunts - where was it all going? I kept thinking of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s much-more-polished The Light Years, which featured similar components, but palpable narrative tension. Mary’s idyllic family vacations at a country house in Somerset occupy nearly half of the book and this is the portion that had me wondering exactly why I kept turning the pages. ![]() Her widowed mother works the man in their household is Uncle Geoff, a very part-time actor. Sometimes I’ve done rather well on my own.īut there are other times when a little bit of outside information makes all the difference to your judgment of a book, and this was the case with Monica Dickens’ Mariana. Mary Shannon is a thin, colorless shrimp of a girl, part of a small household in 1920s London. Sometimes I have missed fundamental literary strategies ( “Oh - it was a parody?”). I have to say that the results have been mixed. I wouldn’t read reviews, or even the introductions to books - I would just read the texts themselves and figure out what I thought of each book. When I started blogging a couple of years ago I had a vague resolution that I would review books naively. ![]() ![]() ![]() But if anyone were to discover how Ledger is slowly becoming an important part of Kenna's life, both would risk losing the trust of everyone important to them. The only person who hasn't closed the door on her completely is Ledger Ward, a local bar owner and one of the few remaining links to Kenna's daughter. ![]() Everyone in her daughter's life is determined to shut Kenna out, no matter how hard she works to prove herself. But the bridges Kenna burned are proving impossible to rebuild. ![]() Reading Challenges: 2022 Audiobook ChallengeĪ troubled young mother yearns for a shot at redemption in this heartbreaking yet hopeful story from #1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover.Īfter serving five years in prison for a tragic mistake, Kenna Rowan returns to the town where it all went wrong, hoping to reunite with her four-year-old daughter. Genres: Fiction / Family Life / General, Fiction / Romance / Contemporary, Fiction / Women Purchase Here Buy on Amazon US - Buy on Apple - Buy on Google - Buy at Barnes and Noble - Buy on Audible - Buy on Amazon UK ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Featuring an ensemble cast of international girls, he had many experiences and leaned a few lessons along the way. In breakup after breakup, one lonely expat struggles to understand the Chinese mystique. That's in the Pearl River Delta, among the densest megacities on Earth. It starts on a psychedelic trip in Burning Man, and continues in the "overnight city" of Shenzhen. Well, maybe not always searching for love, but in search for something. He knew there would be an adventure and it would have its challenges, but he didn't know it could get that bad.įrom the deserts of Black Rock City, Nevada, to the towering metropolis of Hong Kong, this memoir takes our humble writer all across the globe in search of love. When one nerdy, young American moved from California to China in the autumn of 2008, he had no idea what was coming. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() She taught most grades from kindergarten to fifth grade. She graduated from Smith College, then received a Masters degree in Education from New York University.įor many years, Ziefert was an elementary school teacher. ![]() "About twelve years ago," says Ziefert in a 1995 interview, "I tried to get a job as an editor, but no one would hire Harriet Ziefert grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey, where she attended the local schools. She went to work at a publishing company, Scholastic in New York City, developing materials for teacher's guides for kindergarten language arts and social studies programs. When her children were older, Ziefert wanted "a bigger arena" for her work. "I liked it," she said, but she stopped teaching when she had her own sons. For many years, Ziefert was an elementary school teacher. She graduated from Smith College, then received a Masters degree in Education from New York University. Harriet Ziefert grew up in North Bergen, New Jersey, where she attended the local schools. ![]() |