Search Results
741 items found for "six historical"
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 1/10/22 Edition
01 Out Front the Following Sea by Leah Angstman In Out Front the Following Sea, upcoming historical fiction
- Review of The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue
Donoghue immersed me so fully in this world that everything else fell away for me. Set in Ireland in 1918, The Pull of the Stars follows a nurse, Julia; a doctor, Kathleen; and a young volunteer, Bridie, over the course of three tumultuous days as the fiery, complex, capable women work desperately to help the patients at their understaffed hospital who are about to give birth while suffering from the devastating new influenza. The country is reeling at the end of World War I. Permanent holes have been created in families, and the loss of men has left medical and other support systems overloaded. Our heroines are sometimes trapped by the chauvinistic framework they're working within, and we see them try to create their own solutions to crises, follow tradition or improve upon it, and fly under the radar to instinctively and knowledgeably help their patients rather than rely on, for example, young, untested, book-smart male doctors. And then there's the no-nonsense, scandalous Sinn Fein activist and doctor Kathleen Lynn, who bursts onto the scene to Handle It left and right. She is unusual in that she trusts and delegates power to her nurses, who have long been hamstrung by rules and limitations (so that in many cases all they may offer a birthing or dying woman is diluted whiskey as they wait for the few doctors to come by the ward). Donoghue weaves a good amount of fact into this story. She offers sometimes horrifying particulars of early twentieth century medical care and exquisitely detailed glimpses into daily life and the workings of society at the time. And Doctor Kathleen Lynn was a real, formidable figure. I wasn't sure how wise it was to read about a pandemic during a pandemic. Donoghue doesn't pull any punches with the sometimes horrific details of the flu's devastation (or the varied life-threatening dangers of childbirth). There's a constant push and pull of life and death--a microcosm of what is occurring on the battlefields and in the world. Yet for the book's characters, the life-and-death wartime and influenza crises bring laser focus to the most essential everyday matters: living life as truthfully and joyfully as possible, fighting against unjust systems, and offering grace to others. The author allows her practical characters to imagine glorious possibilities beyond the scope of what is known to them, and this added immense heart to the story. Donoghue immersed me so fully in the moment-by-moment health and emotional crises; the women's determined, sometimes desperately creative attempts to preserve lives; and the occasional triumphs that the rest of the world fell away for me as I was reading. I couldn't wait to get back to this book when I was away from it. What did you think? I was engrossed. The author of the disturbing, fascinating book Room knows how to craft a story of survival and of finding hope in the most dire situations. I recently mentioned this book in the Greedy Reading List Three Books I'm Reading Now, 9/16/20 Edition.
- Review of The Drowning Kind by Jennifer McMahon
But disaster strikes, and Jax finds herself trying to unravel the twisted, complicated history of her family and its land--a history Lexie had been researching and had become obsessed by.
- Review of Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
The characters frequently intersperse political, historical, feminist, cultural, and other context throughout
- Review of Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
matter-of-fact approach to life and her graceful ability to cope with her significant past trauma and dark history
- Review of Nobody Will Tell You This But Me: A True (As Told to Me) Story by Bess Kalb
Kalb shares rip-roaring tales of family history; Bobby's distinct pride in generations of the family
- Review of White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
essential to the productive understanding of the past and current racial situation, including a basic history reading this or other books on race and anti-racism that you recommend for a better understanding of history
- Review of Fallen: A Novel of Suspense by Linda Castillo
McLain's When the Stars Go Dark, about a missing persons detective coping with her own tragedy; the historical
- Review of Landslide by Susan Conley
complicate Jill and Kit's finances, but threaten Kit's identity and shake the family's sense of personal history
- Review of Honor by Thrity Umrigar
country--and her journalistic discoveries threaten to unearth the painful secrets of Smita's own family history
- Review of The Wife Upstairs by Rachel Hawkins
In Rachel Hawkins's new mystery The Wife Upstairs, each of the main players and their histories aren't But each of these characters turned out to be hiding elements of their histories that put into context
- Review of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
I'm doing a lot of things for the first time in human history out here and there's a lot of stuff that
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/7/22 Edition
Through mining past research and history for wisdom as well as interviewing highly successful individuals
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 5/30/22 Edition
The Books I'm Reading Now I'm reading A Rip Through Time, the first in Kelley Armstrong's time-travel historical
- Review of Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein
this book (along with the epic science fiction/fantasy To Sleep in a Sea of Stars and a young adult historical
- Review of Beneath the Keep by Erika Johansen
This book traces the history of the Tearling as a kingdom crushed by famine, feudalism, corruption, greed Elyssa recalls that the history shared by her tutor Lady Glynn was made up of: "...tales of good, but
- Review of Pretty Things by Janelle Brown
the cons aims to right some wrongs in two of the characters' shared (but mysterious and complicated) history
- Review of A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
Female characters--as well as their female friends and relatives who appear in retold stories and histories and bravery required by Rum's female characters--but also many other real-life women--to write a new history
- Review of Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance
I was hoping for answers, but Vance focuses on pointing out the layered, complicated cultural and historical
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 12/21/21 Edition
McDaniel's Appalachian-set novel Betty with my book club, Xiran Jay Zhao's young adult blend of Chinese history
- Review of A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic #3) by V.E. Schwab
Schwab's stories take place within her detailed fantasy world (with some historical fiction elements
- Review of Writers & Lovers by Lily King
That was suuuuch a different book (dark historical fiction set in 1933 New Guinea), but as in Writers
- Shhh! More Book Gifts for Kids and Teens
nine TV seasons aired in the United States--including the story of how it was almost canceled after six
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 2/21/22 Edition
villages of her home country--and threatens to unearth the secrets of Smita's own family and their history
- Review of The Arsonists' City by Hala Alyan
They return to Beirut, each broken in a way, each searching for home, fulfillment, history, peace, or
- April Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
also wrote the fantastic Spinning Silver and Uprooted, both of which appear on the Greedy Reading List Six
- Review of Boy Swallows Universe by Trent Dalton
I mentioned Boy Swallows Universe (along with A Burning and The Office of Historical Corrections) in
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 3/7/22 Edition
last week) courtesy of NetGalley and Random House. 03 Legend (Legend #1) by Marie Lu In an alternate history
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 4/7/21 Edition
Grande digs into her family's complicated history of trauma, disappointment, struggle, and, for some
- Review of Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
the stories across time, he also set up rich glimpses into characters' lives at different points in history
- Review of The Fate of the Tearling by Erika Johansen
held secrets of the Crossing that prevented younger generations from learning helpful lessons from history
- Review of So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
the desire to remove the pressure on people of color to be walking Google sources for experience and history
- Review of Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
former IRA top man Gerry Adams managed to create his own fact-defying narrative, practically erasing his history
- Review of Beach Read by Emily Henry
about writing and books, there are wonderfully faulted love-crossed main protagonists with a shared history
- December Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
Towles crafts a solid historical fiction adventure for his young-men protagonists, balancing weighty
- Three Books I'm Reading Now, 1/1/21 Edition
Hawkins's mystery The Wife Upstairs, set for January 5, 2021 publication, the main players and their histories
- Shhh! Books I'm Giving as Gifts This Holiday
can write about almost anything and make it interesting and comprehensible (as evidenced by his Short History
- Review of Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots
She provides lots of action; sometimes poignant internal conflict; some dark humor; and she builds history
- June Wrap-Up: My Favorite Reads of the Month
of essential projects—the creation of Central Park, the founding of the Met Museum and the Natural History
- Review of The Painter by Peter Heller
He has a painful history he's trying to accept and get past, but sometimes darkness seeps into his thoughts
- Review of The Likeness (Dublin Murder Squad #2) by Tana French
French is the author of six books in the Dublin Murder Squad series: In the Woods, this book (my absolute