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In which Diana Gabaldon resurfaces on Postcards from Purgatory (by Jill)
The fourth book in Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series is called Drums of Autumn, and as I begin my annual trip back in time with Claire Beauchamp-Randall-Fraser and her Scottish highlander husband Jamie, I can hear the titular autumn drums beating … Continue reading
Posted in Diana Gabaldon, Reviews by Jill, TIME TRAVEL, Uncategorized
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A Brief Review of Julie Otsuka’s When the Emperor Was Divine
This is one of those “quietly good” books I keep meaning to read more of. Though only 144 pages long, it tells a complex story from five distinct points of view: one chapter each from the third-person perspective of a … Continue reading
A Review of Elif Batuman’s The Idiot
When we were freshmen in college, Jill gave me a book of cartoons for Christmas called I Went to College… and it Was Okay. I looked for the book before I started writing this review, and I couldn’t find it. … Continue reading
A Review of Jen Lancaster’s The Best of Enemies (by Jill)
After reading Twisted Sisters last year, I was worried that I would not enjoy any more of Jen Lancaster’s fiction, but I decided to try again. And you know what? I actually really liked The Best of Enemies. Is … Continue reading
A Review of Olivia Manning’s School for Love
This novel is about Felix, a British boy whose mother has just died. Felix and his mother lived in Baghdad back when Iraq was a British colony, so Felix, whose father is also deceased, has to make a long journey … Continue reading
A Review of John Kaag’s American Philosophy: A Love Story
If nothing else, this memoir will make book lovers everywhere envious of John Kaag. Some six or seven years before he wrote this book, Kaag was in rural New Hampshire helping to organize a conference on William James. He was … Continue reading
A Review of Cecilia Ekbäck’s Wolf Winter (by Jill)
Wolf Winter has the odd distinction of being both the last book I started in 2016 and the first book I finished in 2017. It often annoys me if the last book/first book spends too much time on either … Continue reading
A Review of Mike Brown’s How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming
I bought this book several years ago, back when I qualified for an educator discount and could get paperbacks from Random House for $3 apiece. Whenever you see me review a book that seems out of my usual oeuvre (I … Continue reading
A Review of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad
The greatest trick Colson Whitehead ever pulled was convincing this bookblogger that he had written a realistic novel. Yes, yes, I know that the fact the railroad in this novel is a literal series of tracks running under the nineteenth-century … Continue reading
A Review of Andre Dubus’ The Lieutenant
My reading goal for 2017 is to read more of what I call “quietly good” fiction. By this I mean stories that are well told but in traditional ways. I’m taking a moratorium on shifting point of view for a … Continue reading
Postcards From Purgatory 