Monthly Archives: July 2012

Tana French, “Broken Harbor”

Posted on July 31, 2012 by carolwallace

OK. We know that Tana French is a goddess, yeah? So all I really have to do here is tell you that Broken Harbor keeps up her usual high standard and that you should read it right away. But just … Continue reading →

Posted in best seller, mystery | Tagged | 8 Comments

Margaret Mitchell, “Gone with the Wind”

Posted on July 26, 2012 by carolwallace

Yes. It is still fabulous. You’ll notice I’m assuming that you have read Gone with the Wind at some point, which may be a generational thing, but everyone has seen the movie, right? Sure, both book and movie are long, but … Continue reading →

Posted in best seller, classic, historical fiction | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

Alan Furst, “Mission to Paris”

Posted on July 23, 2012 by carolwallace

We know what we’re going to get when we read Alan Furst: moody, well-written thrillers set somewhere in Europe during the years leading up to World War II. As I’ve commented here before, these books are almost interchangeable. Take a … Continue reading →

Posted in historical fiction, thriller | Leave a comment

Elly Griffiths, “A Room Full of Bones”

Posted on July 13, 2012 by carolwallace

Ruth Galloway is a great character for a detective series:  overweight, cranky, insecure in every area but her profession, which happens to be forensic archaeology. Which is to say, Ruth studies old bones. What a terrific premise! Teamed with the … Continue reading →

Posted in anglophilia, mystery | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Anouk Markovits, “I Am Forbidden”

Posted on July 10, 2012 by carolwallace

Many years ago The New Yorker ran a long story by Lis Harris  called “Holy Days,” about the Lubavitcher Jews of Crown Heights. (She later turned it into a book.) I was amazed and fascinated by the lives she described, … Continue reading →

Posted in contemporary fiction | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Laura Moriarty, “The Chaperone”

Posted on July 9, 2012 by carolwallace

“Chaperone” is a good word, isn’t it? Conjures up a completely different world from ours, back when the appearance of sexual propriety was important. It seems both quaint and safe. I’ll admit that I was expecting madcap Prohibition escapades and … Continue reading →

Posted in contemporary fiction, historical fiction | Tagged | 2 Comments

Ruth Rendell, “The Vault”

Posted on July 4, 2012 by carolwallace

We’re getting on in years, Ruth Rendell, Reg Wexford and I. I sort of dropped the ball on the Wexford novels, one of the most consistently satisfying police procedural series. I left Reg out there in Kingsmarkham, his Southern English … Continue reading →

Posted in anglophilia, mystery | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Elizabeth Taylor, “A View of the Harbour”

Posted on July 3, 2012 by carolwallace

Elizabeth Taylor is one of the few writers whose books I will choose blindly. If she wrote a novel and I haven’t read it, I don’t even bother to see what it’s about. Or “about,” because with Taylor there’s always … Continue reading →

Posted in anglophilia | Tagged , , | 8 Comments