-
The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
“But in the places where it isn’t faded and where the sun is just so—I can see a strange, provoking, formless sort of figure, that seems to skulk about behind that silly and conspicuous front design.” First published in 1892 The Yellow Wallpaper is a disquieting short story that has become a seminal piece of…
1880s, 1890s, 19TH CENTURY, 4 STARS, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, CLASSICS, doctors, epistolary, female authors, feverish, GOTHIC, hallucinations, HISTORICAL FICTION, illness, madness, mental health, NOVELLA/SHORT STORY, published in 1892, read in 2020, short stories, The Yellow Wallpaper, VICTORIAN, victorian madness -
Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg — book review
“Time after time my mother traded privacy, square footage, countertops, and a decent bathroom for darkroom space.” While the way in which Feast Your Eyes is framed makes for an undoubtedly interesting technique (telling the story of a fictional photographer Lillian Preston through the catalogue notes for an exhibition of her work at the Museum…
1950s, 1960s, 3 STARS, Adult, America, American, AMERICAN AUTHOR, ART/CREATIVITY, ARTISTS, documentary style, epistolary, Feast Your Eyes, female authors, HISTORICAL FICTION, LITERARY FICTION, motherhood, mothers & daughters, museums, Myla Goldberg, navel gazing, NEW YORK, obsession, photographers, PHOTOGRAPHY, published in 2019, read in 2020 -
The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova — book review
What could have been the perfect historical mystery for bibliophiles ended up being an unnecessarily long-winded and frequently dull novel. “Looking up from my work, I suddenly realized that someone had left a book whose spine I had never seen before among my own textbooks, which sat on a shelf above my desk. The spine…
15th century, 1950s, 1970s, 20th century, 3 STARS, Adult, adventure, AMERICAN AUTHOR, big books, BOOK REVIEW, Booklr, books about books, bram stoker, bulgaria, different styles (1st/2nd/3rd povs), dracula, drama, Elizabeth Kostova, epistolary, female authors, FOLKLORE, FRANCE, GOTHIC, historians, HISTORICAL FICTION, history, istanbul, librarians, libraries/bookshops, LITERARY FICTION, modern gothic, MYSTERY, Netherlands, philosophical, psychological, published in 2005, READ IN 2019, Religion, Romania, slow pacing, story within a story, SUPERNATURAL, SUSPENSE, the historian, travel, Turkey, unnamed narrator, VAMPIRES -
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
“If I had been a man, I would have knocked him down on the threshold of his own door, and have left his house, never on any earthly consideration to enter it again. But I was only a woman – and I loved his wife so dearly!” A thoroughly entertaining novel that is intriguing from…
1840s, 1850s, 19TH CENTURY, 4.5 STARS, aristocracy, British author, CLASSICS, drama, england, epistolary, friendships, GENDER, GOTHIC, HISTORICAL FICTION, HUMOR, illness, Italy, male authors, MYSTERY, mystery puzzle, read in 2017, ROMANCE, sensation fiction, SISTERS, SUSPENSE, THE WOMAN IN WHITE, VICTORIAN, WILKIE COLLINS -
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
A surprisingly entertaining novel that brims with a polite sort of humor that is nevertheless appealing to the modern reader. Various characters give their account in regards of a missing diamond worn by Rachel Verinder on her eighteenth birthday. This yellow diamond, also known as ‘moonstone’, we are told has been stolen from India by…