March is a Pulitzer Prize winning story about CPT March, the father of the March family in Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. It covers the year he spent in the Union Army during the Civil War, so it’s dark and heavy, but it’s also imaginative and well-researched and doesn’t shy away from tough topics and grim historical realities. Continue reading
Category Archives: Historical Fiction
Book Review: Caleb’s Crossing by Geraldine Brooks
Caleb’s Crossing is set in colonial New England, mostly during the 1660s, and tells the story of an English puritan girl, Bethia, whose friendship with Native American Caleb has unusual consequences – Caleb becomes the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. Continue reading
Book Review: The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kaddish
The Weight of Ink – terrific writing, a well-designed story, good character development, lots of history, a search for the meaning of life. So much to like about this one! Continue reading
Book Review: Marley by Jon Clinch
Marley is an imaginative tale about Ebenezer Scrooge’s business partner, Jacob Marley. If you’ll recall from A Christmas Carol, the ghost of Jacob Marley appears to Scrooge in his house as a prelude to visits from the three main ghosts. But other than that we don’t learn much about him. Marley imagines what his back story might be. Continue reading
Book Review: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Life After Life explores the concept of reincarnation and how simple decisions can fundamentally alter the course of one’s life. Although I mostly liked it, the story got bogged down in the middle and ended ambiguously. Continue reading
Book Review: Angle of Repose by Wallace Stegner
I have had good luck recently with reading older books – not quite “classics” but noteworthy in their own time, still thoroughly enjoyable and without the long library hold times of recent releases (bonus!). One example is The Secret of Santa Vittoria, which I read and reviewed earlier this year. Angle of Repose is another example. This novel with a James Bondian title won the 1972 Pulitzer, and it’s no wonder – Wallace Stegner is a true word magician. The prose in this novel is gorgeous. Continue reading
Book Review: Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
Maisie Dobbs is the first book in Jacqueline Winspear’s successful Maisie Dobbs mystery series. The series, which recently added book number 15, features a British female sleuth who solves mysteries in the 1920s/1930s. Although this first book had a few rough spots, it was interesting enough to make me want to read the next book in the series to see how things progress. Continue reading
Book Review: People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
The book in the title is a centuries old Jewish prayer book that has survived the Inquisition, Nazi occupation and a ton of conflict in between. Now it’s threatened again. Smart and creative, People of the Book is a very satisfying read. Continue reading
Book Review: Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Pachinko follows four generations of a Korean family as they fight poverty and prejudice in Japan. Although there were some good qualities, this National Book Award finalist just didn’t work for me. Continue reading
Book Review: Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
This month, as part of the 12 Months of Reading Goodness challenge, I read a Pulitzer Prize winner. The Pulitzer committee announces the annual prize winners each year in April. In fact, the 2019 winners were announced last week. I’m not familiar with the book that won this year’s Pulitzer for fiction, The Overstory by Richard Powers, and I’m not sure I’ll ever read it. But I am sure of this – I am so pleased that I read Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, winner of the 1986 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. It is an amazing book. Continue reading
