misajane79's reviews
1586 reviews

Fictionalized diary of the woman who became Napoleon's Josephine. Throughout the entire book, I was wishing I knew more about the French revolution. I also expected Napoleon to enter the picture a lot earlier. Not bad, and pretty readable, but I probably won't pick up the rest of the books in the trilogy. Sometimes the diary format just doesn't quite work.

Sigh. I like her other books--loved Big Stone Gap, really enjoyed Lucia, Lucia. I've heard this author speak, and she's delightful. But this book stunk. Another audio to carry me through another road trip. It was incredibly predictable--marriage gone stale, man starts wondering, woman heads to Italy and almost has an affair herself. Oh, and there's a dead son that they're still mourning. Perhaps I am the wrong age or at the wrong place in my life, but it felt like one of those short novels that are published in Good Housekeeping (yep, I've read those--not much to read in mom's house sometimes!).

A remarkable, though hefty (500 pages) look at life in Jim Crow America. Though there wasn't much I wasn't already aware of, what kept me reading every single page was Litwack's remarkable use of primary sources and the voices of the people who lived during that time. There were quotes and stories everywhere. It was engaging and heart breaking. Not for the faint of heart, but worth looking at--if only to give a stirring introduction to a period of history that isn't talked about enough. Big bummer though--my book literarally fell apart. The glue wasn't right on the binding, and it was very annoying.

A book club choice, selected in honor of Women's history month. It's a beautiful, subtle book. You may not always like Edna, but you'll feel for her--not a bad feat for any writer. If you haven't read this classic, please do. It won't take long, but it's time well spent. And we had a wonderful discussion about it!

Lauded as one of the best mysteries ever. I'm not so sure about that, but it's exploration of history and royalty (and the way we sometimes pick the stories that sound better over the truth) was fun to read about.

The book that came before the movie. I actually didn't see the movie until college (I missed out on a lot of 80s pop culture!). A pretty good read, though not outstanding. The movie is a pretty faithful adaption though, which is always a relief.

While in NC, I attended a speech by Gates about this book. It's a great research story about following a hunch (that this manuscript had been written by an escaped slave in the 1850s) and uncovering some amazing things. The manuscript itself isn't so great, so I just read the intro stuff.

This was the first book club book of 2007, and I must say I picked a good one. Porter, a Texas native, lived an amazing life. Her biography is unlike many other literary bios I've read--she lied throughout her life (Unrue was the first to determine that she was married 5 times--Porter only admitted 3), constantly travelled, and we never quite determined when she found time to write. I'll definitely be checking out Ship of Fools at some point.

Nordstorm was the children's book editor at Harper for decades. She was E. B. White's editor. She discovered Maurice Sendak. And the list just goes on. Her letters were charming and insightful and revealed how a good editor pushes and critiques and just gets the job done. And it was all enough to make me want to camp out in the children's section of the library for a few days and reread old favorites and discover new ones.

I confess. I bought this book as part of a friend's Christmas present (we bonded over www.televisionwithoutpity.com way back when), and then I had to read the entire thing before sending her her gift. Which made her gift arrive late. I am a bad friend, but it's a damn fun book. Basically like candy, or maybe popcorn, it's snarky comments about television. Some notable ommissions, but also some really fun categories. I laughed, I stayed up too late reading, completely sucked in. Much like I do with television.