biographical | Reading Backwards book reviews

Remarkable Creatures By Tracy Chevalier Read: January ’10 Rating: Illuminating For the Feminist Review I’m a huge fan of Tracy Chevalier. Like a lot of people, I began with Girl with a Pearl Earring, and have since made my way through all but one of her other books. So of course I leapt at the chance to sample [...] Full Story	The Lovely Bones By Alice Sebold Read: January 2010 Rating: Lovely The sort of book that stays with you for a long time. Susie is fourteen when she is lured off by a neighbor, raped, and murdered. She watches from her heaven as her family struggles to cope with the aftermath. Her father is obsessed with finding her [...] Full Story	The Landower Legacy By Victoria Holt Read: January 2010 Rating: Not Bad I don’t remember where it came from, but I wound up with a paperback of this out-of-print book. I can’t see a reason for it to be. It’s not a romance novel–it’s a novel with romance in it. So there. Caroline Tressidor is the second daughter [...] Full Story
The Birth of Venus By Sarah Dunant Read: October 2009 Rating: Excellent The Birth of Venus begins in the most intriguing way… It is the tail end of the Renaissance, in Florence, Italy. An elderly nun in a convent dies from a malignant breast tumor. The convent’s tradition is to wash and clothe the body, make it fresh for [...] Full Story	Julie & Julia aka The Julie/Julia Project aka 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen aka My Year of Cooking Dangerously aka a movie with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams By Julie Powell Read: August 2009 Rating: Nifty Yeah, this is one of those books that is suddenly on everyone’s mind–or just was, anyway. The movie version [...] Full Story	The Hebrew Tutor of Bel-Air By Allan Appel Read: August 2009 Rating: Disappointing The back copy for The Hebrew Tutor paints a picture that is enticing: Under threat of nuclear war and the gorgeous California sun, the two [Norman and Bayla] forge a tentative truce. They may not be learning Hebrew, but through the miracle of motorcycles and the epiphanies [...] Full Story
Wuthering Heights By Emily Bronte Read: March 2009 Rating: Poison I give up. I quit. I want nothing more to do with this torturous mess. I decided it was time to try Wuthering Heights because my TiVo had picked up a documentary on the Bronte sisters, which was of course full of people who think they’re the [...] Full Story	Mistress of the Art of Death By Ariana Franklin Read: Feb 2009 Rating: AWESOME. I go down on bended knee to my friend V for recommending this. The cover and its text make this sound like a pretty dark murder mystery that happens to be set in medieval Europe. That was pretty cool, but I wasn’t expecting to enjoy it so [...] Full Story	Lioness Rampant By Tamora Pierce Read: First time in 6th grade? Multiple re-readings thereafter. January 2009. Rating: Immortal. I love Alanna. I love, love, love, love, LOVE her. I think I was about 12… possibly 10 or 11… when I found In The Hand of the Goddess at the public library. It was exactly what I had [...] Full Story
The Confessions of St. Augustine By St. Augustine Read: Jan/Feb 2008 Rating: MAKE IT STOP. Every time a new semester starts, I try to be really on the ball and keep up with everything. Take lots of notes, etc. This slowly falls away as things progress and I get comfortable. Unfortunately, this was the first book assigned to my memoir [...] Full Story	Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden Read: high school, January 2008 Rating: Lovely A lot has been said about MoaG, so I’m not going to give it a huge, thorough review. What I am going to say is that it is wonderful. The settings are thorough. The culture feels alive and natural. You sympathize with the characters and [...] Full Story	Catherine, Called Birdy By Karen Cushman Read: September 2006 Rating: Wundebar! I haven’t reread this is years, but I’m so glad I did. Birdy is the most amazing heroine! She’s like Georgia Nicholson living in 1291! Because that’s what this is: it’s the diary of a fourteen year old girl living in the late 1200s. She is smart, [...] Full Story
Spring Moon By Bette Bao Lord Read: August 2006 Rating: Honorable Strand Books has stands outside their stores with lots and LOTS of carts housing $1 books. Last time I visited I skipped them and went straight for the “5 for $2″ paperbacks. (Yum.) In amongst the really trashy romance and outdated guides to New York restaurants [...] Full Story	How I Live Now By Meg Rosoff Read: August 2006, December 2009 (review stands) Rating: Awesome I loved this book. I finished it within a day because it was so good. It was recommended to me by my good friend Sreya and she was so right. The novel is narrated by Daisy, a girl who grew up in New [...] Full Story	The Twentieth Wife By Indu Sundaresan Read: August 2006 Rating: Lackluster. I love historical fiction. I love romance. And I love Philippa Gregory, despite not always liking what her characters do. So I should be able to get through a book like this, right? I’m still barely a quarter of the way through, and I’m putting it down. [...] Full Story
Mini Reviews (2006, January-June) Since time and interest don’t allow for every book to get its own lengthy review, I’m going to do some mini-reviews. Clod save us all. This install comes from the 2006 50 Book Challenge, which is going great guns, thanks. Books 1-20 were read during this time period. This mini review includes: Yentl’s Revenge (Essays [...] Full Story	The Black Jewels Trilogy + Dreams Made Flesh By Anne Bishop Rating: IXCALLENT. Read: 1: High school. 2: June 2006. I love this books. I cannot BEGIN to express how much I love these books. There’s so much to talk about… I’m going to have to try to limit myself. I must’ve passed over Queen about a thousand times in B&N. I always [...] Full Story	Queen of the Amazons By Judith Tarr Rating: Ixcelsiooor! Read: June 2006 This one came from Strand Books, my beloved second-hand goldmine. The description was interesting, the cover art is gorgeous (her neck piece looks like mother of pearl) and the story is well-told and thoroughly unusual. Very good. Full Story
Sir Apropos of Nothing (Trilogy) By Peter David How apropos… Amazon.com Rating: YOSH! Read: Fall 05, April/May 2006 The tale of Sir Apropos of Nothing is not a particularly joyful one, but it is very amusing and insightful. Definately one of my faves. Apropos is indeed the fellow’s name, and he is the most cynical, pessimistic, jaded young anti-hero ever. [...] Full Story	On The Road By Jack Kerouac I’m not going to tempt you with a link. It’s too awful. Rating: ERLACK. Read: March 2006 It’s not really true to say that I’ve read this… I stopped after 40-some pages because it was just too awful. It’s Fitzgeraldian–and that is not a compliment when coming from me. Full Story	The Virgin’s Lover By Philippa Gregory Rating: Hmmm Read: March 2006 Philippa Gregory’s most popular title is “The Other Boleyn Girl,” which was followed by “The Queen’s Fool.” It became apparent pretty quickly here that this calls on the same timeline (Hannah the Fool makes the BRIEFEST of cameos). So, I am a happy reader. Full Story
The Blind Assassin By Margaret Atwood Rating: Hmn? Read: Dec 31st ’05-Jan 21st ’06 Look at how specific that timeframe is! I bought the book after years of oggling it on New Year’s Eve as something to read on the train ride home. My friends stayed for Times Square but I skipped out and got home perdy much [...] Full Story	Gone With the Wind By Margaret Mitchell Rating: BRILLIANT Read: Fall Semester 05 (October… December) I started college in New York City this semester, which is the reason for the MASSIVE delay in reviews. I’ve come to both love and fear street vendors; I never have cash for gorgeous jewelry, which is ultimately much safer… but then there are [...] Full Story	With a Tangled Skein By Piers Anthony Rating: Frabjous Read: approx. 1998 (age 12), reread August 2005. I first read the Incarnations of Immortality when I was about 12, and I remember enough to know that I didn’t comprehend nearly as much as I will now, some 7 years later. (Yosh, has it really been that long?) I’ve reread [...] Full Story
Lolita By Vladimir Nabokov Rating: Odd Read: June 2005 I felt compelled to read Lolita this summer, and I followed it immediately with Reading Lolita in Tehran, which was an excellent idea. But, both books will have their own reviews, so lets carry on. Full Story	Pandora By Anne Rice Rating: Enjoyable. Read: June 2005 I am not a fan of Anne Rice. I tried to read Interview With the Vampire years ago and failed miserably. There is nothing in her writing that goes unsaid- everything is laid out on the table. Sorry, but that’s boring, and makes for lousy prose. Pandora [...] Full Story	To Dance With Kings By Rosalind Laker Rating: Bon. Read: 2005 (March?) I’m still not sure if I enjoyed this, but it’s certainly worth talking about. To Dance With Kings is set in France, and begins with the founding of Versailles. Jeanne Dremont, a modest peasant woman living in the village of Versailles, struggles to give birth. Her husband [...] Full Story