From One Book Lover

Well, for some of us, this winter hasn't really been all that "polar." For the rest of us: have you dug out yet? No matter your frost level, there's still time to catch up on this year's Polar Book Club selection :  The Bookman's Tale . I have been slowly savoring it, and it's coming along nicely. If you haven't started it yet, maybe this description of Charlie Lovett's will tickle your fancy: Hay-on-Wye, 1995. Peter Byerly isn’t sure what drew him into this particular bookshop. Nine months earlier, the death of his beloved wife, Amanda, had left him shattered. The young antiquarian bookseller relocated from North Carolina to the English countryside, hoping to rediscover the joy he once took in collecting and restoring rare books.   But upon opening an eighteenth-century study of Shakespeare forgeries, Peter is shocked when a portrait of Amanda tumbles out of its pages. Of course, it isn’t really her. The watercolor is clearly Victorian...

What a difference a few months make.  Conclave  was released in November 2016, before the political and cultural turmoil of the Trump presidency. I finished this book weeks into the tenure of the new U.S. President, and the politics of the Catholic Conclave struck me completely differently than they would have a scant month before. Conclave sounded like such a great read: suspenseful, intriguing, and just fluff 'n trash enough to feed a craving. When I saw it on sale as I just happened to be strolling past the display, I thought it was kismet. Imagine my surprise at finding myself bored early in the story. A snap of excitement occurred as the story began with the death of the Pope (hopefully no spoiler alert was needed). Then author Robert Harris introduced so much expository information that was, frankly, tedious. Harris takes readers inside the otherwise closed doors of this select society. Cardinal Jacopo Lomeli, Dean of the College of Cardinals, is riddled with ...

What does a reader do when all of her books on hold at the library come forth at once? Collect them, of course! To be fair, not all of the books pictured (left) were from my hold list. One was a surprise: I wanted to read a short story collection, and My Friendly Neighborhood Librarian suggested The Tsar of Love and Techno , with a distinct Soviet feel. The African American poetry collection was on a display at the middle of the library. (I usually steal from those displays, often from the Youth or Juvenile-themed ones, and always when there's a DK book on display.) I have been lax at posting poems, but I promise I shall be better as time goes on, and not just during National Poetry Month. The Bibliophile Mystery has been in my hands three times now. I really enjoy the series, but this particular one just leaves me a bit cold. (However, I see a cat on the cover, so I may have to persevere.) I am loathe to read a series out of order, but I did manage to live after reading ...