For Christmas and Hanukkah this year, I traded snow, sugar cookies, and fuzzy mittens for pizza, pasta, limoncello, and ancient monuments. Traveling to Italy with Contiki during the holiday season proved to be a highly enjoyable endeavor. Below I recount the many memories that I’m cherishing from each day of my Italian escape.… Continue reading
How can a single object connect people generations apart? Geraldine Brooks tells a detailed story to answer this question in Horse, her popular novel that follows the journey of three paintings of a great racehorse across centuries of history.
The many characters who shepherd these paintings across time and space are connected to Lexington the horse in overlapping ways.… Continue reading
Some books require just enough suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader to provide an enjoyable escape. The Little Italian Hotel is just this type of book. Ginny Splinter, a dazzling talk show host who seems to “have it all,” finds herself blindsided with a divorce requested by her husband, Adrian, just days before their anniversary.… Continue reading
George Saunders, who is already a prolific short story writer and essayist, released this experimental novel in 2017. I would not necessarily have chosen it for myself, but it was the July pick for the Porter Square Books book club and I found the premise to be intriguing.… Continue reading
It has certainly been a minute since my last book review! “Where has Caroline been?”, you might ask. Well, I spent 723 pages in a tiny British village called Casvelyn, Cornwall, where former Scotland Yard detective Thomas Lynley discovers a body at the bottom of a cliff on his coastal walk.… Continue reading