This text is from the review I wrote in 2015. Even MORE books about WWII have come out of the woodwork since then. The past few years of major anniversaries for important events of World War II coupled with the passing of so many of the heroes and villains of that time have brought forthContinue reading “Throwback Thursday: Avenue of Spies: a true story of terror, espionage, and one American family’s heroic resistance in Nazi-occupied France by Alex Kershaw (2015)”
Author Archives: Robin Henry
Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell
If you, like me, have been putting off reading this, stop, pick it up right now and start reading it! Sometimes I put off reading a book because of the hype. Sometimes I put it off because it has won a lot of awards and that intimidates me. Sometimes I put it off because IContinue reading “Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell”
Plotting Your Cozy Mystery
Did you know that Agatha Christie is the BEST SELLING NOVEL WRITER OF ALL TIME? Only the Bible and Shakespeare have outsold her. It’s true, people love murder. Cozies are a particular brand of murder, though. For those of you who aren’t regular cozy readers or fans of Agatha (no way!), here are the genreContinue reading “Plotting Your Cozy Mystery”
Throwback Thursday: The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich (2016)
In 1970, a group of women, mostly employed as researchers and fact checkers at Newsweek magazine, filed a lawsuit against the publication for gender discrimination on the same day Newsweek ran a cover story entitled, “Women in Revolt.” The Good Girls Revolt tells the story of the brave women who risked their futures to makeContinue reading “Throwback Thursday: The Good Girls Revolt: How the Women of Newsweek Sued their Bosses and Changed the Workplace by Lynn Povich (2016)”
Adventures in Bath: Jane Austen’s Doors!
Book Review: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
I’ll admit it, the bookstore window got me on this one. I walked past the window on several occasions and this book looked very intriguing. When I read the blurb, I decided to go for it. And I am not sorry! Amanda and her family are on the way to their Airbnb in the wildsContinue reading “Book Review: Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam”
Throwback Thursday: Panic by Lauren Oliver (2014)
In honor of the new Amazon Prime series based on this book… High school graduates in Carp, New York have an unusual tradition. Each summer the recently matriculated seniors have the opportunity to participate in a Fear Factor style “game” in which the winner (and there can be only one) takes home a pot ofContinue reading “Throwback Thursday: Panic by Lauren Oliver (2014)”
Old Friends and New Fancies an Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil G. Brinton
This 1913 title lays claim to being the first Austen fan fiction. Brinton wrote no other novels and this one attempts to continue the stories of many characters from Austen novels all in one book, with Pride and Prejudice and Mansfield Park as the most well represented, though the other four also populate her story.Continue reading “Old Friends and New Fancies an Imaginary Sequel to the Novels of Jane Austen by Sybil G. Brinton”
The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl
Matthew Pearl’s debut novel, The Dante Club, was a huge bestseller and proof that literary doesn’t have to mean boring. This gem is perhaps less well known, but the storyline is just as fascinating. The premise is that as the copyright loophole which allowed for pirating the works of foreign writers residing in other nationsContinue reading “The Last Bookaneer by Matthew Pearl”
Finding the Gap and using Outliers as models when writing Historical Fiction
This is part 2 of a series about writing compelling characters in Historical Fiction. You can find the first part here. According to James C. Scott’s Domination and the Arts of Resistance, part of the difficulty in dealing with the history of a subordinate group is that there is a public transcript of events andContinue reading “Finding the Gap and using Outliers as models when writing Historical Fiction”
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