Category Archives: Throwback Thursday

This is a beautifully written book about a family suffering a terrible loss.  Lydia, the favorite daughter of a mixed race family (Caucasian and Asian) has drowned.  Surprisingly, though there are sad moments, the tone is hopeful.  Ng explores what happens when people’s lives don’t turn out the way they thought they would; when charactersContinue reading “Throwback Thursday: Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng”

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)”

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)”

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)”

What happens when a woman makes one spectacularly bad choice?  In Yvonne Carmichael’s case it leads to several other spectacularly bad choices and she ends up accused and on trial at the Old Bailey.  I have read several other reviews of this book and many people seem to think Yvonne is unbalanced or unbelievable, butContinue reading “Throwback Thursday: Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty (2013)”

A look back at a great novel from 2016…

Originally reviewed in 2017… I started using NPR’s book concierge and decided to begin with this sweet, sad story of the run-up and beginning of World War I in Britain containing a cast of characters who are by turns loveable, laughable, pitiable, and enviable.  Beatrice Nash is the new school mistress in the village ofContinue reading “Throwback Thursday: The Year Before the War”