Everything is covered in cold, white snow in this novel of family trauma and intrigue in 1908 Wisconsin. Goolrick was inspired to write this book after coming across Michael Lesy's Wisconsin Death Trip, a photographic collection of residents of this area in the early 1900's with stories from records and newspapers of the subject's stories. …
Tag: book reviews
The Somnambulist by Essie Fox
Written by blogger The Virtual Victorian, this book tells the story of a 17 year old girl, Phoebe, coming of age caught between her strictly religious mother and beloved opera performer aunt. When her aunt kills herself after seeing a man from her past at a performance, family secrets start to emerge. Based in the …
The House on Tradd Street by Karen White
A snappy, romantic tale of family secrets and restoring houses, this book is about a pretty realtor, Melanie, who inherits a crumbling mansion in Charleston from an old man she only met once. The house seems full of mysteries and secrets, but then, so is Melanie: ever since she was a little girl, she's been …
The Vanishing Witch by Karen Maitland
Set in the 1300's, a beautiful, wealthy widow comes to the small town of Lincoln with her children, shadowed by a mysterious one-handed man. When she starts up a friendship with a wealthy merchant, she soon worms her way into his heart, and as his wife starts to sicken, tongues start to wag. Is this woman using …
Dombey and Son by Charles Dickens
I set myself the task this year of reading the remaining Charles Dickens novels that I hadn't already read before. I love a Victorian serialised novel, and Dickens rarely fails to disappoint. One of his less famous works, Dombey and Sons follows the life of Paul Dombey, a wealthy merchant whose sole aspiration in life …
Ticker by Lisa Mantchev
This book was so much fun. It's only short, I ripped through it in a day, and when I bought it I didn't realise that it was meant perhaps for a young adult readership. I just liked the premise for the book: a girl with a clockwork heart must race against time to rescue her …
The Misbegotten by Katherine Webb
In early 1800's Bath, a neglected, beaten child wanders in out of the cold and finds shelter and family with a young, kind hearted woman called Alice. Twenty years later, a newlywed bride is drawn into the mystery of Alice's disappearance when she finds that she resembles the missing girl. It's a novel of social …
The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
I was really excited about this book when I read the premise for it, and in a lot of ways, it is a good read, but the ending is kind of... meh. Set in the late 1600's in Amsterdam, the story revolves around Nella, an eighteen year old country girl who is married off to …
The Story Sisters, by Alice Hoffman
When you get an Alice Hoffman book, you know you want to clear your afternoon schedule and switch off the phone. The Story Sisters is no exception. It tells the story of the coming of age of three sisters, who create their own world and language to escape the pain of a traumatic event and …
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