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Lifeboat, The

Dead Calm Author: Charlotte Rogan Let's play a word association game. When I say "shipwreck survival," you think... "exciting"? "Action-packed"? "Heroism"? WRONG. Correct answers — at least, if you're preparing to read Charlotte Rogan's The Lifeboat — include "tedious," "dull," and, "Who is that character again? Were they in the boat this whole time?!" It's about as much fun as an actual shipwreck, although you probably won't have to eat raw seagull to survive. Probably. In 1914 (two years after the Titanic), Grace Winter and her new husband Henry are sailing from England to the U.S. on the luxury cruise [...]

2022-03-05T00:29:30-07:00August 29th, 2012|Tags: , , , , |

A Different Kind of Amazon

Nine times out of ten, if I'm saying "books" and "Amazon" in the same sentence, I'm talking about the kind with free super saver shipping. But this time, I just finished a double header of books about the Amazon jungle — and the horrors I encountered therein have convinced me to keep my ass planted firmly on the couch for the remainder of my sedentary but not-eaten-by-crocodiles life. First I read Ann Patchett's State of Wonder, in which a team of research scientists studying a native tribe's miracle fertility drug disappears into the jungle for months, then years. The pharmaceutical [...]

2016-12-31T17:59:10-07:00August 28th, 2012|Tags: , , , , , , |

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey

Uptown, Downton Author: Countess Carnarvon My reading habits are all over the map. On a scale of “bleak environmental science” to “time-traveling magical romance,” I could be anywhere, or maybe two or three different places at the same time, thanks to the ever-changing potpourri of books that come to me from the library (and not always when I’m in the mood for them). On the other hand, I’m pretty much always in the mood for “breezy historical biography with pictures of gowns and jewels,” so I was excited to finally get my hands on Lady Almina and the Real Downton [...]

2016-12-31T17:56:53-07:00August 22nd, 2012|Tags: , , , , , |
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