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A tale of two solos
Two Very Different Books with the Same Title

I recently was chatting with a fellow reader about favorite books, and he happened to mention that he was rereading one of his favs: Going Solo. I immediately thought of Roald Dahl’s autobiography by that name, but in fact he was referring to Eric Klinenberg’s study of the growing trend towards single member households. Dahl’s book, one of my all-time favorites, recounts his earliest single years in East Africa and his RAF service in the Mediterranean theaters during World War II ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on January 24, 2013 | 0 comments

Good grief, Charles Schulz!
A review of Schulz and Peanuts: A Biography by David Michaels

 A recent viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas, without which my holidays would be incomplete, got me thinking of the Peanuts strip and its creator, Charles Schulz. Over the course of nearly fifty years and 17,897 strips,** Schulz singlehandedly created a bittersweet epic in the travails and triumphs (however fleeting) of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Lucy, Linus and the rest of the Peanuts gang. That the strip, with its slightly melancholy take on life and philosophical musings, endured so ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on January 15, 2013 | 0 comments

My therapist has been dead for 400 years
A review of How to Live, or, a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer by Sarah Bakewell

 Essayer: Fr. To try. It seems a simple idea now, but in mid-sixteenth century France, no one had thought to simply write down what they were feeling, or how they thought. Writing about life was reserved for great deeds in stilted prose, meant to serve as a monument to its subject. Michel Eyguem de Montaigne didn’t want to commit any great deeds—in fact, the efforts he made to not be called upon to power and influence is almost comical. But there was one thing that Montaigne wanted to ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on January 8, 2013 | 0 comments

Here a spy, there a spy
A review of Bomb: The Race to Build—and Steal—the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon by Steve Sheinkin

 A cliff top factory deep in the Norwegian wilderness. A beautiful, isolated ranch deep in the New Mexico wilderness that suddenly becomes a hub of government activity. Clandestine meetings, secret messages in invisible ink, scientists disappearing to points unknown on secret missions. It sounds like it could be a mid-seventies James Bond film, but all of these elements can be found in the remarkable story of the world’s most dangerous weapon—the atomic bomb. In his history of one of the ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on December 4, 2012 | 1 comment

Love and ruffled feathers
A review of The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James

 I will admit I’m a relative newbie to the romances, only coming to the genre and Regency-era historical titles in particular, only in the past couple of years.  Digging into a new genre is always fun, and more so when one comes across authors that never crossed the radar before.  For me, I’ve been drawn especially to Eloisa James, whose skill with characterization and witty dialogue added to swoony heroes and strong minded heroines makes for a fun twist on traditional romance.  ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on November 26, 2012 | 0 comments

Observations on a remarkable life
A review of Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self by Claire Tomalin

 I’m in love with a man who has been dead for 300 years. His name was Samuel Pepys*, royal civil servant, husband, employer, hedonist, and a more than a little lecherous. He was also a keen observer, lived at the center of London’s cultural and political life, and happily for posterity, a dedicated diarist. Pepys’ diary, kept between 1660 to 1669, details epic events in London’s history, most famously the ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on November 13, 2012 | 1 comment

American history in fifteen cars or less
A review of Engines of Change: A History of the American Dream in Fifteen Cars by Paul Ingrassia

 What, precisely, is it about cars that do so much for identity?  In a world seemingly awash with more and more stuff, the automotive still carries an inordinate level of weight in how one perceives self and others.  True, some can recall the first computer they got their hands on, but it’s likelier that the makes and models of every childhood car are seared into memory, for good or ill.  Paul Ingrassia takes a larger perspective on the way the car shaped and defined America ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on October 29, 2012 | 0 comments

It was a dark and stormy night...
A review of The Uninvited Guests by Sadie Jones

 It feels like we’ve been here before: a grand English house in the countryside, a beautiful young woman preparing for an evening party that might change her life, rounded out with a dependably eccentric cast of characters both upstairs and down. It is spring 1912 and readers may breathe a sigh of relief: we’ve read Waugh and seen Downton Abbey and are safe in this world of mannered civilization. But in her quirky and strangely enjoyable third novel, British novelist Sadie Jones seems ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on October 24, 2012 | 0 comments

My cold, cold heart
A review of Dare Me by Megan Abbott

 I’ve been puzzling over an apt way to begin this review of Megan Abbott’s fantastic new thriller Dare Me. How to term what one reviewer has called The Great American Cheerleading Novel? Megan Abbott does for cheerleaders what Stephen King did for clowns? The dark secret lives of cheerleaders as seen through the lens of David Lynch?  One word that would be entirely apt is fierce. Frenemies Addy and Beth are intense, whipping their squad of girls into a tight company that shows no ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on September 6, 2012 | 1 comment

Fable, follies and fate
A review of Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter

 Against the crisp blue of the faultless Italian sky, a young man tosses rocks into the sea, stubbornly trying to create the beach that will transform his sad little pensione into the classy resort that will cater to brilliant Americans and suave film stars of the swinging sixties. The drone of a boat motor interrupts his thoughts, and as he pauses in his Sisyphean task, he sees a vision coming towards him. She is tall, striking and lovely, an American film star here to stay at the Hotel ...read more

Reviewed by Katie H. on August 27, 2012 | 0 comments

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