“Her mother had named her the name he’d taken – her given name a version of her surname. She was a hint, a riddle, a remembrance.” Longlisted for the 2023 National Book Awards, Jayne Anne Phillips’s Night Watch (Knopf 2023) is a powerful historical novel that echoes with Faulkner but with a feminine energy thatContinue reading “NIGHT WATCH- Jayne Anne Phillips”
Tag Archives: historical fiction
THE TEACHER OF CHEOPS – Albert Salvadó
Next installment of Tommi Reads the World – still in the As. Country: AndorraTitle: The Teacher of CheopsAuthor: Albert SalvadóLanguage: CatalanTranslator: Marc Brian DuckettPublisher: Indie Published (2012) The tiny country of Andorra has thus far proved the most difficult to find a selection of fictional works translated into English. Nearly every other reader also seeking toContinue reading “THE TEACHER OF CHEOPS – Albert Salvadó”
THE FRAUD – Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s White Teeth was barely in paperback when it showed up on a syllabus for one of my classes at UNC in 2002. Smith’s debut had a lasting impact, and, for over twenty years, I have read her novels as they were released. Unpopular opinion, but The Autograph Man (2002) is my favorite. Smith’sContinue reading “THE FRAUD – Zadie Smith”
CALIFORNIA GOLDEN – Melanie Benjamin
“Now you’re nothing but tinsel. Flimsy tinsel, here one day, in the garbage can the next.” Set primarily under the Californian sun and spanning 1955-1980, Melanie Benjamin’s historical California Golden (Delacorte Press 2023) is an easy read full of sunshine, salt water and grit. While I wish it had gone a bit deeper, it wasContinue reading “CALIFORNIA GOLDEN – Melanie Benjamin”
A DANGEROUS BUSINESS – Jane Smiley
Jane Smiley’s A Dangerous Business (Knopf 2022) was published in December of last year, but I just got around to reading the uncorrected proof the publisher sent. I know Smiley is a phenomenal writer – Horse Heaven and A Thousand Acres are two powerful novels that highlight that talent – but A Dangerous Business wasContinue reading “A DANGEROUS BUSINESS – Jane Smiley”
THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch
“She stood, with her doll beneath her arm, and she walked, across the blood-red floor, over her blood-red siblings, through the blood-red door, out of the blood-red house, all the way to the blood-red river. She forgot to wash her blood-red hands.” Spanning the period from 1916 to 1993, Kristen Loesch’s The Last Russian DollContinue reading “THE LAST RUSSIAN DOLL – Kristen Loesch”
THE EAST INDIAN – Brinda Charry
For my birthday, I ordered a mystery box from Chapters Books & Gifts, an indie bookstore out of Seward, Nebraska. They tossed a couple of ARCS into the package as a fun little bonus, one being Brinda Charry’s The East Indian (Scribner – pub date 9 May 23). This is an ARC I want theContinue reading “THE EAST INDIAN – Brinda Charry”
THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY – Jamie Ford
“A woman carries her fear inside of her.” Jamie Ford’s The Many Daughters of Afong Moy (Atria Books 2022) is an intriguing approach to inherited trauma. Epigenetic inheritance is at the core of Ford’s novel, and the science as well as case studies are absolutely fascinating. Set primarily in 2045, but timeline hopping from 1836Continue reading “THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY – Jamie Ford”
THE ATTIC CHILD – Lola Jaye
“Until the lions have their own histories, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” – African proverb, quoted by Chinua Achebe in “The Art of Fiction,” The Paris Review, no. 139 Lola Jaye writes in the author’s note of The Attic Child (William Morrow 2022) that the novel is her “attempt toContinue reading “THE ATTIC CHILD – Lola Jaye”
THE DAVENPORTS – Krystal Marquis
Inspired by the real-life Patterson family, Krystal Marquis’s The Davenports (Dial Books, 2023) is a young adult, Bridgerton-esque romance set in Chicago in 1910. The Davenports are an extremely wealthy Black family, and that fortune has placed them in a very small section of the American population. William Davenport, a former slave, built his empireContinue reading “THE DAVENPORTS – Krystal Marquis”
A Girl Named Tommi 