Tag: Historical fiction
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent (2013) Burial Rites is based on the true story of Agnes Magnusdottier, the last person to be executed in Iceland, in 1830. The story depicts Agnes’s last weeks when a farming family is forced to take…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell (2018) The original British title of this old-fashioned horror tale is The Corset, which I think is much more fitting than The Poison Thread. Not only does a corset feature prominently in the story, but…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: The Hunger by Alma Katsu
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. The Hunger by Alma Katsu (2018) Certain historical events have always held a grisly fascination, and the infamous Donner Party is certainly one of those. Fictionalized accounts cast different members of the party as heroes and villains because we don’t really…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2014 Novels
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2014. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes (2014) In Detroit, a young boy is murdered and the top half of his body attached to the legs of a fawn, kicking off a hunt…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: Frog Music by Emma Donoghue
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. Frog Music by Emma Donoghue (2014) In 1876 San Francisco, a heat wave and a smallpox epidemic mean tempers are frayed. Jenny Bonnet, a frog hunter notorious for wearing men’s clothing, collides on her high-rider bicycle with Blanche Beunon, a dancer…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013) Ursula Todd is born on a snowy night in 1910 and dies before she can draw her first breath; then she is born again, on that same night, and lives; and again; and again.…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson (2012) This book reminded me quite a bit of Catch-22, but unlike in Catch-22, it’s difficult to know what is exaggerated satire here and what is reality. North Korea is such a black box,…
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Favorite Books of the 2010s: Quick Takes of 2011 Novels
This is a series of reviews of my favorite books published between 2010 and 2019. These are shorter reviews of good reads published in 2011. The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt (2011) The notorious hired killers, the Sisters brothers, set out on one last job to track down and kill a gold miner and…
Shannon Turlington 