Notes on Books & Life
I finished My Name Is Mary Sutter, the debut novel by Robin Oliveira, a few nights ago. It reminded me of Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress, only set during a different war and, in my opinion, better. Albany midwife Mary Sutter wants desperately to become a surgeon. On the eve of the American Civil War, she …
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Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death series is one of my favorites. One of my co-workers calls it 12th century CSI. Thus far there are three books: Mistress of the Art of Death, The Serpent’s Tale, and Grave Goods. The premise is this: Adelia, who studied medicine in Salerno, Italy, is sent to …
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Several months ago, my brother picked up City of Thieves by David Benioff. When I asked him how it was, he replied that he’d stayed up until 4am just to see how it ended. That was enough of a recommendation for me, so I picked up a copy. Like so many of my other books, …
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Well, my slow journey through Sandra Gulland’s trilogy of novels about Josephine Bonaparte has finally come to an end. What a lovely journey it was! They are the epitome of great historical fiction: engaging, rich with true details, full of familiar figures brought to life. They were so good I ordered a biography of Josephine …
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Well, I bit the bullet and finished Suite Francaise on audio today. When I’d stopped the day before, I had a feeling that something terrible was about to happen, and I just couldn’t bear more suffering to be inflicted on the poor characters. It did not go the way I feared. On the contrary, I …
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