Reviews by Nona F. (Evanston, IL)

Order Reviews by:
Raising Hare
Raising Hare: A Memoir
by Chloe Dalton
Raising Chloe (1/19/2025)
The irony in the title of Chloe Dalton's memoir Raising Hare is that the author tried so very hard NOT to raise the leveret she found on the roadside one winter's day while she was confined to her house in the country by Covid restrictions. In their time together, she …more
At the Chinese Table
At the Chinese Table: A Memoir with Recipes
by Carolyn Phillips
A Cross Cultural Success Story (6/14/2021)
Carolyn Phillips is a most sensuous writer whether her topic is her garden in Taiwan, food she is eating or the man she loves, so her memoir ("with recipes") is a pleasure to read. Unlike other food writers, she comes to the subject not as a professional chef, food critic …more
The Personal Librarian
The Personal Librarian
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Perfect tale for Hollywood biopic (2/24/2021)
If Belle da Costa Greene, born Belle Marion Greener, had not existed, Hollywood would have had to invent her, and many people would have thought the story pure fiction co-authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray have written a riveting fictionalized biography …more
Yale Needs Women
Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant
by Anne Gardiner Perkins
A page-turner, a must-read history of the women's movement (7/4/2019)
I requested this book because I had been admitted to the Yale Class of 1974 and was wondering what I had missed by going elsewhere. Nothing. And everything.

Yale admitted women to the undergraduate class in fall 1969 for the first time, largely because the school had lost a …more
Ellie and the Harpmaker
Ellie and the Harpmaker
by Hazel Prior
A pleasant afternoon read of a sweet romance (4/8/2019)
Spend a pleasant afternoon reading Ellie and the Harpmaker and meet two quirky and appealing characters who—of course!-- eventually recognize their need for one another. The two primary characters are well delineated, the secondary characters are few and sufficient to their …more
So Much Life Left Over
So Much Life Left Over
by Louis de Bernieres
"Not being at war never felt quite right." (7/17/2018)
There is such a pervasive sense of melancholy, regret and lack of purpose in this novel, that I found it hard to continue reading at times. The characterization is excellent-- even minor characters are well delineated, and the multiple narrator structure is very successful. …more
The House of Broken Angels
The House of Broken Angels
by Luis Alberto Urrea
Exuberant family saga and immigration story (2/28/2018)
House of Fallen Angels is an exuberant family saga full of comedy and sentimentality as well as tragedy and violence. It's a novel of contrasts: heaping platters of American fast food and hungry children, mariachi bands and transvestite nightclub singers, a college …more
Our Lady of the Prairie
Our Lady of the Prairie
by Thisbe Nissen
Difficult protagonist (11/4/2017)
Phillipa Maakestad has a reputation as "moody and erratic ... difficult to work with," and says and does things throughout this novel which even she sometimes acknowledges as being "stupid and selfish." She lives in an Iowa that perpetuates the stereotype that the Midwest …more
The Weight of Ink
The Weight of Ink
by Rachel Kadish
A fascinating, compelling pair of stories (2/27/2017)
"Never underestimate the passion of a lonely mind": in a nutshell, the driving force for the 3 major characters in Rachel Kadish's The Weight of Ink, two in the 21st century mining historical documents to define the mysterious life of the scribe known as Aleph in …more
The Six
The Six: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters
by Laura Thompson
Fascinatng family portrait (6/13/2016)
Laura Thompson’s The Six was a compelling read, a fascinating portrait of a family interacting in the most extreme and radically different ways to the major political and economic movements of the first half of the 20th century. I had read several of Nancy Mitford’s novels …more
Three Many Cooks
Three Many Cooks: One Mom, Two Daughters: Their Shared Stories of Food, Faith & Family
by Pam Anderson, Maggy Keet & Sharon Damelio
3 remarkable lives--with recipes (2/6/2015)
Not a cookbook, not a memoir--these loosely strung chapters concluded by recipes may be called the confessions of three remarkable lives lived with generosity of spirit, faith, and fellowship, much of it centered around food. The overachieving Andersons--mom and two …more
The Romanov Sisters
The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra
by Helen Rappaport
Their unhappy end colors the reader's perception throughout (5/29/2014)
A biography of the Romanov sisters is necessarily a biography of their nuclear family as their parents kept their children insulated from not only the general public but even from members of the Russian aristocracy until the outbreak of the war when the tsarina and her …more
Where Monsters Dwell
Where Monsters Dwell
by Jørgen Brekke
I really wanted to like this more (11/5/2013)
I really was eager to read this book because the premise of related historical/contemporary crimes is one of my favorite narrative devices, and to have it revolve around a book was like hot fudge on top of a sundae. Things seemed very promising since the book starts with …more
The Sisterhood
The Sisterhood
by Helen Bryan
A page-turner (4/28/2013)
I very much enjoyed The Sisterhood, which I found to be a real page-turner. The author is skilled at creating individual characters (and there are a lot of them in this book), and I think she was successful in managing her dual narrative structure. This would be a good book …more
Peking to Paris
Peking to Paris: Life and Love on a Short Drive Around Half the World
by Dina Bennett
Charming writing but lightweight travel narrative (3/28/2013)
As someone who found herself driving the wrong direction against 3 lanes of traffic in Italy, and who almost tossed the rented GPS unit out the window in France after it tried to lead us onto another boring backroad, I can only admire Dina Bennett's decision to act as her …more
An Unmarked Grave
An Unmarked Grave: A Bess Crawford Mystery
by Charles Todd
Best of the series to date (4/5/2012)
From its first pages, Charles Todd’s latest installment in the Bess Crawford series, An Unmarked Grave, is a compelling and suspenseful “stay up all night even if I have to get up in two hours” read. A real page-turner, this is one of the tighter plot structures in the …more
No Mark Upon Her
No Mark Upon Her: A Novel
by Deborah Crombie
Strong entry in the series (12/23/2011)
I have read most of the dozen-plus books in Deborah Crombie’s series featuring Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James and never been disappointed. Her latest installment No Mark Upon Her is a strong entry in the series, presenting a murder with intriguing complications and …more
The Memory of All That
The Memory of All That: George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities
by Katharine Weber
Not as Advertised (6/24/2011)
Katherine Weber’s family memoir The Memory of All That is being marketed as a “colorful, insightful, evocative and very funny” portrait of the extraordinary family (the Warburgs) she descends from on her mother’s side. Readers may see its subtitle “George Gershwin, Kay …more
Bury Your Dead
Bury Your Dead: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel, #6
by Louise Penny
Bury Your Dead: Louise Penny gets better with each book (9/4/2010)
I was eager to read Louise Penny’s Bury Your Dead, the sixth novel in her mystery series featuring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache. Each novel in the series has built on characters and situations that occur in previous books, and Penny’s style and depth—which were always …more
Heresy
Heresy
by S.J. Parris
Heresy, by SJ Parris (11/30/2009)
Readers of historical mystery novels will welcome the publication of Heresy by SJ Parris, a fast-paced novel of multiple murders at an Oxford college during the middle of the reign of Elizabeth I. Our detective protagonist is the Renaissance savant Giordano Bruno— …more
  • Page
  • 1
  • 2

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    The Jackal's Mistress
    by Chris Bohjalian
    From the New York Times bestselling author of Hour of the Witch, a Civil War love story of a Confederate wife and a wounded Yankee.
1
2
3
4
PrevNext

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Girl Falling
    by Hayley Scrivenor

    The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.

    Read the Reviews
  • Book Jacket

    The Antidote
    by Karen Russell

    A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.

    Read the Reviews
  • Book Jacket

    Jane and Dan at the End of the World
    by Colleen Oakley

    Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.

    Read the Reviews
1
2
3
PrevNext
Who Said...

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

T B S of T F

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.