Reviews by Kathrin C. (Corona, CA)

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Raising Hare
Raising Hare: A Memoir
by Chloe Dalton
Hares Today - And Hopefully Tomorrow (1/6/2025)
I certainly learned more about hares in the wild, all over the world and in literature than I ever thought I would need to know while reading Raising Hare. But I was also thoroughly fascinated - both with Chloe Dalton's descriptions of our fragile and harsh and wonderful …more
The Stolen Child
The Stolen Child: A Novel
by Ann Hood
Literary Pasta with Historical Sauce (4/4/2024)
I think Ann Hood's latest novel, The Stolen Child, yields a very intriguing, tangled pasta made up of history, Italy, families, personal challenges, love and LIFE. Imagine in the 1970s a mismatched, out-of-the-ordinary trio traveling through France and Italy, trying to find …more
King of the Armadillos
King of the Armadillos
by Wendy Chin-Tanner
King of the Armadillos (5/20/2023)
The pleasure of discovering books like this make me very glad I became a reader early on and remain one to this day. Wendy Chin-Tanner takes you back to the 1950s and invites you into the heart, mind and life of Victor Chin, a 15-year-old Chinese immigrant from the Bronx …more
This Other Eden
This Other Eden: A Novel
by Paul Harding
This Other Eden (1/23/2023)
This is an outstanding work of historical fiction, so beautifully written, but also, sometimes painful to read. I had never heard of Malaga Island off the coast of Maine, and how it fit in with America's ongoing history of racism, intolerance and injustice before reading …more
Fencing with the King
Fencing with the King: A Novel
by Diana Abu-Jaber
Fencing with the King (12/28/2021)
Diana Abu-Jaber is certainly an accomplished writer who uses strong descriptive prose, good pacing and continually elevates the tension that drives the underlying family mystery. I enjoyed learning more about Middle East history, politics, and their effects on women's roles …more
The Fortunate Ones
The Fortunate Ones
by Ed Tarkington
Seeing What We Want to See (11/2/2020)
I enjoyed the first half of the novel, "Princes in the Tower", where Charlie Boykin narrates his own coming-of-age story. Through the connections and designs of his single working mother, he is transported from a poor neighborhood in East Nashville and dropped off into a …more
Hieroglyphics
Hieroglyphics
by Jill McCorkle
Hieroglyphics - Somewhat Misty and Nebulous (7/6/2020)
You know that comfortable feeling you can get when you begin reading a new novel and feel that maybe it's going to be a very, very good reading? That's how this book started out for me. It revealed the stories and histories of four people, Frank and Lil, a married couple …more
The Splendid and the Vile
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
by Erik Larson
On the Brink (1/27/2020)
Erik Larson will take you on a meticulous backstage journey through Winston Churchill's opening year as Prime Minister just as WWII breaks all out. And he does it in such a way that will totally engage you to revisit the Blitz that nearly brought England to the brink.
It's a …more
The Secrets We Kept
The Secrets We Kept: A novel
by Lara Prescott
Terrific Historical Novel Coming Soon to Your Bookshelf (7/11/2019)
I confess, I stayed up nights reading this one! It delved into one aspect of the Cold War I was never aware of before – and what an interesting piece of history it is. Who would have thought that the CIA would find Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago to be a great propaganda tool. …more
The Guest Book
The Guest Book
by Sarah Blake
Thought Provoking (3/28/2019)
It's been a while since I've enjoyed a historical fiction novel as well written and thought-provoking as this one. The family saga traces the Milton family, very wealthy, very powerful and very upper crust, over three generations from the early 1930's through the early 2000 …more
The Last Romantics
The Last Romantics
by Tara Conklin
Three sisters and their brother (12/5/2018)
I wanted to like this novel much more than I did. Tara Conklin’s first novel, The House Girl, appealed to me far more. She’s a very good writer and that is apparent in The Last Romantics too. I can flip back, reread sections here and there, and thoroughly enjoy her prose. …more
Young Jane Young
Young Jane Young
by Gabrielle Zevin
Life, Mothers and Daughters (7/23/2017)
This novel took the story of one young woman's romantic foible with long term repercussions and let the perspectives flow from three generations of the Grossman family women and girl - Rachel (the very in-control mom with the not-so-controlled daughter, Aviva (later to be …more
A Piece of the World
A Piece of the World: A Novel
by Christina Baker Kline
A Piece of the World (12/19/2016)
Every now and again I come across a book that I would call a "jewel novel". A Piece of the World falls into that category. I enjoyed it thoroughly. The story focused on the lives of Christina Olson who suffered a lifelong degenerative disease and her brother Al as they …more
North of Crazy
North of Crazy: A Memoir
by Neltje
North of Crazy (6/7/2016)
I found this somewhat difficult to get into because of the writing style and the almost excessive relating of minor details in chapters on the author's early childhood. But I'm glad I kept going - it became a fascinating tale of publishing magnate Nelson Doubleday's behind- …more
The Swans of Fifth Avenue
The Swans of Fifth Avenue
by Melanie Benjamin
High Society. . . Shallow Waters. . . (10/15/2015)
Since I've previously read The Aviator's Wife and Alice I Have Been by Melanie Benjamin and enjoyed both of them immensely, I had rather high expectations for her new book. But, The Swans of Fifth Avenue left me high and dry. The underlying storyline with Truman Capote …more
The Shore
The Shore: A Novel
by Sara Taylor
A Rollercoaster Read (6/3/2015)
If I were to write a recipe for this novel, I would stir some contemporary fiction into a deep bowl of regional historical fiction and then mix in a good measure of post-apocalyptic survival fiction. It's a rollercoaster read that takes you through 13 chapters that are as …more
The Witch of Painted Sorrows
The Witch of Painted Sorrows: A Daughters of La Lune Novel
by M. J. Rose
Enjoyable Feast (3/23/2015)
I've always had a soft spot for the Gothic novel and M. J. Rose has certainly spun a well-written tale interwoven with bright threads of history, romance, the occult and erotica. The first half was more engrossing for me following Sandrine Salome's rush for independence and …more
The Headmaster's Wife
The Headmaster's Wife
by Thomas Christopher Greene
Less Than Redeeming (1/7/2014)
I really wanted to like this book more than I did - probably based on positive commentary from the likes of Wally Lamb and Richard Russo. But I finished the novel with a slightly sour taste in my mouth. Greene's writing seemed skillful enough and he creates some deft …more
Bellman & Black
Bellman & Black
by Diane Setterfield
Great Cover, But . . . (9/16/2013)
I was so looking forward to reading Setterfield's second novel, a long time in coming. But I'm sad to say it did not, for me, create that totally wonderful envelopment that happened when I read her first novel. The eerie foretelling of William Bellman's daunting future in …more
Lookaway, Lookaway
Lookaway, Lookaway
by Wilton Barnhardt
Maybe I Will Lookaway (6/20/2013)
I had to press myself to keep reading beyond the first 50 pages at which point it seemed we might never leave the stale frat humor stage. And so far, none of the members of the Johnston family of the Old South, young and old, with their fine old Charlotte manners and …more
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