13 May 2012
Call no: 800
Genre: contemporary fiction, fictional biography
Setting: Afganistan
7 Stars
Comments Off
The story of Enaiatollah Akbari, trans. from the Italian by Howard Curtis When Enaiat is around ten his mother takes him from his village in Afganistan and they travel Pakistan. And then, after a few days, she leaves him there, … Continue reading
8 August 2010
Genre: fictional biography
Setting: 1940s, 1950s
Comments Off
by James Lever
I should have known from that opening paragraph that I wasn’t going to enjoy this book. It has that “amn’t I amusing and witty” narration style that, for me, simply fell flat. Perhaps it is just that I don’t know enough about the stars of the 1940s & 50s to get all the hilarious references and anecdotes. Or maybe it was just written in a style that left me uncaring. Who can say.
7 May 2010
Call no: 800
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction, myth & religion
Setting: Roman Judea
2 Comments
by Philip Pullman
The back of the edition of this that I read has only the words: This is a story. Interesting. Is that because the publisher’s don’t want to offend the ultra religious in the Christian world. Or is it a message from the author that the life of Jesus is a story. That the bible is a story.
Pullman, of course, is known for his ever so slightly controversial views on religion, he has used them in his fiction before. In that case it involved a worn-out god, and power-hungry angels. Here he revisits the myth:”(is a myth a religion we dont believe in?)”: of Jesus Christ and weaves a new story out of it.
23 March 2010
Cast: Lucy Lawless, Peter Mensah
Genre: biography, fictional biography, graphic novel
10 Comments
This is one I picked up because I’d seen positive mentions on a few blogs, I think Nymeth’s post was the one that prompted the purchase. So it came with a little bit of hype. That being said, I don’t really read reviews before I read a book, just skim the opening paragraph for a sense of what the reviewer thought of the book, so I wasn’t all hyped out. And Blankets did live up to those positive reviews. Continue reading
29 January 2010
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction
Setting: Britain - middle ages, England
2 Comments
Author: Elizabeth Chadwick
William Marshall was a real person; born in relative obscurity he rose through the ranks to become “the greatest knight that ever lived” as well as Earl of Pembroke. He served under four kings of England, although this book only covers his exploits under two, Henry II and Richard I. He married Isabel de Clare, who was the daughter of Strongbow. And through her gained the rights to Leinster. Continue reading
29 October 2009
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction
Setting: Britain, Britain - Tudors
Comments Off
Winter had withdrawn its iron grip from the land and triumphant spring burgeoned over the countryside. I enjoyed this book a lot more than i had suspected I would when I picked it up. But it only cost me .25 … Continue reading
7 October 2008
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction, horror
3 Comments
“Bring in the cows now. Time to shut up for the night”.
There came three cows, breathing in the near-dark: swishing with the tips of their tails, their bones showing through hide.
23 April 2008
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction, western
Setting: C19th, USA
Comments Off
He was growing into middle age and was living then in a bungalow on Woodland Avenue. Green weeds split the porch steps, a wasp nest clung to an attic gable, a rope swing looped down from a dying elm tree and the ground below it was scuffed soft as flour.
I think this is one of the rare cases where watching the film version improves your enjoyment of the novel. Maybe because for certain passages I could really here the narrator from the film while I was reading. I think that this might make an excellent audio book. Then again, I’ve never listened to an audio book, so what do I know.
20 August 2006
Call no: 800
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction
Setting: 1500s, Italy
7 Stars
7 Comments
ISBN: 0099416271 Wikipedia on Michelangelo; Michelangelo.com; Art of Florence Read with Historical Favorites – group site This is a big book; over 750 pages of small print and crowded pages. So when I began to read and wasn’t all that … Continue reading
19 January 2006
Call no: 800
Genre: fictional biography, historical fiction
Setting: Britain - Georgian, London
6 Stars
Comments Off
ISBN: 0349114471 This novel may possibly have had a greater impact on me if I knew anything about the life and times of Samuel Johnson apart from the fact that he wrote a dictionary, and of course that the Life … Continue reading