REVIEW: THE HOUSE ON THE CLIFF by Charlotte Williams

  The narrator is one Jessica Mayhew, a successful psychotherapist.  She becomes interested in one of her patients who has recently remembered a childhood memory.  He believes he saw his father kill his au pair, throwing her off a boat near the Welch coast.  This vague memory has haunted his dreams for a couple of…

GIVEAWAY: THE REAL JANE AUSTEN

GIVEAWAY I have TWO copies available for this title, which I reviewed here. Description from the publisher: Unlike the conventional cradle to grave biography, THE REAL JANE AUSTEN focuses on a variety of key moments, scenes, and objects in both the life and work of Jane Austen. As described in The New York Times Book…

Books for Christmas

Today I’d like to highlight a few books that I’ve read recently and can recommend as Christmas gifts for the reader on your list. SHADOW WOMAN: THE EXTRAORDINARY CAREER OF PAULINE BENTON by Grant Hayter-Menzies This is a warm, vivid biography of an unusual circumstance.  Born to a wealthy and enlightened family in the late…

REVIEW: SHOT ALL TO HELL by Mark Lee Gardner

Few names in American have the instant recognition, and connotation, as Jesse James.  Star of the dime novel, his legend became more noted than perhaps his true self.  But as you will discover in this historical visit to the end of the James-Younger reign, much of his status earned.  The details may have been been…

REVIEW: THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE by Neil Gaiman

It’s difficult to know where to begin with a Gaiman book.  His tales are always so different, yet somehow always Gaiman.  In fact, I hear his voice in my head while I’m reading, which is both comforting and unnerving — appropriately. This time, the hero is just a young boy.  Now grown-up, he returns to…