“The main house on the estate was a 32-room mansion, and Wright had three artificial lakes constructed, the 9,000+ acres lavishly landscaped and reeking of wealth and means. Perhaps the most famous addition to the palatial properties was the underground conservatory/smoking room with aquarium windows, an epic statue seemingly rising out of the manufactured lake…
REVIEW: ALIBIS by Andre Aciman
When I set to read a book that I plan to review, I come at it a little differently than just reading for fun. I make notes, mental and written, about style or themes that I want to mention in the review. And I dogear pages that have a passage I want to quote. Sometimes…
REVIEW: JUNGLELAND by Christopher S. Stewart
Stewart’s travelogue is as addicting as the tales of the lost city itself. A freelance writer from Brooklyn, Stewart heard about Ciudad Blanca during an interview with a US solider who had endured the Honduran jungle. Like many who hear stories of far-flung secrets, Stewart was hooked. He scoured satellite images from Google Earth, questioned…
REVIEW: THE GRAND TOUR – AROUND THE WORLD WITH THE QUEEN OF MYSTERY by Agatha Christie
Perhaps it comes as no surprise that this book is a wonderful window into an era past. Like Agatha Christie’s autobiography, the book is comprised of her life in her own words. Her grandson Mathew Prichard has painstakingly gathered her letters and postcards from her trip to a countries in the Dominion. She and…
DAY ONE of RURAL ILLINOIS 2012
August 19, 2012 Yesterday was spent in the car, driving nearly 800 miles from Savannah, GA to Greenup, IL. This morning I awoke early to the sound of … nothing. I suppose if I had listened carefully I could have identified small songbirds or a few crickets. My cousin cooked us all a delicious hearty…