Author Archives: beckylindroos

The annual Presidential Rankings were released a few days ago (on Feb 22, President’s Day) and I  was intrigued by the complexity of the project.  This is the 3rd year C-Span has hosted this and it’s a pretty stable indicator … Continue reading →

The title of this book is so apt and intriguing and the Gilded Age in New York  used to be one of my very favorite settings.   Add a little legal aspect to it and it’s just my cuppa.  The Gilded Age  was a … Continue reading →

Born in May 1819 and living until January 1901,  Victoria, the Queen of England lived a long time and that period would have been a fascinating study with almost anyone in Britain at the center.  The Queen of England was not … Continue reading →

“Clotel: or, The President’s Daughter”  is the first novel published by an African American – it was published in London in 1853 while William Wells Brown, the author,  was still living there following his final escape from slavery,  an education and the … Continue reading →

Sometimes a book comes along and I am just not in the mood for it or something.  This is one of those times.   IQ has had plenty of great reviews and it caught my eye several months ago and … Continue reading →

I read this back in 1971 or so and knew it was great literature then,  a time when I didn’t have a clue about what constituted  great literature.   But I guess I knew it when I read it because it’s stuck … Continue reading →

Oh dear another long one!   What is the matter with me?   But it’s a self-select and a legal thriller – my favorite –  so I tried to like it in general,  but … well … see below. At … Continue reading →

Oh my – Dickens at his best is so good and between this and A Tale of Two Cities he’s at his best.   I read this maybe 15 years ago and knew then I’d have to read it again … Continue reading →

I listened to this book a few weeks ago and knew I wanted to revisit – there is so much in it!    So I bought the Kindle version and read it while listening again.  Indeed – there is an enormous amount of … Continue reading →

The relationship between girlfriends and their parents, especially their mothers, has been written about before most recently by Elena Ferrante in her Neapolitan Quartet.  Smith’s volume pales by comparison,  but perhaps that’s not fair.  Sad to say,  it also pales against her … Continue reading →

Another 1st person historical fiction – this time taking place in rural Scotland circa 1869 and involving crime. Young Roderick Macrae is in jail for murder.  The book opens with some statements and then gets to his own statement for about … Continue reading →

Here’s another historical fiction which takes place on board a ship in the 19th century and involves murders.  (Ho-hum)  The North Water took place in the Arctic circa 1859 and includes several murders,   Rites of Passage takes place in the South Seas … Continue reading →

Finding another rather dark Scandinavian thriller is pretty fun and the 1st of a series,   too.  It’s good – a lot of the same elements as other Scandinavian thrillers including child endangerment, the horrors of fundamentalist churches and detectives with troubled lives. … Continue reading →

The idea of time travel is so cool.  I’ve read sci-fi since I was a kid,  age 9 or so.  I know I read  “The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet” (1954) and the sequels by Eleanor Cameron when we lived in Winona, … Continue reading →

I don’t really keep TBR piles for the last few years but I’ve had this on my shelf (in Kindle library) for months since I got it on sale.  I’ve never had time until now.  Erdrich is one of my favorite … Continue reading →

Really having a hard time finding something to read right now – A Naked Singularity was so good and the political news right now is so bad – getting a focus on any book is really hard.   But finally … Continue reading →

First off,  and as many have said,  this brilliant debut and originally self-published novel desperately needs an editor.   It’s a smart, funny, big, baggy,  fascinating look at … well … probably everything – genre-wise I’ll call it a very … Continue reading →