Food and drink inspired by classic and modern literary works.
Written by fellow blogger James J. Cudney, whose awesome blog This Is My Truth Now is among my favorite sites, Watching Glass Shatter was a lengthy and awesome read about family secrets, family dysfunction, and ultimately, family bonds and love that keep people connected, even during some of the worst times. The premise of the … Continue reading Watching Glass Shatter by James J. Cudney
Happy New Year! To start off 2018, I take us back to Venice, dear readers. But it's not the Venice of dreams and watery, lyrical descriptions. This 16th-century Venice, elegantly depicted In The Company of the Courtesan, is a hard, rough place, stinking of rotten canal water and fish, and is as often the deathplace of … Continue reading In the Company of the Courtesan by Sarah Dunant
I don't normally read a lot of non-fiction, mainly because I read to escape reality......particularly these days, when the world around us seems to be going insane. But having discovered this pop culture gem, Underrated, while waiting at my dentist's office, I changed my mind. Slightly. Josh Abraham takes some of the most classic pundits … Continue reading Underrated by Josh Abraham
Charles Palliser is my favorite author after Umberto Eco, writing as he does in the most lucid, erudite, intellectual and bawdy style that sucks you into the vivid, dirty, and virulent world of Victorian, post-Industrial England. His settings are the traditional British country house or vicarage, manor or townhouse, and his Dickensian-named characters show off the … Continue reading The Unburied by Charles Palliser
I've been reading Dean Koontz's books since I was in 7th grade and came across one in the school library at St. Michael's Catholic School, and devoured it in three hours. I was hooked from then on, though his books are definitely hit-or-miss. His style has evolved over the years, from the straightforward horror of … Continue reading The Face by Dean Koontz
Though I disliked the movie, which was absolutely nothing like the book (and not in a good way,) Under the Tuscan Sun is so beautifully written that you almost feel as though you're walking through sunlit fields of sunflowers in the countryside surrounding Cortona. Normally, I don't go for these types of memoirs, simply because the … Continue reading Under the Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayes
I don't know about you, but when I think of One Thousand and One Nights, or as it's more commonly known, The Arabian Nights, what comes to mind are exotic tents in the desert surrounded by turbaned thieves, camels with tasseled saddles, beautiful dancing girls draped in veils in emerald green, ruby red, and turquoise blue, … Continue reading One Thousand and One Nights (The Arabian Nights) as retold by Hanan al-Shaykh
Both a novel of psychological suspense and genuine supernatural horror, A Head Full of Ghosts is head case of a book.....pardon the pun. I love a book that cleverly uses meta-fiction, and this one definitely refers back to itself in such a funny way, by use of social media. (Speaking of which, there is a … Continue reading A Head Full of Ghosts by Paul Tremblay
I'm a sucker for a good, creepy, scary novel, and this one scared the hell out of me, which was awesome. I hadn't read anything genuinely terrifying in ages, but The Last Days of Jack Sparks fit the bill. In spades. It's kind of like The Exorcist meets Black Mirror, except way scarier and more … Continue reading The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp
The story of the United States is varied and unique, as any historian will tell you. We have the story of the indigenous Native Americans, the British pilgrims, the ancient Vikings, the Irish, German, Polish, and Scottish immigrants who came in a wave to this country between the mid-1700s and late 1800s, and the the … Continue reading The Alienist by Caleb Carr
The Journey in Every Story...
Celebrating 700 years of delicious British food.
50,000 Monkeys at 50,000 Typewriters Can't Be Wrong
Vampire travels across Europe
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Food In Books 