Kristine Brancolini > Recent Status Updates

I’m going to Edinburgh soon and reading fiction set there to get in the mood and learn about life there, past and present.This book centers on real and fictional characters associated with the Botanic Garden.We will be visiting there and it’s a fascinating place. There’s intrigue around the blooming of a famous plant native to California. I’m thoroughly enjoying reading about plants and class/gender in 1822.

I’m pausing in my reading because this book is so good that I want it to last. I’m going to Scotland for Christmas so I’ve been reading recommended books set there. This historical novel based on a true story caught my attention. It’s brilliant and multi-faceted. Set in 1817 in Glasgow and Scotland, the story of Jean Campbell, deaf and an accused murderess, is fascinating. More, please, from Sarah Smith!

I’ve been loving the Karen Pirie series on streaming, so I was thrilled when my book club chose this book. . “Still Life” is even more complex and engrossing than I expected. In addition to Pirie, the book Introduces a promising new detective, Sergeant Daisy Mortimer. The book starts with two mysteries that now seem to be converging. Plus, I’m going to Edinburgh for Christmas, so the setting is perfect.

I first read a Guido Brunetti mystery in the summer of 2004. I read “Death at La Fenice,” Brunetti #1. The next summer, I spent a week in Venice with my family, exploring Leon’s and Brunetti’s city. I’ve been reading her books and others set in Venice ever since. Her mysteries always explore cultural and social issues; this book continues that commitment. It’s a novel but also a chance to visit Venice.

I’m reading this shocking and horrific book slowly, in intermittent bursts, because its content makes for difficult reading. Yet it is well-written and compelling in many ways. I feel sad that Virginia did not live to see the positive response from readers. She was failed by her parents and so many others. Maxwell’s preferential treatment in prison is a travesty. She’s a monster. Virginia Giuffre is a hero.

I’m fascinated by Shanghai and there are many outstanding mysteries set there. I have read other books by Kanon and this book popped up in a NYT list of recommended historical spy novels. So far, it’s more 1939 gangsters than spies but the two worlds may coalesce or collide. I’m interested in the Jewish refugees who came to Shanghai; the book’s protagonist Daniel is one of them.

My book club recently read “The Women,” by Kristin Hannah, which tells the story of an Army nurse in Vietnam, and how her experiences there influenced her life for years after she returned to the U.S. “Banyan Moon” tells another side of the story: three generations of Vietnamese women, who end up in Florida, living in a dilapidated house set in a banyan grove. Grandmother Minh tells her story in flashback.

One of the most powerful books I have read in years is Lily Tuck’s “The Rest is Memory.” Like that book this one is fiction blended with fact. In this case, the fact is Lily Tuck’s life. I actually live this technique— autobiographical fiction. Tuck writes beautifully and I love I keep hopping online to try to figure who her father “Rudy” was.

With the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, it’s good to see the horrors of that war revisited. The Women tells the fictional story of a naive young nurse who enlists in the Army to serve in Vietnam after her brother has been killed there. It!’s as brutal and horrifying as I expected but the title draws attention to the power of female friendship. Frances grows up fast.

I’m reading this book for my book club. We also read “The Personal Librarian” by the same authors. Benedict and Murray make a strong pair of writers to tackle a story about race, gender tokes and equality, and personal loss. Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary McLeod Bethune met and formed a powerful friendship in the 1930’s, a time when black and white people rarely did. Theirs is a fascinating story.

I’ve slowed down the pace of my reading because I don’t want this book to end — and I’m worried I will be disappointed by the ending. I’m reading section 3, a flashback to 1945, when 11-year-old Bob ran away from home and ended up in a reading Victorian seaside hotel. I think that Wes Anderson should make the movie. This book is very quirky with an eclectic cast. The movie should be, too.

I’ve been waiting for a can’t-put-down book and “The Librarianist” is it. The protagonist Bob Comet is a librarian, but that is really not a central element of the novel. I admit that I was intrigued by the title — but this book is not about literature or libraries. Bob is a truly fascinating character, as are Connie and Ethan, the other two main characters. I need a distraction from the news. Success!

I love this story of two brothers who are ten years apart, very troubled in indifferent ways, and borderline estranged. Not quite.The hook for me is the younger brother Ivan, age 22, in a torrid relationship with a divorced woman, Margaret, age 36.Older brother is critical of this relationship, but he’s got major problems of his own. Rooney changes her writing style based on the character narrating.Very effective.

I’m back on track with this book. The murders have receded into the background a little, and the women’s stories have taken center stage. Lily and Clara have created a bond and it’s an interesting relationship. I still wouldn’t call it a page turner but I want to know what happens to Lily and Clara. And what’s up with Luis?

This book is brutal. Some call it a page-turner, but it is about the women victimized by a serial killer and I’m just not in the mood. It is well written.The central character, a 16-year-old fortune teller in Atlantic City (real name Ava, professional name, Clare Voyant), is smart, sympathetic, and in a world of trouble. Not sure I can finish it.

I’m borderline obsessed with Iceland. I’ve read lots ofIcelandic mysteries but have had trouble finding other fiction authors. I read “Miss Iceland” by this author and loved it. “Animal Life” is about a family of midwives and it’s delightful.

This book is the definition of a page turner. It is also beautifully written, featuring fascinating and compelling characters. It’s almost 600 pages long, but I easily read the first half in two days. As reviewers noted the author writes short, densely packed chapters. The author is British and I would love to know how he knows so much about life in a small town in rural Missouri, in the 1970s no less.

I started and stopped reading this book, but now I’m hooked. I started reading about the real Johanna Van Gogh and thought I would be disappointed in this fictional telling of her story. However, I really love the modern story, which helps propel the astonishing true story in the past.

This is a beautiful and thought-provoking book, set in the Japanese countryside from late 1937-late 1938. It is narrated by a young man, Stephen, recovering from tuberculosis, staying in his family’s beach house with the family’s long time caretaker and gardener Matsu. The two become friends But world war is coming. Stephen’s mother is Chinese, living in Hong Kong, and his father is Japanese living in Kobe.

At some point this book hooked me, despite my apathy for video games and their development. Zevin’s genius is character development snd she nails the aging process along the way. Sam, Sadie, and Marx are endlessly fascinating. Three characters enrich the possibilities.

It is a testament to the quality of this book that I’m still reading it. I have picked it up in the past and never started it because I am not a gamer and have zero interest in gaming. Nevertheless, I’m in love with Sadie, Sam, and Marx. I’ve read reviews so I know a little about what to expect. And despite my apathy about gaming, I’m enjoying the creative collaboration of game development.

This is an excellent mystery from an author new to me. I bought the book on the strength of its description and Goodreads reviews. It brings together my favorite elements: a mystery based on actual people and events, revolving around art, set in Italy, during the past and the present. I have already ordered Santlofer’s latest book, in anticipation of hurtling to the conclusion of this one today.

This short novel is spare. Two narrators - Him and Her — both unlikeable, very short chapters, set in a fictional country called Miden. At first I found Him so loathsome, I almost stopped reading. Then about a third of the way in, I reversed. It all started to click for me. The setting in the weird county becomes central to the novel, another character, along with Him, Her, and, of course, the girl, the victim.

Although I have known from the beginning that Roya and Bahman will be forced apart by the coup in Iran that brought Reza Shah to power in 1953, I found myself reading quickly to learn what happened. I’m a sucker for teenagers who meet and fall in love in a Tehran bookstore. Now I want to know what happened after the events of August 19, until they meet again as senior citizens in 2013.

I’ve been reading dark books lately, mostly mysteries and crime novels. This book is the polar opposite. It was selected as my book club’s April book. And I’m glad that it was. I need a change of pace and a little more hope. I look forward to discussing it with my friends this week.

As others have noted, don’t be tricked by the title or the cover art. This is not a book about a beauty queen. Set in 1963, it is about Hekla, a young woman writer who despairs of being published in a country with few women authors. Her friend Isey, a young mother, is also a writer. Only one other person knows that Hekla is a writer, her best friend Jon, who is gay and persecuted. He dreams of fleeing with Hekla.

This book has taken an interesting turn. It’s feeling more like a Carofiglio character study. The interrogation of Lopez, a suspected kidnapper/murderer was reported verbatim, documentary style. But suddenly, at the end, he blows up the plot and we’re going down a different path. Riveting!

This is a true story, fictionalized. So far it’s very descriptive and reads like non-fiction. This is unusual for Carofiglio, but i think it’s because he is retelling actual events related to the Pugliese mafia in 1992. I’m missing the human element. Maybe it’s coming…