MISS AUSTEN - BBC, PBS Masterpiece 2025 - Four episode mini-series based on the book by Gill Hornby. It is 1830, thirteen years after Jane Austen’s death. Despite letters asking her not to come, Jane’s spinster sister Cassandra is racing to the deathbed of the Reverend Fowle. Why? Historically, Cassandra Austen is notable for three …
Tag: fiction
THE BLACKTONGUE THIEF BY CHRISTOPHER BUEHLMAN
The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, Tor Publishing 2021 - Introducing Kinch Na Shannack, a lowly member of the Takers Guild, born in that part of Buehlman’s fictional world where the inhabitants are distinguished by, and looked down on for, their black tongues. The Takers Guild is a collective of criminals that apprentice and supply …
Continue reading THE BLACKTONGUE THIEF BY CHRISTOPHER BUEHLMAN
JENNY’S BOY BY WAYNE JOHNSTON
Jennie’s Boy - A Newfoundland Childhood by Wayne Johnston, Knopf, 2022 - Wayne Johnston has lived an unusual life, two portions of which he has now shared through his writing. In his earlier book, ‘The Mystery of Right and Wrong’ (reviewed July 21, 2022) Johnston explored the nature of evil using his late father-in-law as …
THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB
The Thursday Murder Club, Netflix 2025, directed by Chris Columbus and based on the 2020 book of the same name by Richard Osman - Enter the Cooper Chase Retirement Home. It’s an old manor house redesigned for the elderly and, from the look of things, available only to those with substantial life’s savings. Elizabeth Best …
THE COVENANT OF WATER BY ABRAHAM VERGHESE
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese, Grove Press, 2023 - This ‘Oprah’s book club choice’ novel is mostly focussed on three generations of a family starting in the early 1900’s. The setting is generally in the rural town of Parambil, located in the state of Kerala in the south western portion of India. For …
LET’S MAKE A DEAL
Wow! The world’s two greatest comedians are set to battle it out in Alaska tomorrow for the TITLE OF ‘KING OF COMEDY’. Yes, Vlad (the Impaler) Poutine of Rooskie is going head to head against the DEFENDING CHAMP, Ronald Rump, Grand High Imperial Twitterbug (GHIT) and PREZ for life. They will take centre stage in …
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES BY SHELBY VAN PELT
REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES BY SHELBY VAN PELT, Ecco and HarperCollins, 2022 - Set in the Puget Sound area of Northern Washington state in the small fictional town of Sowell Bay, Remarkably Bright Creatures is a story about two lost souls being connected by Marcellus, a sixty pound giant Pacific octopus who has been trapped in …
Continue reading REMARKABLY BRIGHT CREATURES BY SHELBY VAN PELT
AUSTEN AT SEA BY NATALIE JENNER
Austen at Sea by Natalie Jenner - St. Martin’s Press, 2025 - Set in the American post-civil war era, the story revolves around two sets of American siblings, Henrietta and Charlotte Stevenson, the daughters of a Massachusetts Supreme Court Justice, and Nicholas and Hazlett Nelson, veterans of the civil war, who operate a rare bookshop …
WEYWARD BY EMILIA HART
Weyward by Emilia Hart, St. Martin’s Press - 2023 - Weyward is a novel with elements of fantasy that tells the story of three women, all connected in lineage, all with a supernatural connection to nature and who all lead lives that are impacted by violent men. The first is Altha, living in the early …
Richard's Left Bank 