The Haunted Hotel by Wilkie Collins This was the first of my two short Halloween reads. Like most of my Halloween reads, it wasn’t particularly scary. The story opens with the Countess Narona visiting a doctor in London, and recounting a strange story about her meeting her fiance’s jilted lover. ... more >
Lorna Doone by R.D. Blackmore I went into this knowing nothing about it but the name. It ended up being a bit of a slog, for a few reasons: dialogue rendered in impenetrable dialect, a lot of blah blah blah musings, and the fact that I didn’t really like the ... more >
This is a short list because I decided to confine myself to A category books only. Usually I’ll include at least B+s, but looking at my log this past year I really do think these five represent the best of what I read in 2018. Bed of Flowers ... more >
Also read and reviewed: Ocean Light and Cadaver & Queen An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew by Annejet Van Der Zijl I can’t remember if this was recommended somewhere or if I just found it while perusing historical biographies on Amazon, but I know I was initially intrigued by ... more >
Also read and reviewed Daddy Long-Legs Note: I haven’t reviewed anything in a while, so I did longer-than-average mini-reviews below. Since I didn’t think anyone wanted to read a 4,000 word post, I decided to break this list up into Parts 1 and 2, Best Day Ever by Kaira Rouda ... more >