The Return

Review: The Little French Bistro Nina George Crown 2017 I have to admit that I'm not a fan of romance novels, but I think this one goes beyond the boy meets girl idea.   By a bunch.   If adults had coming of age stories this one would fit there.   Marianne travels a road many people I know would love to, but fear taking the steps needed. And that is the basis of this book.   Taking the steps.   Joy, sorrow, whatever comes and keep on taking the steps.    I agree with many of the comments already made about George's ability to build wonderful characters, paint scenes that vibrate with energy, and tell a story too.   Her writing touches the heart and not in some sappy, maudlin way.   A place of real emotions and desire.   Speaking of desire---her intimate scenes are just that, intimate.   In body and mind.   And not for just spicing things up a bit.   She captures the true nature of intimacy...

Review: My Life in Middlemarch Rebecca Mead Broadway Books 2014 I cannot remember reading a book that I have enjoyed more than this one.   Mead and her interaction with Middlemarch and George Eliot, its author, made me want the same thing from a book that I have read and loved.   Yes, maybe “love” is the proper word.   Is there one? In what one reviewer called a “bibliomemoir” (304) Mead works her way through the books that comprise Middlemarch.   That book, the places and the people that served as inspiration for the author, and Mead’s own story as it connected with Eliot’s text is the gist of Mead’s work here.   She has explored the life of the author, those around her, the locales that touched even remotely on the text or author’s life, and even an unusual letter writing devotee, in a way that is more a diary of impressions and information than anything else, I think.    Do you need to have read Middlemarch before reading t...