A Series Of (Un)Fortunate Reviews

The Roosevelt Women is a book that I've been working on for a while, and then I set it aside to read Winter Street , and then I came back to finish it.  It's a long book with long chapters, but it was interesting to me because it focuses on the women of this historic clan while most attention falls on the most famous Roosevelt men who went on to become presidents: Theodore and Franklin. The book includes a family tree mapping out the relations of the Roosevelt family as well as chapters that focus on selected women.  The story begins with the improbably, soap opera-like origins of the union of the parents of Theodore Roosevelt in a chapter that details the life, influence and place in the family of his mother, Martha.  You really have to read it to get it and understand it.  It's a love story that even today would raise eyebrows.  The author points to Martha's marriage into the family and the enormous energy and indomitable life force that she brought to th...

This is the third and final installment of my reviews of the mini-series Death Comes To Pemberley .  You can click here and here to catch up on episodes one and two respectively or you can take a scroll down the blog to read them.  Episode three concludes this mini-series adaptation of the P.D. James novel of the same title. In episode three: The murder trial begins and concludes with an unfavorable and tragic outcome for Wickham.  Georgiana is pressured to rebuff her one true love in favor of the "better match" (yeah, right) with her cousin Colonel Fitzwilliam, who pretty much has everyone snowed regarding his true nature.  Elizabeth resolves to do right by Louisa Bidwell and her bastard baby upon learning of the child's true paternity.  And little by little Elizabeth also discovers that the colonel is involved in the Bidwell/Wickham mess up to his neck, but though Elizabeth tries to warn her husband of this, Darcy allows family loyalties to blind him t...

If you missed the first installment of this review, please click here to catch up or you can scroll down through the blog to catch it. In episode 2: The magistrate continues and concludes his investigation of the woods so he can accrue more evidence to snow Wickham for Denny's murder (this is strictly my own interpretation, okay?  I really don't like the magistrate).  The inquest for the murder of Captain Denny which will determine if George Wickham will stand trial for these charges begins and concludes with an unfavorable outcome for the scoundrel Wickham, whose extracurricular activities are also revealed at the conclusion of the episode. The love triangle is also seemingly resolved and not in a favorable way for Alveston and Georgiana.  And I don't like it.  I can't help but think this particular love story is meant to parallel Elizabeth and Fitzwilliam Darcy's from Pride and Prejudice .  And I still hold out hope for a reunion between Georgiana and...

It's been years since I've reviewed a DVD on this blog, but I had a lot to say about Death Comes To Pemberley (the mini-series, not the book) and no one to say it to.  So I decided to review it on the blog.   Death Comes To Pemberley is the BBC/PBS Masterpiece three-part mini-series adaptation of the P.D. James novel of the same title (which I have not read).  James's Pemberley is basically a mystery genre sequel to Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.  I've decided to write about each of the three episodes in the mini-series, and to avoid a rather long blog post, I've split the review into three parts, one for each episode. Ya'll know I love a good Jane Austen adaptation.  Of them all my favorite is Pride & Prejudice (2005), the one with Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen cast as Lizzie Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy respectively.  It holds a special place in my heart.  I can't even describe the feeling I get when I re-shelve the library...

I'm a sucker for a Hallmark Christmas movie.  Okay, really, I'm a sucker for any Christmas/romantic comedy type TV movie (ion TV channel also has their own Christmas movies and Lifetime TV channel does as well... don't ask me how I know this; I just do).  However, I don't normally read Christmas themed novels.   Winter Street might be the first one for me.  But it's an Elin Hilderbrand novel, and we all know I love her books.  This is the sixth novel by Hilderbrand that I've read and the fifth that will be reviewed here on the blog.  Previously I've read and reviewed The Matchmaker , Silver Girl , Beautiful Day , The Island , and The Castaways .  You can click the links to read those reviews.  I've enjoyed them all, and I do recommend you try them out.  I've also read Summerland , but I didn't review it.  For some reason, I just didn't like that one so much.  But I have a lot to say about Winter Street . At its core, like some ...

In the new year I'll be starting a new annual series that will present the library staff's favorites from the previous year.  Each Friday in January a new installment of the series will post, and you'll get to see not only my favorite reads from 2014, but you'll also get a taste of what Miss Sheila and some other staff members here at the library were reading and loving over the past year. In the meantime, you can check out what I've read in 2014 and what I thought about it (because you know I have strong opinions about some of these books!) by clicking the links in the Blog Archive on the right side of the screen.  And if you also read some of these books after hearing about them here on the blog, I want to hear about that too!  You can tell me what you thought about them in the comments for this post. What did you read in 2014?  What were your favorites from the past year?  Share those in the comments too!  We want to hear from you! --posted by Ms...