Author: Elaine

My Antonia is beautifully written and has all the pieces to make a Great American Novel, including immigrants pursuing the American Dream, veneration of the land, and pioneerism, to name a few. Perhaps its only defect is that it is so little like a novel, aside from being incredibly romantic and sentimental. If one’s life… Read more

I’m not a fan of science fiction or dystopian novels, but this may be my favorite of that category, perhaps because it was written in 1930, so the diction is charming.   The setting is a successful communist society, in that no one is starving and there is perfect societal stability, through scientific advances and social… Read more

This was a fantastic recommendation from my mother. 5/5 stars. It was scandalous in its time but sounds virtuous to modern ears, at least my modern ears. It is an epistolary novel, meaning it is a compilation of letters and diary entries, and told from many perspectives (maybe 6? Maybe 8?) Yet the character list… Read more

I’m not normally a fan of sci-fi, and I suppose I’m not in this instance, either. But it was more interesting than I thought it would be originally. It was an incredibly ambitious project, to try to write the origin story of an entire galaxy. It was a bit tiring to accept the premise that… Read more

I’m usually not much for mysteries or ghost stories, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one! It was well-written, it was short enough that I didn’t get tired of the near-death experiences, and it had a psychological tone to it. The characters were thoughtful. The ending worked.  Read more

This is beautifully-written book that never gets anywhere, despite the characters perpetually going somewhere in great haste. It could be so interesting, with all there is to see on the road. Unfortunately, the characters are not particularly interesting because they never grow up. Dean could be an interesting character, but once we figured out he… Read more

This book is very strange. It was well written, and I did enjoy it, despite the unnerving, distressing, dystopian setting and plot. What’s more, I didn’t understand the ending. He falls into a manhole, and then he says he lives in the hole? But that it’s a nice, comfortable hole. And he’s getting ready to… Read more

The Adventures of Augie March is just another rendition of the sub-genre: “1950s American literature following the irresponsible and purposeless wandering of a young man.” Also in this sub-genre is On the Road. The internet tells me I’m referring to the “postwar American drifter” archetype. Although I wanted to like Augie, and I did, I’m… Read more

I had high hopes for this book, and I was disappointed. I’ll be honest, when I read this, I would have guessed this was written by a lady who’d never touched a horse in her life. Well, I was mistaken, because I looked up Geraldine Brooks and learned that she started riding in her fifties… Read more