Light Reading
I would consider this book a light summer read. While the story was interesting enough, with the invention of a “writing machine”, I thought the characters were underdeveloped and I had no strong feelings about any of them. I enjoy historical novels when there is detail about the customs and culture of the time, but I felt this was missing here.
Rated of 5
by Julie Rand. (Jefferson, ME)
The Blind Contessa's New Machine
This passionate love story of Contessa Carolina Fantoni, Turri, her lover, and Pietro, her husband, explores the conflict between individual expression and societal traditional mores. The strength of this novel lies in its charming description of the natural world through Carolina's disclosures of visual detail, dream fantasy and memory recall. In addition, Carolina provides the vehicle for a believable account of the onslaught of blindness and eventually the means of coping with complete loss of sight. Although lyrical and well constructed, the theme of blindness necessitates long passages which tend to retard the flow of the story line and stagnate the mystery and suspense that the author endeavors to create. A pleasant summer's read, the book cleverly succeeds in rendering some redemptive quality to the plight of the blind Contessa.
A bold, mesmerizing novel about the woman known as "Typhoid Mary," the first known healthy carrier of typhoid fever in the burgeoning metropolis of early twentieth century New York.
Z, the novel about the life of Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald is at points charming and; like another reviewer, I kept thinking of the movie, "Midnight...
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Although heavy on the scientific details, which slowed down the story for me (OK, I admit, I was one of those liberal arts majors who skipped out on...
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Loved this book. Magical, quirky, enchanting I could go on. All books do not have to be literary fiction, sometimes it is just so comforting to read...
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British Parliament asks Amazon to clarify why it pays $9 million in income tax on $23 billion of UK sales.(May 20 2013) Amazon will be called back to give further evidence to members of the British Parliament "to clarify how its activities in the U.K. justify its low corporate...
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of 5
by Rita L. (Green Bay, WI)
