Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: The Madonna of Notre Dame Author: Alexis Ragougneau ISBN: 978-1-939931-3-99 Publisher: New Vessel Press Type of book: Mystery, murder, Paris France, 2000s, church, Notre Dame, secrets, identities, motives, behind-the-scenes, The Feast of Assumption Year it was published: 2016 (original 2014) Summary: Fifty thousand believers and photo-hungry tourists jam into Notre Dame Cathedral on August 15 to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. The next morning, a stunningly beautiful young woman clothed all in white kneels at prayer in a cathedral side chapel. But when an American tourist accidentally bumps against her, her body collapses. She has been murdered: the autopsy reveals disturbing details. Police investigators and priests search for the killer as they discover other truths about guilt and redemption in this soaring Paris refuge for the lost, the damned, and the saved. The suspect is a disturbed young man obsessed with the Virgin Mary who spends his d...

Name of Book : The Dark Lady's Mask Author: Mary Sharratt ISBN: 978-0-544-30076-7 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Type of book: William Shakespeare, England, Italy, 1576-1600s, friendships, relationships, muse, secrets, ambition, hidden Jews, home, love, Queen Elizabeth, King James and Queen Anne, poetry, money, travel, cross-dressing Year it was published: 2016 Summary: Shakespeare in Love meets Shakespeare’s Sister in this novel of England’s first professional woman poet and her collaboration and love affair with William Shakespeare. London, 1593. Aemilia Bassano Lanier is beautiful and accomplished, but her societal conformity ends there. She frequently cross-dresses to escape her loveless marriage and to gain freedoms only men enjoy, but a chance encounter with a ragged, little-known poet named Shakespeare changes everything. Aemilia grabs at the chance to pursue her long-held dream of writing and the two outsiders strike up a literary bargain. They leave pla...

General Information: Name of Book: The Vegetarian ISBN: 978-1-101-90611-8 Publisher: Hogarth Books Year it was published: 2016 (Original 2007) Summary: Before the nightmare, Yeong-hye and her husband lived an ordinary life. But when splintering, blood-soaked images start haunting her thoughts, Yeong-hye decides to purge her mind and renounce eating meat. In a country where societal mores are strictly obeyed, Yeong-hye's decision to embrace a more “plant-like” existence is a shocking act of subversion. And as her passive rebellion manifests in ever more extreme and frightening forms, scandal, abuse, and estrangement begin to send Yeong-hye spiraling deep into the spaces of her fantasy. In a complete metamorphosis of both mind and body, her now dangerous endeavor will take Yeong-hye—impossibly, ecstatically, tragically—far from her once-known self altogether. A disturbing, yet beautifully composed narrative told in three parts, The Vegetarian is an allegorical no...

Name of Book: the Munich girl Author: Phyllis Edgerly Ring ISBN: 9780996546980 Publisher: Whole Sky Books Type of book: 1930s, 1940s, 1995, Germany, America, secrets, friendship, giving up self, Eva Braun, German dictator, suicide, every four years, bakery, treatment of women, marriage, choices Year it was published: 2015 Summary: Anna Dahlberg grew up eating dinner under her father’s war-trophy portrait of Eva Braun. Fifty years after the war, she discovers what he never did—that her mother and Hitler’s mistress were friends. The secret surfaces with a mysterious monogrammed handkerchief, and a man, Hannes Ritter, whose Third Reich family history is entwined with Anna’s. Plunged into the world of the “ordinary” Munich girl who was her mother’s confidante—and a tyrant’s lover—Anna finds her every belief about right and wrong challenged. With Hannes’s help, she retraces the path of two women who met as teenagers, shared a friendship that spanned the years that Eva Br...

Wild girls- Erica Abeel SR: September 21st 2016 FR: A House Divided-Pearl S Buck SR: March 11th, 2016 FR: N/A Sense of Touch-Rosza Gaston SR: September 1st, 2016 FR: September 15th 2016 The autobiography of Henry VIII- Margaret George SR: September 21st 2016 FR: Sensing Light- Marc A Jacobson SR: September 15th 2016 FR: September 21st 2016 The tea planter's wife- Dinah Jeffries SR: September 21st 2016 FR: The vegetarian- Han Kang SR: September 2nd 2016 FR: September 4th 2016 Revenants- Scott Kauffman SR: August 8th 2016 FR: The last relicuin- Hargus Montgomery SR: August 21st 2016 FR: September 12th 2016 The Madonna of Notre Dame-Alexis Ragougneau SR: September 1st, 2016 FR: September 7th, 2016 The dark lady's mask- Mary Sharratt SR: August 14th 2016 FR: September 1st, 2016 The lobby- Randi m Sherman SR: August 24th 2016 FR: September 2nd 2016 The kept woman- Karin Slaughter SR: September 12th 2016 FR: September 23rd 2016 The claws of the...

Name of Book: The Barefoot Queen Author:  Ildefonso Falcones ISBN: 978-0-8041-3948-9 Publisher: Crown Type of book: Gypsies, revenge, slavery, freedom, 1748-1755, roundup, Spain, Barcelona, singing, opera, daily struggles, jail, loyalty, friendships, interracial relationship, May/December romance, fighting, smuggling Year it was published: 2014 Summary: A historical epic full of bravery and romance that follows two women as they make a life for themselves in 18th-century Spain. It's January of 1748. Caridad is a recently freed Cuban slave wondering the streets of Seville. Her master is dead and she has nowhere to go. When her path crosses with Milagros Carmona's-a young, rebellious gypsy-the two women are instantly inseparable. Milagros introduces Caridad to the gypsy community, an exotic fringe society that will soon change her life forever. Over time they each fall in love with men who are fiercely loyal and ready to fight to the death for their rights a...

Title of the book: The real doctor will see you shortly a physician's first year Author:  Matt McCarthy Publisher: Broadway Books Publishing Date: 2016 ISBN: 978-0-8041-3867-3 Summary: In medical school, Matt McCarthy dreamed of being a different kind of doctor—the sort of mythical, unflappable physician who could reach unreachable patients. But when a new admission to the critical care unit almost died his first night on call, he found himself scrambling. Visions of mastery quickly gave way to hopes of simply surviving hospital life, where confidence was hard to come by and no amount of med school training could dispel the terror of facing actual patients. This funny, candid memoir of McCarthy’s intern year at a New York hospital provides a scorchingly frank look at how doctors are made, taking readers into patients’ rooms and doctors’ conferences to witness a physician's journey from ineptitude to competence. McCarthy's one stroke of luck paired him with...