I really hadn’t planned to re-read more than one of Lois Duncan’s novels for the Shelf Discovery Reading Challenge but I enjoyed Down a Dark Hall so much that I re-considered. I was really expecting it to feel more dated (and maybe it would have if I wasn’t approaching it
In some ways, this reminds me of Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky which is another instance in which the story behind a book is just as interesting as the book itself. My first online search for information about The Bondwoman’s Narrative pulled up not information about the narrative itself, but
One of the things that I love most of all about reading memoirs, journals and letters (of literary figures, especially, because they tend to read so much, but of anybody really) is taking note of what the writer is reading. This was particularly interesting in reading Journey with My Selves
Here are the bits that biased me towards liking Marina Endicott's novel before I'd read more than two pages. 1. The pudding-skin metaphor at the top of the second page. I think pudding-skins are far more versatile than most writers give them credit for and I overuse metaphors with them
Even though I actually finished reading this memoir last week, it seems fitting to launch February's blog, on the first day of Black History Month, with bookchat about this memoir, penned by the woman who was the first black woman to teach history at Yale University, as an assistant professor
