Unabridged Chick

Title: Aunt Epp's Guide for Life: Miscellaneous Musings of a Victorian Lady
Author: Elspeth Marr; Christopher Rush (editor)

Genre: Diary & Memoir/Reference

Love/Hate?: Love
Rating: 5/5
Did you finish?: Yes!

One-sentence summary: Entertaining advice from a Victorian wife.

Why did you get this book?: I received a review copy from Wonders & Marvels

Do you like the cover?: Yes

First line from book: N/A

Review: This delicious little book is the collected wisdom of a Mrs Elspeth Marr, a Victorian wife writing for an unknown female. The advice is shockingly modern, wickedly funny, and very practical. I mean, the woman suggests sex as a cure for insomnia! (Unless one is unmarried. Then she suggests onions.)

Books like this are a lovely reminder that free thinkers have always been around, that women -- regardless of era -- possess great wisdom, and humans always suffer sleepless nights!

Title: Brief Lives: E.M. Forster
Author: Richard Canning

Genre: Biography

Love/Hate?: Love
Rating: 5/5
Did you finish?: Yes

One-sentence summary: Brief, readable, gay-friendly bio on E.M. Forster

Why did you get this book?: I received a review copy from LibraryThing

Do you like the cover?: Yes

First line from book:

Review: This compact but highly readable biography is a fantastic introduction to E.M. Forster. Canning writes candidly about Forster's homosexuality and the impact being closeted had on Forster's fiction. Best for someone who's read a little Forster, this is still an enjoyable bio for anyone curious about writers, English colonial history, or BGLTQ history.

Title: Heresy
Author: S.J. Parris

Genre: Historical Fiction

Love/Hate?: Didn't dislike
Rating: 3-4/5
Did you finish?: Sadly, no!

One-sentence summary: Ex-monk travels to Elizabethan England is search of missing ancient text.

Why did you get this book?: I received a copy from a Wonders & Marvels drawing

Do you like the cover?: Yes

First line from book: The outer door was thrown open with a crash that resounded along the passage, and the floorboards shook with the purposeful march of several pairs of feet.

Review: I wanted very much to like this book -- the premise was interesting enough, but I think I'm just too sexist in my reading to get very invested in a male protagonist. Frankly, I wanted Sophia Underhill to be the hero of the story, not Giordano, and so I didn't get very far into the book. What I read was enjoyable enough, but not gripping, and even though the story is built around some true figures, it felt a little too DaVinci Code for me.

This video is making the rounds, but I can't resist posting it here. Talk about a labor of love! Many authors I'm familiar with and so many more that I'm not! I've been taking notes for my TBR!