Jane Litte's Blog, page 118

February 19, 2021

REVIEW: Crooked Heart: A Novel by Lissa Evans

Paper Moon meets the Blitz in this original black comedy, set in World War II England, chronicling an unlikely alliance between a small time con artist and a young orphan evacuee.


When Noel Bostock—aged ten, no family—is evacuated from London to escape the Nazi bombardment, he lands in a suburb northwest of the city with Vera Sedge—a thirty-six-year old widow drowning in debts and dependents. Always desperate for money, she’s unscrupulous about how she gets it.


Noel’s mourning his godmother Ma...


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Published on February 19, 2021 06:00

Friday Good News

Readers who have been coming to Dear Author for a while might remember how we got involved with following the fate of Black footed ferrets. There is an author who lifted, verbatim, a long passage from a scientific source to use in her book. This was discovered and discussed at length. At this point several people, myself included, made donations to a fund set up to help with the expenses of trying to bring this species back from the brink of extinction.

In 2016 there was news that the colony wa...

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Published on February 19, 2021 05:00

February 18, 2021

Bridgerton: A Discussion, Part IV

This week we discuss Bridgerton in five posts. You can find the first three here:

Part I is centered on the show’s worldbuilding and production values, on its treatment of race, and on Lady Whistledown.

Part II focuses on the show’s matriarchs–the queen, Lady Violet, Lady Danbury, and Lady Featherington.

In Part III we talked about Simon and Daphne’s courtship.

And now for today’s discussion:
 
TRIGGER WARNING:

Spoiler: Show

Rape

Simon and Daphne (Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor): Part B—th...

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Published on February 18, 2021 08:00

REVIEW: Space Is Cool as F*ck by Kate Howells


Packed with wild art and mind-blowing space facts, this book proves how awesome the universe is—and that space is for everyone.


From astrophysics to rocket science to the future of space exploration, Space Is Cool as F*ck explains everything you thought you’d never understand about the universe in plain-old filthy English. We’re talking Big Bang, aliens, black holes, time travel, degenerate astronomers, and all the fundamental things you take for granted until you stop and think (like matter—w...


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Published on February 18, 2021 07:00

REVIEW: This Party’s Dead: Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World’s Death Festivals by Erica Buist


Journalist Erica Buist travels to seven death festivals around the world (Nepal, Madagascar, Indonesia, Sicily, Japan, Mexico and New Orleans) in search of better attitudes towards death


After the death of her father-in-law, journalist Erica Buist decided to travel to seven death festivals around the world, in an attempt to understand how different societies deal with grief, and how people are able to move past the knowledge that they’re going to die in order to live happily day-to-day. In the...


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Published on February 18, 2021 06:00

February 17, 2021

Bridgerton: A Discussion, Part III

This week we discuss Bridgerton in five posts. You can find the first two here:

Part I is centered on the show’s worldbuilding and production values, on its treatment of race, and on Lady Whistledown.

Part II focuses on the show’s matriarchs–the queen, Lady Violet, Lady Danbury, and Lady Featherington.

And now for today’s discussion:
 
Simon and Daphne (Regé-Jean Page and Phoebe Dynevor): Part A—the courtship

Janine: In many ways Simon and Daphne’s courtship played out similarly to a lot of roma...

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Published on February 17, 2021 08:00

REVIEW: The Turncoat’s Widow by Mally Becker


Recently widowed, Rebecca Parcell is too busy struggling to maintain her farm in Morristown to give a fig who wins the War for Independence. But rumors are spreading in the winter of 1780 that she’s a Loyalist sympathizer who betrayed her husband to the British—quite a tidy way to end her disastrous marriage, the village gossips whisper.


Everyone knows that her husband was a Patriot, a hero who died aboard a British prison ship moored in New York Harbor. But “everyone” is wrong. Parcell was a ...


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Published on February 17, 2021 06:00

February 16, 2021

Bridgerton: A Discussion, Part II

Our Bridgerton discussion, which began yesterday with a conversation about the show’s worldbuilding, its treatment of race, and Lady Whistledown, continues today. Today we discuss the show’s matriarchs–the queen, Lady Violet, Lady Danbury and Lady Featherington. –Janine
 
Queen Charlotte (Golda Rosheuvel)

Janine: The show’s choice to cast a Black actress as Queen Charlotte in the nod to the real Queen Charlotte’s likely ancestry was brilliant for the reasons we mentioned yesterday. But there’s a...

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Published on February 16, 2021 08:00

REVIEW: First Comes Like by Alisha Rai

Mustard yellow illustrated cover. A bearded Indian man looks at his phone on the left and a Desi woman in a hijab is on a screen on the right.Dear Alisha Rai,

I’ve read and enjoyed the first two books in your Modern Love series so I was very keen to read Jia’s book.

Jia Ahmed is the youngest sister of Sadia from Wrong to Need You. At the end of The Right Swipe, Jia came to stay with Rhiannon and Katrina in Santa Barbara. She dropped out of medical school (thus severely disappointing her parents) and made herself a career out of being a fashion and beauty YouTuber and Instagram influencer.

She’s 25 and cares too much about what everyone...

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Published on February 16, 2021 06:00

February 15, 2021

Bridgerton: A Discussion, Part I

Please welcome my friend Layla, who is joining DA as an additional book reviewer. When we were watching Bridgerton, Layla and I texted back and forth about it. It was so much fun that we decided to write a series of posts that included our thoughts on different aspects of the show. –Janine
 
Production Values / Worldbuilding

Janine: Let’s start with the production values. I loved that the fashions quickly signal that we are not anywhere near actual history, that this is a sexy, glamorous, delici...

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Published on February 15, 2021 06:00

Jane Litte's Blog

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