reviews

A Classic Story of Broken Innocence and Forbidden Love Author: Colleen McCullough The Thorn Birds, known to many from the epic mini-series of the early 80s, is a story of forbidden romance, heartrending choices, love verses duty, spiritual love vs earthly love, and the rugged splendor of Australia. It begins with the Clearys, a poor family living in New Zealand, barely keeping ends together as progressively more children are added to the brood (we count seven at the high point). This is not a childhood of playing and school, but one of instant labor and chores. Among these children there [...]

The Intentions of the Past Author: Chanelle Benz Billie Jean has a lifetime of secrets, and on this sultry Mississippi night, transformed from city girl to a desolate young woman in a falling down shack, she contemplates them and what answers her past and this weird inheritance have for her. Her father, famous black poet Clifton James, mysteriously died in his prime, back in 1972, after returning from the city to his Mississippi roots. Her white mother, James’ much neglected wife, died many years later in a fading battle with cancer. Neither parent left answers for their strange union, for [...]

The Children Are Now Tyrants Author: Donna Tart My first experience with Donna Tart has left me mesmerized, both by the art of her authorship and the casual depravity she reveals in humanity. The story is your typical college dysphoria. The haves and the have nots. The cool and the underdog. The campus weirdos and the elite in-crowds. How they all combine is where the story flowers, and what a dark and blood tinged flower of adulthood this story becomes. Richard Papen is a poor boy from a lackluster, strip-shopping center California life, newly escaped to the semi-ivy league Hampden [...]