reviews

Liz Bennett in the Role of a Shock Jock Author: Curtis Sittenfeld   After the milieu of Pride and Prejudice themed movies from Masterpiece Theater to the latest (and greatest) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies blockbuster film, modern day audiences are showing some inordinate love for the feisty heroine first penned by the historically demure Jane Austen in 1813. Everyone knows the story – set against a backdrop of social politeness, etiquette, and sardonic piano-forte, heroine Elizabeth Bennet overcomes the stigma of a silly, money-grasping family to prove that marriage is about love – not money or social station. For Austen’s time period, this [...]

Womiting, Ghosts, Nesting, and WWII Author: James Herriot Following All Creatures Great and Small, All Things Bright and Beautiful continues the warm hearted autobiography of James Herriot and his adventures pre-World War II in the Yorkshire Dells. A struggling vet, now made partner in the practice, Herriot uses this volume to capture some of the greatest joys and biggest struggles in his life along with the heartwarming and often hilarious animal stories that have long captured the hearts of readers. Now married to Helen, James looks back on their courtship intermittently with a nostalgic longing that peppers the book. No longer so chronological, [...]

A Story of Beautiful, Scarred Survivors Author: Amy Tan Zao Jun was once a dedicated farmer who, upon marrying, turns into a tyrant. Whiling away the family’s earnings and abusing his long suffering, kind-hearted wife, Zao dies, regretful. His regret and his honesty concerning his misdeeds toward his wife earn him an ironic eternal reward. He is now the Kitchen God, a rural deity who watches over the mistakes of others and pronounces judgment. Capricious, vindictive, and generally disliked, the Kitchen God is a household homemaker’s religious nightmare, his shrine guarding over the domestic woman’s realm and, like his forgotten [...]