reviews

Sin, Purity, and Redemption Author: Nathaniel Hawthorne Hester Prynn, young married woman with an absentee husband who probably long ago drowned at sea, is standing on the town scaffold, holding her burden of sin for the world to see. Proud, even arrogant, Hester fights against the conformities of Puritan society while yet being a part of it, the scarlet A (adulteress) embroidered on her chest and her new infant cradled in her arms a testament to the calamity of passion. Goaded to name the father, yet resilient in her defiance, Hester is stunned when a familiar misshapen figure hovers in [...]

Familiar Stranger Author: Paula Hawkins You’ve probably heard all the hype about how The Girl on the Train is the next Gone Girl. But I’m here to tell you, don’t believe it! (For one thing, Dark Places is technically the next Gone Girl, as the movie adaptation opens in France in April 2015.) The intriguing unreliable-narrator premise — involving a seemingly innocent bystander who entangles herself in a complex murder case — starts off strong, but soon gets as fatally compromised as the investigation. All aboard for this spoiler-free review! Our “girl on the train” is Rachel, who commutes back [...]

Death on the wing... Author:  John A. Baker “I saw my first peregrine on a December day at the estuary ten years ago.” A simple statement from British author John Baker that discloses the birth of an obsession.  Baker would spend the next couple decades of his life pursuing peregrine falcons along the coastline east of his hometown of Chelmsford, England.  Riding his bicycle to the shore near his home, he developed a knack for finding the birds each winter along the eastern English coast.  In the early 1960s he spent much of his time, in weather both fine and [...]