Friday, April 5 is the day the Episcopal Church (USA) dedicates to Pandita Mary Ramabai. It’s also the date of her death in 1922. At the time of her birth in 1858, Rama was an unlikely candidate for Christian recognition. Her father was an itinerant shastri who took his family from temple to temple. He
Articles Categorized Books
Dinner with Penelope
The question came up yesterday. If I could have dinner with any literary heroine, who would I invite? I felt like should choose Elizabeth Bennett, because her character resonates with modern readers. But then I thought, one has tea with Elizabeth Bennett, not dinner. So, I set her to the side. Next I thought of
Two Coins: A Few Character Profiles
Last week I shared the places associated with Two Coins: A Biographical Novel. This week I’m introducing some of the people who grace its pages. With one exception, my selection is limited to characters with a visual record. Two Coins focuses on the libel case Mary Pigot filed against The Reverend William Hastie. Though I
Two Coins: A Sense of Place
My latest book, Two Coins: A Biographical Novel, officially released this past Friday, February 1, 2019. And, I’m excited to share some of the background to Mary Pigot’s story, and how I found it. While doing research for Rama’s Labyrinth, I ran across several references to the case of Pigot vs. Hastie, a civil suit
LAST OF THE SUMMER READS
Throughout the summer I’ve highlighted books I enjoyed reading. It’s the last week of August, and today is the final installment of Summer Reads for 2018. I don’t know if the books under discussion have been to your taste. They’re all books I enjoyed with historical fiction and literary fiction the most represented genres. The
SUMMER READS: Women’s Fiction by Carolyn Brown
It’s the middle of August. It’s hot and often humid. A time when a hammock looks pretty good. This portrait of a woman doing her correspondence while sitting in a hammock under the trees is a cooling view. Perhaps there’s a breeze. What if, instead of dutifully looking through her letters, the woman reclined with
SUMMER READS: Two Novels of Forgotten Women
THE HANDFASTED WIFE It’s 1065 and Edith Swanneck is worried, because “These days everyone talked of how important a church wedding was, a priest listening to vows exchanged in the church porch and then blessing the marriage.” [Handfasted Wife, Chapter 1] Edith Swanneck didn’t stand on the church porch with her husband Harold Godwinson. They
SUMMER READS: Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton & Patsy Jefferson Randolph
We see Alexander Hamilton every time we take out a ten dollar bill. Our first Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton believed in a strong central government led by the executive branch, established the national debt as a means of developing international credit, and built the Bank of the United States. Alone among the Founding Fathers,
SUMMER READS: TWO BEACH BOOKS ABOUT BEGINNERS
Changing up the reading list a little with two novels about families and growing up. Officially the genre is called coming-of-age, and though it specifically refers to the transition from youth to adulthood, I don’t think it’s a process that’s ever complete. Both of these novels are engaging, and good vacation reading. MATCHMAKING FOR
SUMMER READS: TWO NOVELS BY SUJATA MASSEY
Good historical fiction takes the reader into an authentic world where the story is presented against the backdrop of actual customs and material culture, for example, food as it is eaten and prepared or family customs such as purdah, the seclusion of women within the household. When there’s also a mystery involved, it becomes more
