I… sometimes I just need closure. That must be why I picked up The Sword of Medina. The sequel to The Jewel of Medina (reviewed here) manages to outdo its predecessor in every way. It’s more boring, more historically inaccurate, more internally inconsistent, and more alienating than Jones’ first book. Basically, it covers the years the years after the Prophet’s death and the internal struggles for [...]
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books:Romance
For a historical novel, I found the bibliography in The Jewel of Medina sorely lacking, particularly since it includes Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women, which I totally cited back in my undergrad as an example of shitty Orientalist tripe. I know I’m brilliant and all, but I feel like a professional journalist writing a historical novel shouldn’t be consulting the [...]
This book was SUCH fun. Ranya is a Canadian Lebanese diva. Her wedding was amazing, her family’s wealth has kept her sheltered, and her husband was the catch of the year. She’s got it all — until she spies her increasingly distant husband getting a little too friendly with Paolo-the-interior-decorator.* Ranya runs away, eventually arriving in a Miami that challenges her assumptions about women, freedom, [...]
When I was about 13, I read a book called The Explorer by Francis Parkinson Keyes. It does not appear to be available on Amazon or the librarything (or anywhere else I looked), so unfortunately I can’t link to it, but it was definitely an adult romance, and not at all a romance I would expect to be available at a church library. The “explorer” [...]
I am floored by how good this was. Yates’ delicate treatment of brotherhood, fatherhood, and the nature of love is at times surprisingly sensuous and always brutally honest. Yates’ touching story of desire set in the heart of a coastal New England wrenches at the heart. On to the plot! Nathan Bishop is a slightly closeted high school teacher living in a resort town in [...]
In English as a Second Language, our heroine Alexandra goes to grad school across the pond primarily because her ex-boyfriend says she can’t. It’s a bit of a lark… but one that’ll take about a year to get through. Right. Hm. The writing style’s quick and witty (highlights include Alex attempting to spy on her flatmate’s ex-girlfriend in order to help him find out if [...]
One afternoon last week I went to my mother’s house to pick something up. I had a little extra time and I was really tired, so I stretched out on the couch with a book of mine that is still on her shelves, a young adult romance I had loved in my teens. I was never one to love romances much, but I was fascinated [...]
