Truthful and poignant. I admire her bravery to tell her stoy so boldly and honestly.

This one book I personally kept myself from getting into while I read it the first time. Not because of any fault of Alice Seabold, but more because it is such a stark portrayal of loss and recovery that I thought I would be devastated if I got too into. I love this book. Makes my favourites list.

I adore this book. Completely takes the reader into a world that we'd have no knowledge, not only hundreds and hundreds of years ago, but also very detailed portrayal of women's lives. I loved the sisterhood of it, as well as the romance. I loved Dinah as a narrator and the traditional story-telling feel of the entire book.

A good read from a view-point that gives the reader the ability to judge the setting of Elizabethean England differently than is traditionally wont to.

My favourite Phillipa Gregory novel. Very in-depth historically, full of details and consistent and complicated characters. Presents the well-known historical story from a new view point.

Winner of the "Most Genius JP Book from a Writing Standpoint." My mind was literally exploding when I discovered why she introduced the main character with passing amnesia -- so that neither the reader not the character herself remembers what happens so no one develops a prejudice before a particular character even appears.

This book was slightly disappointing. A really great, easy to read and understand and appreciate portrayal of Marie Antionette, got away from the stereotypical ideas of a stuck-up, skanky queen who didn't care about her subjects. Also enjoyed Naslund's approach to Marie Antoinette's ideas about what was happening. The reason it was disappointing was because it seemed to lose steam about halfway through.

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. I started reading Sena Jeter Naslund's other book (Abundance) first and this one is very different. Naslund presents a quiet, femine female character who is also extremely strong. I also really liked how she took on the philosophical thoughts and ideas of the day, from feminism to religion to slavery. Also made me have an affection for Captain Ahab, which I also didn't expect.

About about rape/sexual harrasment from the "bad" guys point-of-view. I enjoyed the change of traditional thought without bad-mouthing actualrape victims.

Hmm. I don't remember a lot of details about this one because I only read it once, but I do remember loving, as always, JP's attention to detail, lovingly-crafted characters, and insanely amazing plot twists.