Maeve Noonan - Bookseller in Saratoga Springs
Submitted by mnoonan@northsh... on Tue, 10/29/2013 - 6:02pm
"I live in a house that is held together by books - literally" - KMNoonan
This novel is a wonderful addition to Circe, The Song of Achilles, and A Thousand Ships and other retellings of Classical stories. Here Hera narrates the story of not just Penelope, but those left behind awaiting the return of Odysseus. This is not the story of meek and staid women pining for their menfolk but feisty strategists fighting pirates , miscreants and being entrepreneurs. ~ Reviewed by Maeve Noonan
This novel is for anyone in need of a similar vibe to Where the Crawdads Sing.
Quick paced and sensual, you can smell and feel the steam rise from the wetlands of north Florida as Loni Murrow (a Bird artist for the Smithsonian) is forced to deal with dark mysteries of her childhood, and the current situation of a mother lost in dementia. ~ Reviewed by Maeve Noonan
Sublime and heart wrenching with some of the most beautiful writing I have read in a while. If you loved Still Life by Winman or Overstory by Powers try this novel of Cyprus in the 1970s and the partitioning of an ancient land haunted by religious and cultural divisions told through a singular lovestory and narrated by a grieving fig tree. ~ Reviewed by Maeve Noonan
In Moffat's work, "Walking through History" takes on a very literal meaning. Here in the Hidden Ways Moffat takes the reader with him as though they are carried in the breast pocket of Moffat's coat through the different paths history has made through Scotland. Weather roads might be water, tarmac or just tracks you become engrossed and then enamored with Moffat's ability to track down ancient Picts, Roman Centurions, kings, playwrights and plow wrights among curlews and rain making poetry, nature and history a pleasurable blended read. This is my second Moffat and I look forward to a third. ~ Reviewed by Maeve Noonan
Here is a great successor to Sharon Kay Penman (whom we lost last year.) Stanfill's attention to historical detail is surpassed only by her storytelling. Like a luxurious tapestry, the extraordinary life of Eleanor of Aquitaine is the backdrop to the life story of equally rebellious Countess Isabelle de Ravinor whose exploits are woven in and around great and small events in French and English history. This is a good old fashioned epic. ~ Reviewed by Maeve Noonan
