Popular TV historian Dr. Lucy Worsley once again proves her popularity is well deserved with this delightful biography of Queen Victoria. But this book is different from any other you may have read about Victoria in that it takes an in-depth look at twenty-four specific days in the Queen’s life which were the most auspicious,…
Sweet, candid and poignant First Comes Marriage: My Not-So-Typical American Love Story is part biography, part love story, part cultural narrative and altogether delightful. This charming tale of love not-so-American style does a fabulous job of introducing readers to the idea that not all romances must follow the path pushed upon us by Hollywood. I…
It could have been a real life romance novel – if only it had ended with an HEA. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher is primarily the story of how a plucky young girl with aspirations of being an actress had a love affair with her handsome leading man. This while headlining what is arguably…
The Fortress is a memoir narrated in first person by Danielle Trussoni about her second marriage, how it began, and what happened over the ten years of its duration. The author makes herself incredibly vulnerable to judgment by the reader as she goes into excruciating details about the good, bad, and terrible parts of her…
I have loved Jennifer Weiner since I picked up Good in Bed at an airport many years ago. I found that book to be, quite frankly, revolutionary. It was the first novel where the fat girl gets the boy that I had ever read, and as a fat girl myself, that meant it was the…
When I first heard that Aziz Ansari was releasing a book about romance, I thought it was going to be chapters full of his stand-up sketches bemoaning the methods of dating in today’s world. I still wanted to read it because I think Ansari is hilarious; however, I did not expect his book to be…
There are thousands and thousands of blogs, but only a handful of superstar bloggers. One of them is Ree Drummond who blogs about her life on the Oklahoma cattle ranch where she lives with her husband and four children. Ree’s blog features her photography, recipes, and tales of life on a working ranch. She has…
Queen Victoria had nine children and 40 grandchildren. Of her granddaughters, five became queens. They all reigned during tumultuous times and all suffered their share of hardship and disappointment. Julia Gelardi tells the story of these five women in Born to Rule, a fascinating look at a lost era. The five queens were: Maud, Queen…
In the ten years since Kitchen Confidential, doting (and non-smoking) dad Tony Bourdain has settled into the kind of fat cat celebrity raconteur he once took delight in ridiculing. It’s clear that he thinks he’s sold out (he cheerfully admits Rachael Ray bought him off with a fruit basket), but anyone reveling in his razor…
Unlike Lizzie Skurnick, I do remember the book that made me a reader: B is for Betsey by Carolyn Haywood. It was written before my mom was born, but I was completely captivated. It led to an epic reading summer, in which I devoured the entire Haywood oeuvre, scouring the various libraries of Monmouth County,…