Joyce Carol Oates is often heralded as the Queen of American Gothic, at least of modern day writers. Recently she has focused her efforts on short stories and editing collections of others’ short stories. This offering is a hefty novel that she began working on nearly 30 years ago while living near Princeton, NJ. Set…
REVIEW: THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI by Helene Wecker
In the turn-of-the-century New York City, a Syrian tinsmith names Arbeely is repairing a copper flask, when he unwittingly releases a jinni. The spirit has been captive an untold number of decades, unable to enjoy the freedom he once enjoyed. The tinsmith, stunned, takes in the wayward jinni. He gives him a cot and the…
REVIEW: LADY AT THE O.K. CORRAL by Ann Kirschner
I must admit – I never knew that Wyatt Earp was married. He was, by most accounts, a dashing and magnetic man. But for every larger-than-life aspect of his legend, there was Josephine (Marcus) Earp. Daughter of a Jewish family, she struggled to find her own identity in Victorian Era America. When one could not…
REVIEW: THE REAL JANE AUSTEN by Paula Byrne
Frustratingly little is known about Jane Austen. We don’t know what she looked like. There is only one drawing of her, as a youth, that is considered to be a portrait, but even some scholars don’t accept that. In time for Jane Austen’s bicentennial year, Paula Byrne has put together a compilation of her life.…
REVIEW: JUNGLELAND by Christopher S. Stewart
Stewart’s travelogue is as addicting as the tales of the lost city itself. A freelance writer from Brooklyn, Stewart heard about Ciudad Blanca during an interview with a US solider who had endured the Honduran jungle. Like many who hear stories of far-flung secrets, Stewart was hooked. He scoured satellite images from Google Earth, questioned…