The Review Broads Bros + Paws

The Blonde Author: Anna Godbersen   Ok ,I have read some really strange fiction about Marilyn Monroe and Jack Kennedy but this one takes the cake.  The writing is good.  The plot is farcical and unbelievable.  I don’t think any of us believes that Jack Kennedy loved Marilyn Monroe.  Nor do I think that Frank Sinatra treated her like a little sister.  Just my opinion. From 1948 through the Cold War years, the plot of this book rests on the fiction that Marilyn was given a promise by ... continue reading...

The Second Diary  Author: Ciara Threadgoode Sometimes we just want a novel that places us in a small town with characters whom enter in, sit down, and start telling us a story.  Fannie Flagg, Ann Tyler, Garrison Keillor are authors who deliver locale: small town residents, and people: quirky and wonderfully warm characters.  Now we have Ciara Threadgoode and Truckee, California and goings on of Dorothy Rose Nolte Hughes, her daughter Peggy, and her granddaughter Cherry, who narrates the ... continue reading...

Ice Bound A Doctor’s Incredible Battle for Survival at the South Pole  Author: Dr. Jerri Nielsen with Maryanne Vollers Sometimes we open a book and race from page to page, exhilarated and so involved 10 hours go by and we are still reading. Ice Bound is such a book. The true story of Dr. “Duff” Nielsen and the adventurers and scientists she lives with for one year at the Antarctic South Pole, with temperatures of below 100 degrees F, astounds. The South Pole “winter” (our summer) months of 6 ... continue reading...

The Medici Boy Author: John L’Heureux The Medici Boy reminded me immediately of Irving Stone’s The Agony and the Ecstasy, A Novel of Michelangelo. L’Heureux’s 15th century Florence thrives on genius and sin, art, politics, and sexual deviance. This brilliant portrayal of Donatello, the greatest sculptor of 1400’s Florence, depicts a man both angelic with genius and kindness, and deviant and raging in his love for young men: specifically one young man, Agnolo, the model for his David and ... continue reading...

The Opposite of Loneliness Author: Marina Keegan Essays and Stories At twenty two years old, 5 days after graduating from Yale, the bright future of Marina Keegan ended in a tragic car accident. Marina left behind a legacy of prose, poetry and essays that startle and tingle with the audacity of intelligence, wit and a talent that we, as readers, lost. Harold Bloom, Sterling Professor of the Humanities and English, and a well known critic and writer says this about his student Marina: “I will ... continue reading...