About the Book “In [this] masterful new novel, an art history professor retreats from her failing marriage into fantasies of her research subject, Georges de La Tour . . . A truly remarkable piece of fiction.” — Washington Post Book World “Huddle skillfully counterpoints his three plots, and the result is a prismatic, gemlike [...]
Archive of posts tagged history
Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
Questions for Discussion We hope the following questions will stimulate discussion for reading groups and provide a deeper understanding of Everything Is Illuminated for every reader. 1. Everything Is Illuminated is a novel written in two voices: Alex’s account of the fictional character Jonathan Safran Foer’s journey to Ukraine, and Jonathan’s magical history of [...]
The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
Downloadable Guide for Group Discussion and Classroom use “A masterpiece. How does she do it?” — A. S. Byatt Friedrich Leopold, Baron von Hardenberg (1772—1801), was born in Oberwiederstadt, Germany, studied law, philosophy, and history, worked as a government auditor at Weissenfels, and—under the pseudonym Novalis became known as the “prophet of Romanticism.” Best [...]
A Slave No More by David W. Blight
A Slave No More David W. Blight ISBN:9780156034517 About the book: Slave narratives are extremely rare; very few are first-person accounts by slaves who freed themselves. Now two newly uncovered narratives, and the biographies of the men who wrote them, join that exclusive group. Wallace Turnage was a teenage field hand on an Alabama plantation, [...]
This Human Season by Louise Dean
This Human Season Louise Dean ISBN:9780156035330 About the book: November 1979, the height of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Kathleen Moran’s son Sean has just been transferred to the hypersecure H-block in Belfast’s notorious Maze prison, where he soon emerges as a young but important force in the extreme protest that political prisoners are staging there. John [...]
Ambitious Brew by Maureen Ogle
Ambitious Brew Maureen Ogle ISBN:9780156033596 About the book: Ambitious Brew, the first-ever history of American beer, tells an epic story of American ingenuity and the beverage that became a national standard. Not always America’s drink of choice, beer finally took its top spot in the nation’s glasses when a wave of German immigrants arrived in [...]
The Women of the House by Jean Zimmerman
The Women of the House Jean Zimmerman ISBN:9780156032247 About the book: The remarkable Margaret Hardenbroeck Philipse arrived in New Amsterdam from Holland in 1659, a brash and ambitious twenty-two-year-old bent on making her way in the New World. She promptly built an empire of trading ships, furs, and real estate that included all of Westchester [...]
Tattoo for a Slave by Hortense Calisher
Tattoo for a Slave Hortense Calisher ISBN:9780156032032 About the book: Although Hortense Calisher’s family eventually migrated north to New York City, the echoes of their days as a slave-owning family in the South still resonate with this prolific and widely acclaimed author, who in Tattoo for a Slave uncovers a part of history never before [...]
Jamestown by Matthew Sharpe
Jamestown Matthew Sharpe ISBN:9780156031714 About the book: A group of "settlers" (more like survivors) arrive in Virginia from the ravished island of Manhattan, intending to establish an outpost, find oil, and exploit the Indians controlling the area. But nothing goes quite as planned (one settler, for instance, keeps losing body parts). At the heart of [...]
The Whistling Season by Ivan Doig
The Whistling Season Ivan Doig ISBN:9780156031646 About the book: "Can’t cook but doesn’t bite." So begins the ad offering the services of an "A-1 housekeeper" that draws the attention of widower Oliver Milliron in the fall of 1909. And so also begins the unforgettable season that deposits the noncooking, nonbiting, ever-whistling Rose Llewellyn and her [...]
