By Nava Atlas | On January 16, 2020 | Updated September 2, 2022 | Comments (0)
Knowing how obsessed I am with all things Brontë, my brother thoughtfully gifted me with Charlotte Brontë Before Jane Eyre, a graphic biography by Glynnis Fawkes.
Charmingly told and skillfully drawn, this book for readers of all ages focuses on the most famous of the brilliant literary sisters, Charlotte Brontë, from her early years to the moment she sends off the finished manuscript of Jane Eyre to a prospective publisher. Said she: “It’s sent. Now there’s nothing but forlorn hope.”
Of course, the legions of fans of Jane Eyre know how this turned out, though fewer readers know of the trials that beset the Brontë sisters — Charlotte, Emily, and Anne — from their childhoods to their premature deaths. Glynnis Fawkes captures their spirit and sorrows. Read More→
By Marta McDowell | On December 3, 2019 | Updated September 2, 2022 | Comments (2)
If you or someone you love is both an Emily Dickinson aficionado and an avid gardener, Emily Dickinson’s Gardening Life by Marta McDowell is a book to treasure. This 2019 publication (Timber Press, Portland, OR) is a full color, lushly illustrated homage to an enigmatic woman who was not only a brilliant poet, but a keen observer of the natural world around her.
Organized by season, this gorgeous book is revised from an edition first published in 2004, by an author whose expertise in gardens dovetails with an avid interest in classic women authors who cultivated them. From the publisher: Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On November 9, 2019 | Updated June 13, 2023 | Comments (0)
Zora Neale Hurston (1891 – 1960), the African-American author and anthropologist, was a natural storyteller. Presented here is a survey of books by Zora Neale Hurston — her novels, folklore collections, and essays.
Zora’s love of story resulted in an array of novels and short stories as well as compilations gathered from oral traditions of the Black cultures of the American South and the Caribbean.
Zora made a name for herself during the Harlem Renaissance movement of the 1920s, when she began producing novels, short stories, plays, essays, and a modest output of poetry. Upon graduating from Barnard College in 1928, she embarked on a parallel career as an anthropologist. Read More→
By Taylor Jasmine | On September 19, 2019 | Updated October 7, 2023 | Comments (0)
Gin Austen: 50 Cocktails to Celebrate the Novels of Jane Austen by Colleen Mullaney is a clever little book celebrating the exquisite novels of Jane Austen with boozy delicacies and attendant wordplay. From the publisher:
In six enduring novels, Jane Austen captured the fancies and foibles of Regency England, and this book celebrates the picnics, luncheons, dinner parties, and glamorous balls of Austen’s world. Learn what she and her characters might have imbibed, and what tools, glasses, ingredients, and skills you simply must possess.
Raise your glass to Sense and Sensibility with a Hot Barton Rum or Elinorange Blossom. Toast Pride and Prejudice with a Salt & Pemberley, Fizzy Miss Lizzie, or Cousin Collins. Read More→
By Nava Atlas | On September 10, 2019 | Updated October 30, 2023 | Comments (0)
Just in time for settling in with a good book in front of the fireplace (or wood stove, or what the heck, even your radiator) on a stormy night, this deliciously thrilling collection was released, appropriately, on Halloween — October 31, 2019.
Handheld Press Ltd., based in Bath, England (onetime home of Jane Austen) presentsWomen’s Weird: Strange Stories by Women, 1890 – 1940.
Edited by Melissa Edmundson, this compilation of strange tales by women authors — including some lesser-known gems by some of the classic authors on this site — will be of great interest to readers of literary ghosts stories, the supernatural, and other kinds of thrillers. From the publisher: Read More→
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