About Me

About Me

When I was teen, I was on a heavy Stephen King and Peter Straub reading jag. I couldn’t get enough of these authors. Today I still have my collection of these books residing on a shelf of my bookcase. Sometime in my early twenties I became less enamored with King’s readings. I don’t know if my taste just changed or I had burned out on his style. I have to say though that The Shining by King was the first novel I read of his and my favorite out of all his books.

I then started leaning more toward suspense and thrillers and less of horror. Some of the authors I followed were Mary Higgins Clark and James Patterson. My favorite Patterson novels were The Beach House and When the Wind Blows. They were other suspense authors peppered into the mix, but this is the one genre where I mostly stuck to favorite authors.

When my children were in grade school, the Harry Potter craze was all the rage, and I was just as engrossed in reading the books as they were. I found out at that time how much I enjoyed fantasy and many young adult novels. It seemed that YA authors were more creative in many ways than most adult novel authors. My sister-in-law is a YA librarian at a high school, so she would advise or buy certain books for me to read. For young adult reads I didn’t really stick to one author, but would go off recommendations and reviews for great YA books. Yes I devoured the Twilight series, but I can’t say this was my favorite YA read. The best young adult novels I have read are Jellico Road by Melina Marchetta and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.

I still enjoy reading suspense and thrillers as well as many young adult books, but in the last few years, I have also started reading many gentle reads that pull at the heart strings. Again there is no specific author that I stick to, but mostly go off recommendations and reviews to select reads from this genre. Some of my favorites in this category are: Firefly Lane by Kristen Hannah, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and The Memory Keeper’s Daughter by Kim Edwards.

I am not much of a non-fiction reader unless I’m forced to read it. In addition, I a little romance goes a long way in a book, so I’m not a big romance novel reader.

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Kirkus Review

Vivaldi's Virgins by Barbara Quick

Eighteenth-century Venice is brought to life as orphaned, fourteen year old Anna Marie develops into a talented violinist living in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi is her maestro. 

In this historical fiction Anna Maria has been abandoned as an infant and is taken to Pieta where she grows up in the foundling home.  During her childhood she is recognized for her musical talent on the violin and soon comes under the wing of Antonio Vivaldi who becomes her maestro.  Many other orphaned girls live in the founding house as well; however, some of the girls have knowledge of their biological parents and are aware they were given up for a variety of reasons including destitute mothers or being the product of birth out of wedlock among nobility This surprisingly fast paced story follows the precocious Anna Maria as she consistently gets into trouble with her friends at the foundling house which causes her setbacks on her promotions in the choir.  All the while, Anna Marie is trying to find the identity of her mother which is instigated from a locket that has come into her possession.  Although the identity of Anna Maria’s mother is predictable before it is revealed, the story made for a very entertaining read. 


Although the identity of Anna Maria’s mother was predictable as the search was winding down, it was still an enjoyable read trailing Anna Maria and her friend’s escapades throughout the story.  For a historical fiction this read clipped along at a decent pace.
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