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LitStack Review: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom Leigh Bardugo Henry Holt and Co. Release Date: September 27, 2016 ISBN 978-1-62779-213-4 Back in March, I wrote a review of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows, where I admitted that it’s lead character, Kaz Brekker, had become my new favorite anti-hero. In Crooked Kingdom, the one-sided love affair […]

The Perfume Collector by Kathleen Tessaro

The Perfume Collector Kathleen Tessaro HarperCollins Publishers First Edition: May 14, 2013 ISBN 978-0-06-225783-3 It’s been a long time since I’ve read a book in its entirety in a single day, but last week it happened with Kathleen Tessaro‘s marvelous new novel The Perfume Collector. It’s not that I was […]

Birthdays

On this day, August 5, in 1850, Guy de Maupassant was born in Tourville-sur-Arques, France. Considered one of the fathers of the modern short story, he was mentored by Gustave Flaubert and taken under the wing of Alexandre Dumas, fils. Author of over 300 short stories, six novels, three travel books, and one volume of poetry, his very first work, Boule de Suif was immensely – and immediately – popular, and is considered a masterpiece. Despite his public and critical success, he craved solitude and suffered from hallucinations, eventually attempting suicide at age 42. He died less than two years later after being committed to a private mental asylum in Paris.

Birthdays

On this day, December 3, in 1857, Joseph Conrad was born in Berdichev, Imperial Russia (modern
Ukraine, then a part of Poland). While he settled in England and wrote in English, he always considered himself a Pole. Heart of Darkness, one of the most famous of his 20 novels (which explores colonialism and the attitudes regarding what constitutes a barbarian versus civilized society) is considered one of the best English novels of the 20th century, as is his novel Lord Jim, which chronicles a crew’s abandonment of its disabled ship. Conrad died in England in 1924 at age 66.