aristocracy

A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh


Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Feb 22, 2011

The month of Febraury seemed like a good time to read a romance.   So I selected one with good recommendations, A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh.   This book is more like a short story or novella, so there's not much detail  here.

The lovely Lady Annabelle Ashton disgraces her aristocratic, but financially diminished family,  when she  leaves the community ball without a proper chaperon.  She is, however, accompanied by her father's dashing new coachman. This unladylike conduct will surely ruin her chances of marriage to a wealthy, but unattractive suitor arranged by her father the Earl of

Parrot and Olivier in America by Peter Carey


Rated by Library Staff (not verified)
Aug 27, 2010

parrot-olivier.jpg

I was so happy to finally receive this book , after all the hype about this new effort from Carey, a two-time Booker prize winner.  His use of language and sentence structure make demands of a reader that sometimes cannot be met, and my steady diet of mysteries has softened the brain to some extent, making the reading seem more like a chore.  But like most things, once you get used to the rhythm and meanings  behind the words, the story is a fascinating discourse on Jacksonian America, and revolutionary France, where Olivier de Garmont is spirited away from, lest he lose his head.  His