Category Archives: Book Review

Book Reviews (Listed Alphabetically by Title)

News of the World: Recap & Chapter-by-Chapter Summary

Chapter 1 Wichita Falls, Texas, Winter 1870. Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd, an older man, makes his living traveling to towns across North Texas, reading from newspapers and journals in halls or churches for ten cents per person. He relies on the honor system when it comes people paying their ten cents. Kidd feels a certain …

Educated: Key Ideas & Summary

This is a detailed summary of Educated by Tara Westover. For those short on time, each section begins with bolded text that summarizes that section. Part One Prologue (Introduction) The prologue introduces Tara Westover, her survivalist father and the unconventional way (no birth certificates, no medical records, etc.) she and her siblings have been raised …

The Silent Patient: Recap & Summary

The book is in second-person with Alicia’s psychotherapist (Theo Faber) as the narrator. It is interspersed with Alicia’s old diary entries. Part One Pt I, Chapters 1-2. Alicia is a painter. She murdered her husband Gabriel six years ago on August 25. A neighbor (Barbie Hellman) heard shots. Police arrived to find a gun with …

Circe: Recap & Summary

Note that these headers (The Beginning, Glaucos, Aiaia, etc.) are not in the book. The Beginning Chapters 1 – 3. Circe is the daughter of Helios (a Titan and Sun God) and Perse (Oceanid Naiad/Water Nymph). She is a god, but she is less beautiful and lacks the powers of her siblings, Perses, PasiphaĆ«, and …

The Secrets We Kept: Recap & Summary

Prologue The Typists. The book introduces the Typists, women who work in the Soviet Russia Division of the CIA as typists and secretaries, typing up memos, reports, dictations and the like. Chapter 1 (East, 1949 – 1950) The Muse. Olga Vsevolodovna Ivinskaya is arrested and taken to Lubyanka, a Moscow prison, due to her affair …