A Potpourri of Opinions

  The Phoenix Crown Kate Quinn and Janie Chang Pub. date: Feb. 13, 2024 by William Morrow Paperbacks Historical Fiction 4 👢👢👢👢 Summary: From bestselling authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn, a thrilling and unforgettable narrative about the intertwined lives of two wronged women, spanning from the chaos of the San Francisco earthquake to the glittering palaces of Versailles. San Francisco, 1906. In a city bustling with newly minted millionaires and scheming upstarts, two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano whose career desperately needs rekindling, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress who is determined to escape an arranged marriage. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. His patronage offers Gemma and ...

With a new blog one must take the time to introduce themselves. 😀 I've worked in museums and libraries since 2012 and have been a librarian/branch manager at several different public libraries since 2018. As a librarian I feel I am partly expected to have some kind of literary influencer presence outside of work.   During the pandemic a group of random women banded together and created the blog With A Book In Our Hands. Someone sponsored the domain name and we flooded social media on a weekly basis. We covered all genres and it was pretty remarkable. Sadly, as time went by, the enthusiasm for the blog waned and we lost several of our founding members. That, coupled with an exorbitant amount of technical issues, inclined me to think about taking the lead on my own blog.  I am fortunate that in my position I have been able to host virtual author chats with some AMAZING authors. Debut authors, USA Today bestselling authors, New York Times bestselling authors, and internatio...