Sarah J. Sover’s first book, Double-Crossing the Bridge, is a play on the fairy tale “The Three Billy Goats Gruff.” If you ever wanted a story about the Underworld, filled with trolls and other monsters, Double-Crossing the Bridge is for you. Sover's second novel,...
I've been a long-time fan of Tony Hillerman since my father introduced me to those mysteries way back in the early 1970s. Since then, I've read every Tony Hillerman book and, being raised in the Southwest, love how he (and later his daughter, Anne Hillerman) capture...
Robin Hood—The Shadows of Sherwood Forest is an interesting twist on the typical Robin Hood story as it is told from the point of view of Little John. I recently read Röehrig’s Erik the Red and found his Robin Hood much more readable. Robin Hood is considerably...
Erik the Red is a fictional account of the life of the eponymous Erik Thorvaldsson, a medieval Norse explorer. Erik is portrayed as a hot-tempered young man and follows his life until his death. Other prominent characters include Erik’s wife as well as his best...
Out Front the Following Sea is a delight to read. It’s thoroughly researched but doesn’t get bogged down in historical facts. Set in 1689, during the King William’s War between French and English settlers, the novel abounds with adventure and romance as it deals with...
Stephanie Foo uses her journalism background to research and beautifully write her memoir of surviving long-term childhood abuse, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex. When her therapist reveals Ms. Foo's diagnosis of Complex PTSD, Ms. Foo begins years...
In The Collector’s Apprentice, the author B. A. Shapiro disguises the life of Dr. Albert Coombs Barnes, the chemist and physician, as Edwin Bradley, a man with a similar history, and turns it into a thriller. Both men develop a medication, Argyrol, to prevent...
Gods of Jade and Shadow is quite different from Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s noir-ish Velvet Was the Night. Gods of Jade and Shadow is set in the Yucatan peninsula during the 1920s. The old myths and religious beliefs of the indigenous folk have withered away, supplanted by...
Violeta is a coming of age story written in an epistolary style in a very long manuscript she sends to her grandson, Camilo. The protagonist, Violeta Del Valle, came into the world with the Spanish influenza pandemic in 1920, and, now 100, faces the Coronavirus...
S. M. Goodwin pulled me into Crooked in His Ways immediately just as she did the first book in the series, Absence of Mercy. As a physician I enjoyed her descriptions of Jasper Lightner, a Crimean War hero with post-traumatic stress syndrome and a traumatic brain...
The Island of Missing Trees is undoubtedly the most beautiful, most lyrical book I've read recently. I previously enjoyed Elif Shafak's The Bastard of Istanbul but feel she outdid herself with this newest book. Shafak writes with imagination, originality, and a hefty...
I read The Violin Conspiracy in one sitting, pulled along by the events and the emotional drama. The book follows Rayquan “Ray” McMillian, a vitruoso violinist from childhood through his entry into the world-famous Tchaikovsky musical competition in Moscow. Shortly...
The End is a young adult pre-apocalyptical dystopian science fiction book that deftly handles a bevy of social issues. It blends sci-fi with thriller as teens solve a murder. It may be more suited for older teens as alcohol, sex, and drugs play a large role. The...
I read Blue-Skinned Gods in one sitting, broken only by a telephone call from a friend. The cast of characters was compelling populated by everything from a child-god to rock-and-roll stars. S.J. Sindu intertwines these characters’ lives in such a mesmerizing fashion...
In the first of the Grecian Women Trilogy books, Athena's Child, Hannah Lynn retells the story of Medusa and Perseus. In the second of the trilogy, A Spartan's Sorrow, Lynn revisits the Trojan War, focusing on Clytemnestra. As in her depiction of Medusa, Lynn again...
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