I read The Half-Drowned King because I embarked on a spree of reading Viking/Norse related books. Some time ago, I read all thirteen of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon series, and more recently, I've read The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown, The...
Bestselling Author
the art of words
Bestselling Author
the art of words
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“There’s plenty of sharp, suspenseful action to savor here in this impressively poignant, hauntingly realistic, and searingly moving tale. Schafer intensively explores themes of racism, violence, war, and human welfare. Vivid, boldly written, life-affirming historical fiction drawn from the horrors of the Rwandan genocide crisis.” —Kirkus Reviews
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In response to the worldwide epidemic of genocides and to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the Rwandan Genocide, Suanne Schafer has issued a second edition of Hunting the Devil, revised and with a new Author’s Note. The electronic edition was free from April 7 through July 15, 2024, the hundred days the 1994 genocide lasted.
Part medical procedural, part global political thriller, part vigilante novel, and part fractured romance, Hunting the Devil moves from the dusty washboard roads of Rwanda to an inner-city hospital in America to the Natural History Museum of Belgium to the halls of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, Tanzania as it deftly traces one woman’s journey toward justice.
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“The depth of emotion of a modernist novel and the epic scope of a historical saga.” —Alicia Rasley, author of The Year She Fell
Passion & Paint (formerly A Different Kind of Fire) depicts one woman’s battle to balance husband, family, career, and ambition. Torn between her childhood sweetheart, her forbidden passion for another woman, the nobleman she had to marry, and becoming a renowned painter, Ruby’s choices mold her in ways she could never have foreseen…
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“The depth of emotion of a modernist novel and the epic scope of a historical saga.” —Alicia Rasley, author of The Year She Fell
Ruby Schmidt has the talent, the drive, even the guts to enroll in art school, leaving behind her childhood home and the beau she always expected to marry. Her life at the Academy seems heavenly at first, but she soon learns that societal norms in the East are as restrictive as those back home in West Texas. Rebelling against the insipid imagery woman are expected to produce, Ruby embraces bohemian life. Her burgeoning sexuality drives her into a life-long love affair with another woman and into the arms of an Italian baron. With the Panic of 1893, the nation spirals into a depression, and Ruby’s career takes a similar downward trajectory. After thinking she could have it all, Ruby, now pregnant and broke, returns to Texas rather than join the queues at the neighborhood soup kitchen. She discovers her life back home is as challenging as that in Philadelphia.
Passion & Paint (formerly A Different Kind of Fire) depicts one woman’s battle to balance husband, family, career, and ambition. Torn between her childhood sweetheart, her forbidden passion for another woman, the nobleman she had to marry, and becoming a renowned painter, Ruby’s choices mold her in ways she could never have foreseen…
Suanne Schafer, born in West Texas at the height of the Cold War, finds it ironic that grade school drills for tornadoes and nuclear war were the same: hide beneath your desk and kiss your rear-end goodbye. Now a retired family-practice physician whose only child has fledged the nest, her pioneer ancestors and world travels fuel her imagination.
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Suanne Schafer, born in West Texas at the height of the Cold War, finds it ironic that grade school drills for tornadoes and nuclear war were the same: hide beneath your desk and kiss your rear-end goodbye. Now a retired family-practice physician whose only child has fledged the nest, her pioneer ancestors and world travels fuel her imagination.
I read The Half-Drowned King because I embarked on a spree of reading Viking/Norse related books. Some time ago, I read all thirteen of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon series, and more recently, I've read The Real Valkyrie by Nancy Marie Brown, The...
Where Wild Peaches Grow is set in Natchez, Mississippi, and depicts the dissolution and resolution of the Davenport family, primarily through the eyes of Nona. Thinking she has been betrayed by her family, she leaves them and heads to Chicago. There, she becomes a...
West with Giraffes has been on my to-be-read pile since it came out, and I regret taking so long to get to it. For some reason, the title made me think of Beryl Markham’s marvelous memoir, West with the Night, so I was expecting something along the lines of a safari...
The Silence in the Sound is a dual timeline novel, switching back and forth from the story past to the story present. It vividly portrays the effects of addiction on families. George (short for Georgette) has an alcoholic father and a mother who enables his behavior....
My Secret to Keep is the second novel by Barbara Conrey, who writes lovely women’s fiction. The book spans decades in the life of Maggie Bryan. She expects to follow the route of virtually every woman in her old-fashioned hometown: finish high school, marry, perhaps...
A Venom Dark and Sweet is the second book in Judy Lin’s duology, The Book of Tea. It stands alone, but to get the full sense of the world building, you should read them in consecutive order. Lin develops a truly original system of magic and carries it through both...
Sixth grader Ina definitely doesn’t fit in with her fellow sixth graders: she lives in the worst possible apartments in her school district; her mother is suffering from depression and has lost her job; the family is having financial difficulties; Ina’s got some...
Wild is the Witch is set in the Pacific Northwest, the perfect place for an atmospheric young adult novel about witchery and its connection with the Earth. It is a genre-blending confection that pulls off a young adult enemies-to-lovers trope well. Both the...
Author Jeannée Sacken draws upon her experience as an international photojournalist to heighten the reality she creates in Behind the Lens. Annie Hawkins Green is a veteran photojournalist who's been embedded during wars around the world. While in Afghanistan, she and...
Camile DiMaio is an author well known for giving her readers beautifully-written, well-researched books centered on historical events while providing a story all her own. Until We Meet brings together two close-knit sets of friends during World War II. Margaret,...
Dead Drop is the first in Author James L’Etoile’s Detective Nathan Parker potential series. I’ve read and enjoyed his earlier Detective Penley series. Readers who enjoy noir, thrillers, police procedurals, and suspense will like these books. James L’Etoile uses his...
The Rot is a YA fantasy story that reads like a Norse myth. The story combines fantasy with a young adult love story in the classic hero’s quest. The protagonist is Hirka, a now-sixteen-year-old girl, who is different from everyone else she knows: she was born without...
The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi is an amazing fantasy/fiction/scifi novel that is the first in a trilogy. This first book is an exciting read for many reasons. The world-building is excellent. A lot of time is spent delineating the various racial groups that...
A Bride’s Guide to Marriage and Murder is the fifth in the entertaining Countess of Harleigh cozy mystery series in which readers follow both the exploits of the heroine, Frances, the Countess of Harleigh (an American bride) and her romance with George Hazelton, her...
I finished The Actual Star a couple of days ago and have had to consider how to write this review. I definitely have a love-hate relationship with this book. It was not an easy read; however, I found it fascinating and thought-provoking, enough so that I discussed it...
The first book in this series, Our Child of the Stars, lingered on my Kindle for far too long. Having read it and loved it, I wasted no time devouring its sequel, Our Child of Two Worlds. Like its predecessor, it is a gem of a book, an underlying quiet, emotional...