

Review of The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Whitehead, inspired by a real-life reform school that abused and terrorized boys for over a century, shares a tale of racial injustice,...
Mar 13


Review of Junie by Erin Crosby Eckstine
Erin Crosby Eckstine's richly detailed historical fiction explores the life of Junie, an enslaved young woman in rural Alabama haunted by...
Feb 25


Review of To the Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
Eowyn Ivey is masterful at intertwining fantastical elements with the grounding of the vivid details of nature. To the Bright Edge of the...
Feb 20


Review of The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin
This middle-grade writing collaboration inserts a clever young protagonist into the behind-the-scenes World War II British codebreaking...
Feb 6


Review of Isola by Allegra Goodman
Isola , based upon the story of a real-life sixteenth-century woman, shifts between details of a life of moneyed ease and an abandonment...
Feb 5


Review of There Are Rivers in the Sky by Elif Shafak
There Are Rivers in the Sky weaves together three stories set in three timelines, featuring disparate characters, to explore...
Feb 4


Review of Fallen Land by Taylor Brown
The debut novel from one of my favorite authors tracks a horse thief and an orphan who bond and find love amid the turmoil and...
Jan 23


Review of The Resurrectionist by A. Rae Dunlap
Dunlap's debut novel explores early Edinburgh surgical schools, questionable methods of obtaining study subjects, a main protagonist's...
Jan 14


Review of The Safekeep by Yael van der Wouden
Much of The Safekeep feels claustrophobic, quiet, and hopeless, but unexpected shifts late in the story turn accepted histories on their...
Jan 9


Review of Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst
Our Evenings explores a young, often cruel, existence at a British boys' boarding school; later fits and starts of exploring sexuality...
Dec 10, 2024


Review of A Song to Drown Rivers by Ann Liang
I love Liang's books, and this departure from her romantic comedies is inspired by the Chinese legend of Xishi. It's full of danger,...
Dec 3, 2024


Review of Light to the Hills by Bonnie Blaylock
Blaylock's story centers around a packhorse librarian in 1930s Appalachian Kentucky and adds layers like a complicated past, second...
Nov 13, 2024


Review of Trespasses by Louise Kennedy
Kennedy writes poignantly about the Irish Troubles through the point of view of Cushla, a young adult stretching her wings despite her...
Oct 30, 2024


Six Fascinating Historical Fiction Stories about the Civil War
The Civil War Books This painful, terrible time in our nation's history makes for some poignant, brutal, often beautiful storytelling....
Oct 11, 2024


Review of The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
ICYMI: My favorite Kate Quinn books center around strong young women proving their mettle during wartime crises, and The Alice Network ...
Oct 10, 2024


Review of Bright I Burn by Molly Aitken
Aitken's story of a strong, crafty, fearless woman in 1200s Ireland is based upon the real figure of Alice Kyteler, whose power and...
Oct 1, 2024


Review of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith
Smith's historical fiction story in two timelines equally powerfully evokes the bleak Dutch winters of the 17th century and grimy,...
Sep 25, 2024


Review of What the Mountains Remember by Joy Callaway
The historical fiction story about the building of the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, had a romantic element that was...
Sep 24, 2024


Review of Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward
Annis is a young Southern woman enslaved, sold, and abused in the years before the Civil War. In Let Us Descend , she leans on the...
Sep 12, 2024


Review of Maria: A Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran
I was hooked on the behind-the-scenes feeling of Moran's historical-fiction conversations between Maria von Trapp and an assistant to...
Sep 11, 2024