Sunny's bookshelf
Sunny's bookshelf photo by Judy Solomon

Online book reviews since 2011, the very best in reviewing – connecting good readers with equally good writers

Historical Fiction

The Honey Jar
Children’s early and middle readers
Sunny Solomon

The Honey Jar

The Honey Jar, An Armenian’s Escape to Freedom, is Joan Schoettler’s captivating tale of a young boy’s 1920, escape from his war-torn home in Armenia.

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Dreamers of the Day
Fiction
Sunny Solomon

Dreamers of the Day

Dreamers of the Day is Mary Doria Russell’s novel that is as fresh if not fresher today than when first published in 2008. Mary Doria Russell’s

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Sisters in Arms
Authors of color
Ann Ronald

Sisters in Arms

  Sisters in Arms – Kaia Alderson introduces a subset of a distinct group of WWII women deployed overseas during the war. Welcome to the

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Horse
Animal stories
Sunny Solomon

Horse

Horse – Once again, Geraldine Brooks uncovers little known parts of our American history. She moves us from 2019 back to the pre-Civil War south,

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The Girl You Left Behind
Art
Ann Ronald

The Girl You Left Behind

The Girl You Left Behind – Jojo Moyes’ novel of the portrait of a French artist’s wife and the war that intervened, separating by death

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Zeitoun
Fiction
Ann Ronald

Zeitoun

Zeitoun – Dave Eggers’ talent for bringing impersonal news stories like Hurricane Katrina up close and very personal is here in Zeitoun. Like so many

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The Sisters of Versailles
Fiction
Ann Ronald

The Sisters of Versailles

The Sisters of Versailles – Sally Christie’s fictional telling of the Mailly-Nesle sisters who became part of the life of eighteenth-century France’s King Louis XV.

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The Postmistress of Paris
Historical Fiction
Sunny Solomon

The Postmistress of Paris

The Postmistress of Paris – Meg Waite Clayton’s novel of WWII France, German occupied/Vichy Free Zone, and the seldom exposed side of an unarmed French

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The Exiles
Fiction
Ann Ronald

The Exiles

The Exiles – The incarceration of women from 19th century Australia to 21st century California. Christina Baker Kline’s story proves that the more the world

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Rodham
Fiction
Ann Ronald

Rodham

Rodham – Historical fiction, a reimagining of Hillary Clinton’s life with and without Bill. Longtime readers of “Bookin’ with Sunny” know my fondness for historical

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Bound for Gold
Books on books
Ann Ronald

Bound for Gold

Bound for Gold, William Martin’s sixth Peter Fallon novel. This one is a West Coast page-turner as tasty as it is mysterious, both in the

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The Beekeeper of Aleppo
British Authors
Sunny Solomon

The Beekeeper of Aleppo

The Beekeeper of Aleppo gives voice to asylum seekers with compassion and complexity. People whose troubles we only thought we knew. Christy Lefteri’s novel The

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All The Ways We Say Goodbye
Fiction
Ann Ronald

All The Ways We Said Goodbye

All The Ways We Said Goodbye – Team W (Williams, Willig, and White) have done it again! One historical romance written by three talented writers.

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