I don’t think I’ve ever read such an intricately patterned novel about generations of gay men. The Stranger’s Child moves from the beginning of the
Let me begin this review with a glittering generality. I find contemporary Scandinavian murder mysteries to be graphic, violent, unsettling, and almost off-putting. I try
Dorothy Wickenden, the author of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West, describes the story of her grandmother’s year in
While I am reading a book that I plan to review, I am constantly thinking of words and phrases that might best describe the author’s
Another Place & Time: Voices from the Carrisa Plains Too many voices from our American past have been lost, especially those of men and women
THE ROUND HOUSE The Round House, Louise Erdrich’s latest novel, foregrounds all of her considerable talents. Set on an Ojibwe Indian reservation in North Dakota,
A Beautiful Place to Die brings to life a 1950s South Africa, when new apartheid laws have just been enacted and when justice is in
If you love history and if you relish smart historical novels, Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall is a book you do not want to miss. Mantel
Belshazzar’s Daughter, the first of a series highlighting Inspector Cetin Ikmen in each novel, is a police procedural set in modern-day Istanbul. Just like policemen
Roger Hobbs almost explodes onto the thriller scene in his debut novel Ghostman. We may never know the Ghostman’s identity but the Ghostman is a character
Novels set in a distant time and in an unfamiliar place always appeal to me, novels like David Fulmer’s first three New Orleans mysteries: Chasing
18 In America: A Young Golfer’s Epic Journey to Find the Essence of the Game Standing on the first tee, with the sun just coming
Blood & Beauty retells the story of the Borgia family’s rise to power at the height of the Italian Renaissance. The novel begins on August
Barbara Kingsolver is at her best when she views a particular setting and its inhabitants through the eyes of a keenly perceptive female character. Writing
Whenever I read a book in translation, I always wonder whether I’m reading exactly what the author intended. Or is the translator getting in the
Sometimes, when you open a book and begin reading, you’re totally surprised. Expecting one sort of novel, you discover another. That happened to me when
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