THE SOUL OF AN OCTOPUS When the proprietress of Seaport Books, in La Conner, Washington, recommended Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus, I must
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW Imagine incarceration, not in an isolated prison cell but in a bustling Moscow hotel, not for a week or a month
Daniel James Brown’s Facing the Mountain, A True Story of Japanese American Heroes in World War II, is the rich telling of the plight faced
My Life in Middlemarch Rebecca Mead pretends to be writing a riff on her own life as it echoes various Middlemarch themes, but in truth
Co-author with Mary Ann Shaffer of the best-selling The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and creator of a highly regarded children’s series starring
My Kitchen Year: 136 Recipes That Saved My Life. Reichl’s gift, mouthwatering recipes evoking memories of our own successful and not-so-successful kitchen hours. Comfort food!
THE BLUE TATTOO: THE STORY OF OLIVE OATMAN Margot Mifflin‘s The Blue Tattoo follows a long history of tales of Indian captivity. A True History
ONCE UPON A RIVER When I turned the final page of Diane Setterfield’s novel, Once Upon a River, I closed the book and sat staring
Who’s the Publisher? And Why it’s Important You may not be able to tell a book by its cover, and I personally give thanks for
The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers who Reinvented American Literature Midway through The Bohemians, Ben Tarnoff describes “the seed of California humor”
The Bartender’s Tale, recalled by his son. Ivan Doig’s novels, like The Bartender’s Tale, circle around themselves, like a helix coiling both inward and out.
One of the delights of “Bookin’ with Sunny” is discovering books and authors you otherwise might miss. That’s true for reviewers as well as for
GIRLCHILD I am of two minds as I write this review of tupelo hassman’s girlchild. I admire this novel enormously, but I found its content
THE GREAT ALONE The Great Alone is the third Kristin Hannah novel I have reviewed for “Bookin’ with Sunny.” I am a great fan of
Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear . . . and Why Trainwrecks, Sady Doyle metaphorically muses, are women who have lost
VALLEY OF THE MOON When I was a girl, perhaps ten years old, my parents treated me to a matinee staging of Brigadoon. I’ve never
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