BODICE RIPPERS Some of the best fun in running this book review site is the unexpected, like Joanna Bourne’s The Forbidden Rose, just reviewed by Ann
Slow talking is what you find in southern stories, in the author’s own unhurried voice or that of any one character, and quite often the
Australian novelist Liane Moriarty poses an intriguing question: what might occur if/when a wife unwittingly/purposely unearths a heretofore hidden, horrific marital secret? What might happen,
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
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
A Bushel’s Worth: An Ecobiography My dictionary does not include “ecobiography,” nor does spellcheck recognize the word. But one definition of “eco” is “not harmful
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
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
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
Pilgrim’s Wilderness: A True Story of Faith and Madness on the Alaska Frontier As a reporter for the Anchorage Daily News, Tom Kizzia covered the
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
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
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
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
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
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,
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