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They range from a time-hopping mystery set in the English countryside to a charming tale of an elderly lady shopkeeper sleuth.

Cozy mysteries are perennial favorites among Book Riot readers, and since we’ve just entered the best season to read them, Libby has shared the top 10 most borrowed cozy mysteries in the North American Public Library space. They range from a time-hopping mystery set in the English countryside to a charming tale of an elderly lady shopkeeper sleuth. Make sure to round the list below off with the BIPOC cozy books listed by Managing Editor Vanessa Diaz here—which include Detective Aunty by Uzma Jalaluddin and A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant—or the ones listed here by Book Riot writer Anne Mai Yee Jansen (Under Lock and Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian, Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon, Mimi Lee Gets a Clue by Jennifer J. Chow, and Tita Rosie’s Kitchen mystery series by Mia P. Manansala). Libby’s Top 10 Borrowed Cozy Mysteries 10. Every Time I Go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack 9. Finlay Donovan Is Killing It by Elle Cosimano 8. The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie 7. How to Solve Your Own Murder by Kristen Perrin 6. The Marlow Murder Club by Robert Thorogood 5. Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon 4. The Maid by Nita Prose 3. Murder Takes a Vacation by Laura Lippman 2. Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers by Jesse Q. Sutanto 1. We Solve Murders by Richard Osman Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.

Immortals in dark fantasy, a senior citizens’ center + daycare collision, Savannah's sinister secrets, and more of today's best book deals

Today’s Featured Book Deals $2.99 How to Age Disgracefully by Clare PooleyGet This Deal $1.99 The Leftover Woman by Jean KwokGet This Deal $1.99 The Great Believers by Rebecca MakkaiGet This Deal $1.99 Pineapple Street by Jenny JacksonGet This Deal $1.99 The Lagos Wife by Vanessa WaltersGet This Deal $2.99 The Martian by Andy WeirGet This Deal $2.99 An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers SolomonGet This Deal $2.99 The Inheritance Trilogy by N. K. JemisinGet This Deal $2.99 Witch King by Martha WellsGet This Deal $1.99 The Kingdoms of Savannah by George Dawes GreenGet This Deal $1.99 My Soul to Keep by Tananarive DueGet This Deal $1.99 Once Smitten, Twice Shy by Chloe LieseGet This Deal In Case You Missed Yesterday’s Most Popular Book Deals $1.99 Unlikeable Female Characters by Anna BogutskayaGet This Deal $1.99 When Women Were Dragons by Kelly BarnhillGet This Deal $1.99 The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph WhiteGet This Deal $1.99 The Cat Who Saved the Library by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal KawaiGet This Deal Previous Daily Deals $.99 My Big Fat Vampire Wedding by Jessica GadzialaGet This Deal $2.99 One by One by Ruth WareGet This Deal $1.99 House of Blight by Maxym M. MartineauGet This Deal $1.99 How To Read a Book by Monica WoodGet This Deal

Trump's $15 billion lawsuit against NEW YORK TIMES journalists and authors, THE HOUSEMAID trailer is here, and more.

Welcome to Today in Books, our daily round-up of literary headlines at the intersection of politics, culture, media, and more. Trump Targets Journalists and Authors in Billion-Dollar Lawsuit Trump continues his streak of lawsuits against news media companies with a $15 billion defamation lawsuit against New York Times journalists who authored a book and articles focusing on his finances and role in the show, The Apprentice. The book, published by Penguin Random House, and NYT articles published ahead of the last election. We’ve seen major news corporations and other formidable institutions settle out of court. Lawsuits are costly, time-consuming, and the president wields great power but, in my opinion, settling sets a terrible precedent and damages reputations. Law firm Paul, Weiss lost major partners after entering a deal with Trump to remove an executive order against the firm. The optics of a law firm fearing the courtroom is yikes, and you have to wonder if it was worth it. I think not. Katie Fallow, deputy litigation director at Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, told AP News, “Trump’s new lawsuit appears designed not to vindicate any genuine reputational harm, but to impose crushing legal costs on media organizations and create a chilling effect that will deter future critical coverage of Trump’s conduct and business dealings.” The NYT and PRH so far sound committed to standing by its writers. The Housemaid Adaptation Has a Trailer The adaptation of The Housemaid, Freida McFadden’s dark domestic thriller, has a trailer and it is tense. Starring Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried (who kinda look like the same person to me), the book and film follows Millie, the housemaid for the wealthy Winchester family, and Nina, her employer. Millie, desperate for work and to escape her past, can’t afford to leave her job even as she discovers horrifying secrets about the Winchester family. Based on the success of the book, the talent attached, and our collective hunger for domestic thrillers, I’m predicting this movie, out December 19th, will do very well in the box office. A New Digital Comics Platform Marrying Webtoon and Disney Popular digital comics company Webtoon has reached a tentative agreement with Disney to create a new digital platform. The platform will host both Webtoon comics and Disney’s catalog of Marvel, Star Wars, and other comics. According to Publishers Weekly, “the new platform will include a mix of vertical and traditional formats for archived comics, current comic book runs, and original stories.” Web comics have really taken off, so Disney cozying up to a popular, established space for the form makes sense. A final agreement is pending but Disney’s impending 2% equity stake in Webtoon has already sent the company’s stock soaring. Horrifying New Historical Fiction for Fall Let’s hear it for crisp mornings and hot beverages. Fall is nigh and if you’re looking for some historical fiction to get you in the Halloween spirit, we’ve got a selection of anticipated new releases out this fall featuring demons, witches, spirit mediums, and haunted houses. What are you reading? Let us know in the comments!

An award-winning superhero graphic memoir, a DeafBlind disability advocate graduates from Harvard, and a poet comes of age in London.

Here in the U.S., September is Deaf Awareness Month, which celebrates the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Deafness is a spectrum and includes many different communities and cultures across the world. In honor of the occasion, here are a few books for your TBR! El Deafo by Cece Bell Bell’s graphic memoir reimagines her as a rabbit with a superhero alter ego. Young Cece worries about starting at a new school, especially since she has to wear a hearing aid strapped to her chest because she’s Deaf. At her old school, everyone was Deaf. But now, she’s the only Deaf kid in her class. To combat her anxiety, she imagines herself as the Deaf superhero, El Deafo, who can hear things far away with her incredible hearing aid. El Deafo helps Deaf kids feel seen and understood. Cece is so relatable as she finds her inner courage as she lives her life with her disability. El Deafo went on to win the Vermont Golden Dome Book Award, was a Newbery Medal Winner, and is now an animated series on Apple+. Haben: The Deafblind Woman Who Conquered Harvard Law by Haben Girma Haben Girma is a DeafBlind disability advocate who’s traveled the world, graduated from Harvard Law School, and met President Obama. She grew up visiting her family in Eritrea, learning about how her grandparents fought for their freedom from Ethiopia. She always wanted to embody her family’s courage, so she decided to bravely face the world. She didn’t accomplish these things by overcoming her disability. Instead, she embraced it, inventing new accommodation technology and advocating for better disability inclusion. The Quiet Ear by Raymond Antrobus Raymond Antrobus grew up as a biracial kid in East London. When he was six, doctors realized he was deaf. Antrobus couldn’t hear everyday sounds like whistling kettles, alarms, and some people’s voices. When he went to school, he hated having to wear his hearing aids. The Quiet Ear is a portrait of a deaf poet coming into his own. While the memoir is slim, Antrobus’s words create a deep impression of a young man coming of age and his acceptance of his own identities through his love of language. You can find me over on my substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.

There's stolen Japanese art in the early 1900s, cold cases, an atmospheric Australian mystery, and even a possible male "black widow"

I accidentally read Emily Austin’s 2026 releasing novel, Is This a Cry For Help?, well before its publication date. How does one accidentally read a book in the year before it releases, you ask? I’m a big fan of Austin’s writing, so when I spotted an egalley for her 2026 novel, I immediately downloaded it and tossed it into my ereader’s “2026 TBR” folder. But then I did the I’ll-just-read-the-first-page-to-get-a-taste read, and whoopsie, I read the entire novel. I figured that since I’ve already started downloading (and reading!) 2026 titles, and have made my “2026 crime galley” doc, I’d give you a little peek into some of what I’ve already flagged. As usual, there’s plenty here for all the reading tastes, including a small-town cold case, a YA murder spree case, true crime, historical mysteries, and more! *I did not put specific release dates because I don’t want to look like a liar if the release week or month changes, but they’re all listed in early 2026 catalogs.* Last One Out by Jane Harper The second that I saw Jane Harper talking about her book tour and new novel releasing in Australia, I rushed to find when we’d get it in the US. Looks like Last One Out will be available in spring of 2026 (I already checked UK stores and, no, they’re not on the Australian pub date release schedule *cries). Once again, we are getting an atmospheric, small Australian town setting, centering on a missing person case. Five years after her 21-year-old son disappears, Ro Crowley returns to Carralon Ridge for answers… A Pretender’s Murder (Eric Peterkin #2) by Christopher Huang Publishing continues to play musical chairs with release dates, so I’ve been excited about this sequel for a while and was super bummed when it got moved from 2025 to 2026 (publishing makes these decisions for a million reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the book.) I’ve talked about the first book in this series, A Gentleman’s Murder, a lot (including in Crime In Another Time: 17 Historical Mystery Books) and still recommend it regularly as a great historical, locked-room mystery! Naturally, I am thrilled to see that Eric Peterkin, who was editing a mystery novel and thought that qualified him as a great detective at the start of the series, is back! We’re still in London, 1920s, following WWI and the impact it’s had on society, including soldiers and their families. The exclusive Brittania club for soldiers once again is ground for a murder, and Peterkin must put his sleuthing cap on… London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family’s Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe I will, and have, read everything PRK has written since Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland (bonus: there’s a great Hulu series adaptation), so I genuinely needed zero information to download this. And to be totally honest, the only reason I haven’t already read the galley is that I’m debating waiting for the audiobook. Once again, we get a blend of history and crime from an excellent journalist and narrative nonfiction writer. Such A Perfect Family by Nalini Singh If I wasn’t already a fan of Nalini Singh, I’d be 100% picking this up because of its setting and tropes! Tavish Advani has a curious past: all his past relationships have ended with his partner dying. But this “kept man” didn’t let that slow him down. Having moved from L.A. to New Zealand with his new wife, things were looking up. Until his wife’s family home caught fire and exploded, leaving his wife and sister-in-law in a coma. What did his wife’s last words mean? Who would do this? Detectives have an eye on Tavish, but he wants to point at his new family. I Don’t Wish You Well by Jumata Emill After having enjoyed both of Emill’s previous YA mysteries (The Black Queen, Wander in the Dark) I am obviously going to read any future titles. And the fact that it has many tropes I love has jumped it to the top of my TBR. Teen investigative journalist. Cold case murder mystery. Small town murder spree. Masked killer. A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper If you’ve been here for a little while, you know I love Harper’s crime novels (She Rides Shotgun, Everybody Knows), so hello, automatic buy/read for me! This sounds like an intense L.A. crime novel that goes deep into its underbelly. It follows three strangers (“a gonzo live-streaming nightcrawler,” “a street lawyer,” and a private concierge employee) whose lives are all changed by a crime (a conspiracy, a questionable suicide, and a missing friend), who are all forced to decide how they’ll fight back in this violent world. Crown City by Naomi Hirahara I have enjoyed Hirahara’s blend of history and mystery (Clark and Division and Evergreen) and was thrilled to see that she has a new novel releasing in early 2026. The history: 1903, Pasadena, Ryui arrives by boat from Japan as an 18-year-old orphan. The mystery: Ryui, working as an apprentice for an antiques dealer, and his roommate Jack, a photographer, are hired by an artist to find out who stole a painting from his studio. And the artist in the book is Toshio Aoki, who was a real-life Japanese artist! Browse the books recommended in Unusual Suspects’ previous newsletters on this shelf and see 2025 releases. Check out this Unusual Suspects Pinterest board and get Tailored Book Recommendations! Until next time, come talk books with me on Bluesky, Goodreads, Litsy, and Multitudes Contained. If a mystery fan forwarded this newsletter to you or you read it on bookriot.com and you’d like to get it right in your inbox, you can sign up here.

Comic cookbooks are changing the kitchen game one panel at a time.

Comic cookbooks are changing the kitchen game one panel at a time. Anyone who’s struggled through a text-only recipe and watched things go horribly off the rails knows the value of a helpful picture or illustration. Comic formats go even further, providing step-by-step visual instructions and creative ways of showcasing different flavors and techniques. It only took one graphic cookbook for me to become a believer. Their power is especially strong if you’re looking to make a dish you’ve never tried anything close to before, something using tools, methods, and ingredients way out of your comfort zone. As a foodie and passionate home chef, I’m simply obsessed with comic cookbooks. Try one and you will be, too. Below, you’ll find some inventive graphic cookbooks to get you started, as well as some books coming out in the next few months that I’ve got my eye on. Some are recipe-focused, while others delve into food history, unique ingredients, guides to kitchen tools, and regional cuisines. Some even include their authors or historical culinary figures as illustrated characters guiding you through the cookbooks. In all cases, you’ll find vivid art and mouthwatering dishes to inspire you to get more creative in the kitchen. Noodles, Rice, and Everything Spice: A Thai Comic Cookbook by Christina De Witte and Mallika Kauppinen This is the comic cookbook that introduced me to the broad possibilities of the format. After traveling to Thailand, I wanted to try cooking Thai food myself, but a lot of the ingredients and methods were unfamiliar to me. Enter this clever book by food lover Mallika Kauppinen and artist Christina De Witte. Not only is it a perfect illustrated guide to the basics of Thai cooking, it also includes an intro to Thai food history, geography, and ingredients (including Thai chili peppers!) in cheerfully drawn comics. I adore how the authors appear as characters throughout the book, and the recipes (and illustrations) are mouthwateringly delicious. All Access subscribers continue on for more comic cookbooks. This content is for members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read.

Within, you'll find demons, witches, spirit mediums, and haunted houses that will have you shivering in horror and delight.

Some may consider September to be Halloween Eve, but I say why stop there? Why not consider all of fall fair game for haunts and hallowed reads? Publishers clearly think so, too, since a plethora of new historical horror and thrillers are coming our way this fall. From masters of the genre to newcomers with bold new takes, these five horrifying new historical fiction books are the perfect way to set the tone for your fall reading. Within, you’ll find demons, witches, spirit mediums, and haunted houses that will have you shivering in horror and delight. Crack open the pages of these great new historical fiction books—if you dare. New Horrifying Historical Fiction to Read Now The Possession of Alba Diaz by Isabel Cañas The master of supernatural historical thrillers, Isabel Cañas, has graced us with a new book for fall. A plague sweeping through 18th-century Zacatecas forces Alba, her wealthy parents, and her fiancé to flee to an isolated mine where they might weather the outbreak unscathed. But something even more deadly lurks in the depths of the mine, something that has taken a hold of Alba’s mind. The symptoms she experiences should mean nothing to Elías. Alba is betrothed to his cousin, after all. But he notices the changes even when no one else does—and he may be the only one who can save her from the demon desperate for her blood. House of Monstrous Women by Daphne Fama When Josephine’s childhood friend, Hiraya, invites her to come to a house by the sea to play a game, she knows the offer is more than it seems. Hiraya is rumored to be a witch, and if Josephine wins the game, she’ll be granted her heart’s desire. It might be a risk, but it’s a risk she’s desperate enough to take after losing her family to her father’s political ambitions and her brother to the revolution brewing in Manila. Ranoco house is like a labyrinth with endless rooms. If she wins, she might be able to change her future. But first, she’ll have to survive. New Horrifying Historical Fiction to Pre-order/Request These books aren’t out yet, but you’re going to want to get your hands on them as soon as possible. Trust me. The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch Release date: October 7, 2025 Decades ago, Mei took part in a competition putting six spirit mediums to the test in a notoriously haunted house. The result has become an urban legend, a story about the supposed massacre that police dismissed as a mass hallucination when no evidence was found. But now someone has returned claiming they know what happened, even though Mei herself still isn’t sure. She knows what she saw, but in order to prove what really happened, she’ll have to return to the very place where the ghosts of her past await. The Salvage by Anbara Salam Release date: October 7, 2025 With comparisons to Emma Donoghue, Sarah Waters, and Julia Armfield’s Our Wives Under the Sea, how could this not be one of my most anticipated historical thrillers this fall? A marine archaeologist called in to a remote Scottish island to explore a newly uncovered Victorian shipwreck discovers much more than she bargained for when she’s stranded in Cairnroch for the winter. All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles Release date: October 7, 2025 The author of The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen brings us a fresh gothic mystery following two ex-lovers who must find some way to reconcile under the flickering gaslight of Lackaday House, where they’ve both been summoned to compete for the hand of a young bride—and all the wealth she’ll inherit. Zeb has no interest in playing into these games, but when he tries to leave, he discovers there’s no way out. In this game of love and haunted houses, winning is less important than making it out alive. 10 Chilling Historical Thrillers Must-Read Historical Horror Novels 8 Creepy and Compelling Historical Horror Novels

From trans horror to a story of Medusa chasing down Jack the Ripper, this week's new YA releases have something for everyone.

Anyone else blink and realize we are more than half-way through September? The first part of the year feels like it takes forever, but then we hit the midway point and it’s a bike down a big hill. September is my favorite month of the year because it feels so fresh and crisp. Of course part of why is because we have such a bounty of books awaiting us each week. Whatever genre you might be looking for, this week you’re bound to find your next awesome read. There’s horror, there’s romance, there’s a historical fantasy, there’s a D&D/TTRPG themed read, and so much more. As has been the case for several recent weeks in new releases, there are also a couple of YA books hitting shelves in both hardcover and paperback formats simultaneously. Grab a cup of your favorite seasonal beverage and pull out your TBR. You’ll be adding some new titles to it this week. New Hardcover YA Releases This Week Fawn’s Blood by Hal Schrieve Fawn and Silver are two trans teens in a small Maryland town who have a lot in common. One of those commonalities is an obsession with vampires, a creature that’s being targeted and hunted nationwide for the danger they supposedly pose to humans. On the west coast, Rachel’s mother is a vigilante vampire hunter. But when Rachel is bit by her mother’s nemesis, Rachel begins to crave all things blood. And when Fawn goes missing, forcing Silver to head west in order to look for him, Rachel and Silver not only crash into each other. They’ve been pulled into the world of an edgelord vampire named Cain who has made a name for himself by shouting about the power of drinking human blood. Fawn, meanwhile, has stumbled into Seattle’s vampire underground. The group has been working hard to protect the vampire world through safe blood distribution and through protecting one another from the slayer world. It’s a vampy–err, campy–take on vampires that’s really a story about the highs and lows of being queer today. The Golden Boys Guide to Bipolar by Sonora Reyes Cesar Flores broke up with his boyfriend Jamal last school year for a whole host of reasons and none of those reasons were because he wanted to. He was scared of no longer being in the closet. But it’s a new school year and he’s come out to some of the most important people in his life. He wants to talk with Jamal and see if they can work things out. Except Cesar is struggling with thoughts that won’t stop racing. He doesn’t think he’s good enough, either for Jamal or anyone else at all. Cesar’s been lashing out and manages to keep what’s really going on behind humor. Except that one manic episode pushes what’s going on to a breaking point and now, Cesar realizes he has to choose continuing to ignore his mental health or ask for help, even if it means he’ll have to ask for it from some of the people he’s hurt the most. This is a companion to The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School but you don’t need to read that book to pick this one up (though why wouldn’t you want to read ’em both?). If Looks Could Kill by Julie Berry Okay, let’s keep this one really, really simple because the shortest pitch will be the biggest sell: what if Jack the Ripper were being hunted by Medusa in late 19th century New York? That’s the book, y’all. There’s more, of course. Two girls working at a local Salvation Army who couldn’t be more different team up with a girl reporter and a bartender in order to take on a rescue effort. But that rescue effort puts them right in the path of Jack and Medusa’s story. The Story of My Anger by Jasminne Mendez Yulieta Lopez has always been the dutiful one, the girl who always puts others before herself. But beneath the surface, she’s angry. She’s angry at the theater teacher who doesn’t like casting Black students in the play, angry at the way people on her school board are attacking her English teacher over the books she’s using, angry about having to keep quiet just to get through. That anger can’t hold though, and Yulieta decides it’s time to do something. She and her friends begin an underground theater group and now the whole town is talking. This Is How We Roll edited by Rosiee Thor At some point in the future, I’m going to put together a big ole YA list of books featuring Dungeons & Dragons because there are a number of them. The first one I remember reading (and being charmed by) was published in 2009; it wouldn’t be until 2025 where we see multiple D&D themed books or D&D storylines pop up in YA. All of that introduction is to say that this anthology centers a wide array of table top role playing games and explores topics of gender, queerness, relationships, and more within the context of interactive gaming. It’s an awesome collection of voices that Thor brings together, including Akemi Dawn Bowman, Andrew Joseph White, Rebecca Podos, and more. Nerds, this one is for you. New Hardcover Series Releases: The Dead of Summer by Ryan La Sala Hekate by Nikita Gill The Others by Cheryl Isaacs More Hardcover YA Releases This Week: I Killed The King by Rebecca Mix and Andrea Hannah Love and Video Games by Zachary Sergi Through Our Teeth by Pamela N. Harris New Paperback YA Releases This Week Here’s your periodic reminder that you may need to toggle your view upon clicking the links below to see the paperback edition. Clever Creatures of the Night by Samantha Mabry Something bad happened in the run-down house that Cas arrives at in West Texas. She’s come at the request of her best friend Drea, who has been living there for a few weeks with other classmates. But things are off. Drea isn’t there, and her roommates aren’t talking. It’ll be up to Cas to find out what happened to her best friend and the role this terrifying house may have played in Drea’s disappearance. We Are Hunted by Tomi Oyemakinde Femi, who is 17, is forced to join his older brother and father on an island resort. You’d think he’d be cool with it, but his relationship with both brother and dad are Not Great. The resort promises luxury, but that luxury is shrouded in secrets. Despite fears and frustration, Femi loves seeing the plant and animal life on the island. But he quickly realizes that those might be hiding some terrible secrets. It’s not long before the flora and fauna have gone feral and Femi has to work with his family and other guests to ensure they all survive. Oh…and Femi may have played a part in why everything went feral. Who’s All Going (To Die)? by Lisa Springer I enjoyed this one quite a bit, but know going in you’ll be suspending disbelief. I don’t know about you, but sometimes knowing that the situations are implausible is what makes the story so fun. Ariana is stoked to get away from home for a bit, thanks to an invitation from her new friend Oakley. Oakley’s parents own a wellness retreat in Barbados, and they’re offering to bring Ariana down for free. Everything about The Dream retreat sounds good, but then Juniper-Moon, a wellness influencer, started to offer some strange activities. There are bee venom facials and strange mushroom tea ceremonies, yet those are the tip of the iceberg: there are a host of disturbing things happening around the island retreat. Ariana wants out. But getting out may not be as easy as it seems for her or her friends. What was promised to be a retreat may, in fact, be deadly (Spoiler: there is a body count!). More Paperback YA Releases This Week: Dead Girls Talking by Megan Cooley Peterson Guava and Grudges by Alexis Castellanos Lemons and Lies by Alexis Castellanos Made Glorious by Lindsay Eagar The Silenced by Diana Rodriguez Wallach–releasing both in paperback and hardcover simultaneously. Add more YA to your TBR with this guide to this year’s YA novels in verse and these great LGBTQ+ enemies-to-lovers YA romances.

This memoir is a portrait of a deaf poet coming into his own. The prose is written with a poet’s unique understanding of language

September is Deaf Awareness Month, a time when we celebrate the D/deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Raymond Antrobus is a poet known for his poems about everything from deafness to being part of the Jamaican diaspora. Now, he’s back, but this time, he’s written prose. The Quiet Ear by Raymond Antrobus Raymond Antrobus grew up as a biracial kid in East London. When he was six, doctors realized he was deaf. Antrobus couldn’t hear everyday sounds like whistling kettles, alarms, and some people’s voices. When he went to school, he hated having to wear his hearing aids. Often, adults and kids alike doubted he was deaf. “But you don’t look deaf,” they’d say. Throughout his memoir, Antrobus describes how he existed at the intersection of biracial and deaf/hard-of-hearing. With a Jamaican father and English mother, Antrobus often felt like he wasn’t “enough” for either of his parents’ communities. Because he could still hear a little bit, people often didn’t think he was deaf enough to need any accommodations to live in a world built by, and for, the hearing. Without accommodations, Antrobus was left to muddle his way with lip reading and pretending he understood what people were saying. Poetry came into Antrobus’s life at a time he felt adrift, lost in the world. He found himself using every spare moment to write in his notebook, trying to put language to his feelings. When he found other poets, he found a supportive community that encouraged him to keep going, to keep performing and sharing his art. Antrobus performs the audiobook with a poet’s sense of rhythm and pacing. His narration has this ability to draw listeners in to hang on his every word. Several sections of his memoir discuss his struggles with speaking and experiences with speech therapy. Being able to listen to him perform his prose emphasizes how Antrobus has come into his own. Finding his voice as a poet has helped him find confidence in the way he speaks. His narration marks him as a man who is proud of who he is and how he moves through the world. The Quiet Ear is a portrait of a deaf poet coming into his own. The prose is written with a poet’s unique understanding of language and winds its way through paragraphs and pages. Antrobus’s words create a deep impression of a young man coming of age and his acceptance of his own identities through his love of language. You can find me over on my Substack Winchester Ave or over on Instagram @kdwinchester. As always, feel free to drop me a line at kendra.d.winchester@gmail.com. For even MORE bookish content, you can find my articles over on Book Riot.

This Hobbit Day, revel in books that celebrate the second breakfasters and unlikely heroes.

This year, I’ve taken on a fun summer reading challenge: reading all three of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books. While my dad read aloud The Hobbit to my brothers and me when we were kids, and I later read The Fellowship in middle school, I hadn’t read Tolkien beyond that. Since June, though, I’ve finished The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, and now I’m in the thick of The Return of the King. Gandalf and Pippin have just rescued Faramir, and Aragorn has arrived in Gondor, so things are getting real! But I digress. Hobbit Day takes place every year on September 22nd. Having reread The Fellowship, I now know this is because that day is Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ birthdays. As a side note, it’s also my son’s birthday, and I couldn’t be more pleased that he shares his day with such literary icons. With Hobbit Day approaching, it’s the perfect time to read some Hobbit-themed books! While The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings series offer epic fantasy quests, I instead choose fantasy books that remind me of the hobbits themselves. They’re such affable characters, and I wanted to celebrate those qualities we all love within them. With this in mind, I selected books that celebrate the second breakfasters and unlikely heroes. Fantasy food and drink, along with light adventures and endearing friendship themes take the spotlight in these reads. I hope reading them will inspire you to live more like a hobbit, if not always, then at least on Hobbit Day! 7 Hobbit-Themed Books for Hobbit Day Celestial Banquet by Roselle Lim Fantasy adventures combined with good food are my kind of hobbit-themed story. This new book by Roselle Lim draws inspiration from Chinese and Southeast Asian folklore and features a world where the Gods host a cooking competition every generation called the Celestial Banquet. Noodle-chef Cai enters the contest in the hope of opening her own restaurant and helping her small town peninsula. Before long, she’ll soon find herself caught up in increasingly difficult fantasy food escapades, alongside a cast of eccentric chefs. All Access subscribers, continue on for more books that will remind you of the Hobbitses This content is for members only. Visit the site and log in/register to read.

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Hello readers and welcome to our Weekly FAQ thread! Our topic this week is: What are your quirky reading habits? You can view previous FAQ threads here in our wiki. Thank you and enjoy! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in! The Rules Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions. All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post. All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness. How to get the best recommendations The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain what you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level. All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort. If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook. The Management submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

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What are those books that had such promising beginnings but managed to completely lose you by the end? Squandered potential, bad characters, poor writing, whatever the reason may be? Mine would probably be Under The Dome- 1000 pages of build-up and tone-setting, only for the ending to devolve into a strange mad-lib. I still finished it, but I didn't finish it all that happy. What are all of your examples? submitted by /u/Weekly_Noodle [link] [comments]

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For me, there are two: The Hike by Drew Magary. The last page alone makes it worthwhile, and really that is the feeling I would want over and over, but it was still gripping throughout. The other is Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell. As heartbreaking as it is, I still remember laughing, my stomach dropping, throwing my hands up in frustration. And to this day I use the method of finding what you misplaced by thinking of where to hide it again if you needed to. submitted by /u/M00nMantis [link] [comments]

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(found via LongReads). As reading declines and self-censorship grows, bookshops are shuttering in the city once hailed as the Arab world’s publishing capital. Bookstores and literary institutions that once flourished in Beirut have shuttered over the past few years. For New Lines Magazine, Amelia Dhuga reports on this wider trend in the city’s creative scene. “In the last six years alone,” an editorial director at a publishing house tells Dhuga, “Lebanon has faced a revolution, a financial crisis, the port blast, COVID-19, political instability and a war.” Businesses have been forced to shut down, facing immense financial pressure. Books and authors are being censored. People are exhausted, preoccupied, or simply don’t have the disposable income to invest in literature. Despite all of this, Beirut’s remaining literary spaces are trying to stay afloat and learning to adapt. submitted by /u/Own-Animator-7526 [link] [comments]

It's not a totally intentional aversion, but I feel no urge to read from the same author back-to-back, even if I love their writing. I go "Hey! They're great!" make note of them, and move onto someone else. I'm drawn far more often to standalones, and when I do read series, I tend to read the entries pretty far apart. Like months or years, if I finish them at all. Which is rarely a knock on the series' quality. There are just so many books I'd like to get to and, as a reader of average speed, it makes sense to me to use that finite time to sample as much as possible. That, and there's avoiding the monotony of a voice becoming too familiar, the magic wearing off, and inversely, the fresh joy of returning to a voice you love with the distance of time. When you find an author you love, do you immediately go to read more from them? Do you plow right through series without stopping, or do you take breaks between volumes? How long are those breaks, and when you return, do you reread/skim the previous book(s), rely on synopses, or wing it and hope the author threw in sufficient references? Or do you think about none of this at all? Also extremely valid. submitted by /u/Ashestoashesjc [link] [comments]

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Welcome readers, September 16 was Heroes' Day and September 19 is Independence Day in Saint Kitts and Nevis and to celebrate we're discussing Kittitian literature! Please use this thread to discuss your favorite Kittitian books and authors. If you'd like to read our previous discussions of the literature of the world please visit the literature of the world section of our wiki. Thank you and enjoy! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

I can't imagine i'm the only one who glances at my bookmark thinking one or the other. As I currently read The Stand by Stephen King I'm feeling the latter, fully engrossed in the unabridged story and relieved that I have another 575 pages to look forward to. In comparison to my memory of reading Mary Shelly's The Last Man which (minor plot spoilers) shares a similar plot premise of an apocalyptic disease killing most of humanity. I greatly enjoyed her story and feel no regret in reading it, I plan to read it again, it was just difficult for me to "get through" the book. The writing is extremely descriptive and how I can only describe as eloquently verbose. Mary painted imagery in my mind but I was often interrupted, many times a page, to define words due to her dense sentence structure, vocabulary, and descriptions. I'm curious to hear of stories that were difficult for you to read through, but you ENJOYED overall, and stories that were so immersing that you lost some sleep until the last 100 pages where you procrastinated leaving such lovable characters behind. submitted by /u/TheBoraxKid1trblz [link] [comments]

Made another return to the world of E.E. Doc Smith again by reading another book from another of his space operas, the Skylark series! And now I've finished book one of that series "The Skylark of Space"! A scientist named Richard Seaton discovers the secret to releasing the ultimate energy, and also the key to space exploration. DuQuesne, a very powerful and unscrupulous man, has attempted to take that secret by any means necessary. This all ends in space, where both Seaton and DuQuesne and three others wind up being marooned, many light years away from Earth. And with only one in a million chance of returning! I just love these space opera adventures! this series, like the Lensman series, isn't all that complex or anything like that, just pure simple fun! These stories are primarily going to be focusing on journeys of the Skylark and its inventor, and even including some others too, and also his conflicts with the cold and calculating DuQuesne. I've just started on another of the Skylark books, but unfortunately it isn't the second book of the series, "Skylark Three". Though I try to keep my mind focused when selecting books, especially when it comes to possible series that might come across. But there are still times I end up getting book from a series but it always end up being a second book or other, and it that can mess up the order I'm trying to get them in. submitted by /u/i-the-muso-1968 [link] [comments]

Speaking for myself, I had free access to the book collection at my grandparents house when I was young. I tried most of them and liked C S Forester's Hornblower series about the british navy. I liked the series because it was a compelling set of adventures, but also because it explored the main character's flaws and self doubts, his struggle with necessary mathematical tools for navigation, his social anxiety. Knowing that I had enjoyed those, led me as an adult to try Patrick O'Brian's excellent and more sophisticated series that starts with Master and Commander. More formally, an English professor introduced me to Slaughterhouse Five and the Death of Ivan Illych, both of which I still admire and appreciate. Death of Ivan Illych might be my candidate for best book I've ever read, although I've since then read a few other contenders, notably Remains of the Day. Death of Ivan Illych succinctly describes a man's transition from social success to dying invalid and the social cost of that transition for him. It shows the shallowness of his friends and family and how quickly they shift their attention from him to other concerns while he faces death alone. I still believe that people can be better to each other when tragedy strikes, but this book shows that they won't necessarily, in just a few pages. It was a book that changed my impression of what a book could do for a reader. It stretched my concept of what a narrative could show and be. Do you have stories about older people who have influenced your reading journey, and the books they led you to read? submitted by /u/Fancy-Restaurant4136 [link] [comments]

I have been reading the dune series for awhile now. I reached the fourth book but I just can't seem to finish it. I already took forever to finish the first three books but this fourth one is a really slow read. The slow pacing is killing me. I've read over half of the book and I feel like nothing actually happened in the past 320 pages. I don't feel any connection to the characters expect for Duncan and Sonia. I feel like the first book was the last book I actually enjoyed reading in the series and even that is a stretch. The books tend to have the slowest pacing ever and I feel like the characters are more like political pawns than actually being a character I can connect to. I think I am going to take a break from the series and move on to other books. Such a shame since I've seen many people say the fourth book is one of the best in the series but I can't seem to finish or enjoy it :( submitted by /u/Celesticalking [link] [comments]

One of the best-known sensation novels from the 1860s, East Lynne is irresistible, with its lively prose, slangy dialogue, vivid characters, and melodramatic events. From a velvet gout stool in the first paragraph to the pious summing-up in the last, the Victorian hits just keep on coming: aristocracy, debt, adultery, spinsters, suppressed love, disguise, consumption, false accusations, suffering mothers, dying children, politics, and revenge. The convoluted plot concerns the classic Victorian pairing of a dark and sinful woman, Lady Isabel, with a blonde and good woman, Barbara Hare. The man choosing between them is upcoming attorney Archibald Carlyle, who sees only that Isabel is beautiful, aristocratic, and touchingly alone and penniless. He marries her even though he knows she isn’t in love with him. Poor Barbara, meanwhile, truly does love Archibald, and is devastated to learn of their marriage. She's also suffering because her brother Richard is on the run, accused of murdering a local man, and this has turned their mother into an invalid wreck. Add to this mixture the very badly behaving Sir Francis Levison. He'd flirted with Isabel before her marriage. Years later, when she's tired and weak from child-bearing and Archibald isn’t as attentive as he once was, Levison appears again on the scene—to work her ruin. Highly melodramatic events ensue, including the very enjoyable fate of the dastardly Levinson. As is so often the case, the evil characters are the most fun, and we get to thoroughly enjoy them before justice prevails. submitted by /u/arrec [link] [comments]

For me, it’s Margaret Atwood. Her writing is poetic, but what truly inspires me is who she is as a person. Her wit, humor, irony, and unapologetic feminism is so inspiring. Her MasterClass on writing motivated me to start writing every day, Have you ever started reading an author’s work because you admired them as a person first? submitted by /u/dictiondaddy [link] [comments]

Welcome readers, Over the last several weeks/months we've all seen an uptick in articles about schools/towns/states banning books from classrooms and libraries. Obviously, this is an important subject that many of us feel passionate about but unfortunately it has a tendency to come in waves and drown out any other discussion. We obviously don't want to ban this discussion but we also want to allow other posts some air to breathe. In order to accomplish this, we're going to post a discussion thread every month to allow users to post articles and discuss them. In addition, our friends at /r/bannedbooks would love for you to check out their sub and discuss banned books there as well. submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Early today I read about your decision. I've been overwhelmed with so many emotions about it, and I've felt compelled to tell you, or the world, or whoever would listen - how much you mean to me. I've been saddened, but I also feel a certain level of gratitude that you're going to allow us all to say good bye to you. And in this moment, I want to say good bye, in this way, and I invite other to as well. I hope somehow this gets to you. I'm typing this on my phone while I sit on the foot of my oldest sons bed. I just finished reading him Moose! I've read it so many times you'd think I'd have it memorized, but I tripped up a few times - he noticed. My favorite book to read to my boys has always been Hugs - I get to squeeze them, and tickle them, and slobber all over them. My middle loves to read about Mortimer. He loves going to bed first, because we can sing at the top of our lungs. Sometimes I think you wrote Thomas' snowsuit about my youngest, but thats not his favorite. His favorite i Mmm Cookies! Because we get to shmack and gwackk them all over his little legs. I remember my dad reading your books to my brother and my sister. Our favorite was Purple, Green, and Yellow. We still call some markers the never come off until you're dead and maybe even later markers. It was also the first of your books I bought when my boys were born. The second was the paperbag princess, I remember my sister dressing up in a leaf bag as a kid. But what I didn't realize was how empowering that story was until I read it years later - you enabled a generation of princesses to tell the "not so charming" they stink. You brought so much joy into my bedtimes, and you continue to bring so much joy to bedtime for my sons. I'm sure they'll read you to their kids, and I know there will be little cardboard libraries from you all over this beautiful country. Thank-you Mr. Munsch. I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. submitted by /u/thesweeterpeter [link] [comments]

I am struggling to parse lines 7–8 of stanza 37 of Canto 9 or Book 2 of The Faerie Queene. Context here is that Arthur (still a prince, not king yet) is encountering a room full of beautiful maidens. Some represent what the annotators of my editions call the “forward or concupiscible passions,” some the “froward or irascible” ones. Arthur’s eye is caught by one of the latter, who is “right faire and fresh as morning rose, / But somwhat sad, and solemne eke in sight, / As if some pensiue thought constraind her gentle spright.” Then (bolding the part that is giving me trouble): In a long purple pall, whose skirt with gold, Was fretted all about, she was arayd; And in her hand a Poplar branch did hold: To whom the prince in courteous maner sayd, Gentle Madame, why beene ye thus dismayd, And your faire beautie doe with sadnes spill? Liues any, that you hath thus ill apayd? Or doen you loue, or doen you lack your will? What euer bee the cause, it sure beseemed you ill. The annotator explains “ill apayd” as “requited,” and it seems to me like the subject of “hath thus ill apayd” is “any,” with the object being “you.” That is, it seems to me that line 7 means: “Is there anyone living who has thus failed to requite your love for him?” But it is not clear to me if the subject of “doen” in line 8 is still that “any,” or if it is now “you.” And, in either case, it’s not clear to me what line 8 means. If the subject is still “any,” the couplet would seem to be something like: “Is there anyone living who has thus failed to requite your love for him? / Or who has made advances toward [or had sex with?] you or”—but here I am unsure what “doen you lack your will” means. If the subject is now “you,” then the lines would seem to mean something like: “Is there anyone living who has thus failed to requite your love for him? / Or have you loved, or”—again, I don’t know what it would mean for a person to “lack her will.” Thanks in advance. Obviously, the annotations shed no light on this matter. submitted by /u/Charles_Sumner [link] [comments]

For me it's a scene from War and Remembrance, by Herman Wouk. Aaron Jastrow and his niece Natalie have been deported from the ghetto at Theresienstadt to Auschwitz. She passes the selection. He does not. He and the other prominente are hustled after the other people who did not pass the selection, and Aaron finally realizes his fate. Wouk doesn't linger over the final moments of his life in the gas chamber--if anything, he underwrites it a little. But it's incredibly moving and haunting, especially when you think of how many millions of people suffered the same fate. I spent much time reading The Winds of War thoroughly exasperated with these two--Aaron's lack of concern about the issues with his citizenship papers, he and Natalie's contempt for their friends who fled 1938 Italy, their unwillingness to listen to advice from diplomats to just get out of Europe. But after reading this scene, I just felt incredibly sorry for him--and more able to understand why people have trouble believing that bad things can happen to them. submitted by /u/saga_of_a_star_world [link] [comments]

I’ve just finished this one after previously reading Cosby’s Blacktop Wasteland and All the Sinners Bleed, both of which I really enjoyed thanks to the great vibe Cosby lays down with his writing and his main characters, which simultaneously manage to be the coolest most badass dudes around but have actual complexity and inner turmoil that feels real behind all of that. My Darkest Prayer is Cosby’s first book, and I could definitely tell. It’s way more crass, feeling like 70s exploitation media rather than straight up crime noir, and the characters don’t have a ton of complexity to them, but I ended up loving it in a different way to his other books. My Darkest Prayer follows Nathan Waymaker. I’ve never read Jack Reacher books, but from what I can gather Nathan is a half-black Rwacher. He’s a brick shithouse of a man that never loses a fight, he’s never wrong, he always does the right, he’s had sex with half the women in town and the other half want to have sex with him, he’s basically a master detective despite his background as a funeral services guy in the marines and small town sheriffs deputy (that ended when he threw someone through a plate glass window) and he’s always got the coolest lines to come back at his rivals with. Nathan reads like the self-insert character a 12 year old dreamt up and finally got a chance to write about as an adult, and despite how negative that sounds I loved it. When I first started the book, I was noticing all these cliches it followed and mentally docking it some points, but as I kept reading I just found myself having so much fun taking in this story. At the end of the day, the book is closer to a Netflix series I would binge over the weekend than it is to the Godfather, but sometimes I need that and appreciate it. submitted by /u/Prize_Ad_129 [link] [comments]

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Two days ago I finished reading an English translation of the most popular Persian novel Savushun (1969) by Simin Daneshvar, translated in 1990 by M.R.Ghanoonparwar. This thought provoking, resilient and sensitive story is set in Shiraz, Fars Province of Iran, during World War II, a time when foreign forces exerted heavy control over the country. The title of the novel refers to an ancient ritual of mourning in which the participants lament the betrayal and death of Siyavush, a mythical hero figure from Ancient Iran. The story follows Zari in spring of 1943, a middle class woman educated at a missionary school, who lives with her landowner husband Yusof Khan and their three children in a large, beautiful house. Told from Zari’s perspective, the novel explores her complex emotional world. She is obedient and submissive to her husband, yet filled with doubt and despair about her role in life. Conflict arises when the Allied forces, who occupy parts of Iran, want to seize all available crops for their encamped army but Yusof refuses to hand them over, fearing his peasants will starve, in the process opposing both the foreign presence and Iranian collaborators, putting the family in danger. Amid fear, grief and moral uncertainty, Zari’s quiet acts of resistance and compassion reveal a woman’s struggle for dignity in an oppressive society, forming the rest of the story. Simin Daneshvar’s writing in Savushun blends realism, cultural authenticity and emotional depth. She integrates Persian folklore, myth, social events, customs and local beliefs into the early 20th century setting of Shiraz. Her characters are complex and human, neither purely heroic nor villainous, reflecting real moral struggles. Instead of direct political statements, Daneshvar conveys a sensitive critique of oppression and collaboration through personal acts of defiance and sacrifice. Her prose balances lyricism and restraint, evoking sorrow and resilience without sentimentality. The novel not only tells a powerful story of struggle but also preserves a vivid portrait of life during one of the most turbulent time periods in Iran's history. Pick it up if you want a thoughtful, culturally rich and deeply human exploration of personal and political resistance in the face of oppression, told through a moving story. 8/10 submitted by /u/Zehreelakomdareturns [link] [comments]

Welcome readers, Have you ever wanted to ask something but you didn't feel like it deserved its own post but it isn't covered by one of our other scheduled posts? Allow us to introduce you to our new Simple Questions thread! Twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday, a new Simple Questions thread will be posted for you to ask anything you'd like. And please look for other questions in this thread that you could also answer! A reminder that this is not the thread to ask for book recommendations. All book recommendations should be asked in /r/suggestmeabook or our Weekly Recommendation Thread. Thank you and enjoy! submitted by /u/AutoModerator [link] [comments]

Books any time any day.

Book Review Author :Delia Owens Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher : GP Putnam’s Sons Year of Publication: 2019 Number of Pages: 368 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I picked this up with a bit of hesitation. In spite of the great reviews that it got, I must say the title made me expect something … Continue reading Where the Crawdads Sing →

Book Review Author :Delia Owens Genre: Historical Fiction Publisher : GP Putnam’s Sons Year of Publication: 2019 Number of Pages: 368 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I picked this up with a bit of hesitation. In spite of the great reviews that it got, I must say the title made me expect something quite different from what it was. I expected a book filled with scientific details about marshes and birds that would be difficult to read. I was genuinely surprised and pleased to get drawn into the story and to find that it was not an exposition on the science of the marsh masquerading as a novel but a well written, enjoyable and easy to follow story. The story is about Kya a young girl born in the marshes of North Carolina, USA who is left to fend for herself by her family from the tender age of 7. The town people consider her strange and refer to her as Marsh Girl. She somehow manages to take care of herself all alone in the Marsh with only the occasional journey into town to get supplies. She is lucky enough to make a friend who teaches her how to read and helps her make use of her knowledge of the marsh to make a respectable living. When one day, Chase Andrews, the son of one of the town’s most prominent families is found dead in the swamp, the town people cannot help but suspect that the strange Marsh girl had something to do with his death. This is an interesting book about survival and overcoming all odds to make a good life in the face of extreme hardship and hostility. Though I must admit at times I found it difficult to believe that such a young child could survive alone in such difficult circumstances and that none of the residents of the town bothered to do anything about this situation, the story is touching in many ways. It would be amazing if anyone could actually survive such a childhood and manage to turn their life around as Kya did. I also enjoyed learning about the marsh and the different species to be found there and seeing the beauty in nature through Kya’s eyes, as she explored her marsh and got to know it better than anyone else. I rate this book 4 out of 5. If you enjoy reading coming of age historical fiction stories and are a lover of nature, you will absolutely love this book. If you are the skeptical and cynical type, you might find it a bit implausible. Happy reading!

Classics Book Review Author : Elizabeth Gaskell Genre : Literary Classic Fiction Original Publisher : Chapman and Hall Year of Publication : 1854 Number of Pages : 396 My Rating : 5 out of 5 My most recent read is this gem of a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, based in Victorian England. Margaret Hale is … Continue reading North and South →

Classics Book Review Author : Elizabeth Gaskell Genre : Literary Classic Fiction Original Publisher : Chapman and Hall Year of Publication : 1854 Number of Pages : 396 My Rating : 5 out of 5 My most recent read is this gem of a book by Elizabeth Gaskell, based in Victorian England. Margaret Hale is the daughter of a parson. At age nine, her parents sent her away from the sleepy hamlet known as Helstone, where her father serves as the Parish Priest, to go live with her maternal aunt in London’s Harley Street so she could get an education along with her cousin Edith. Nine years later, aged eighteen, she returns to the village home of her parents and is longing for a quiet, peaceful life walking in the forest and spending her days tending to the needs of her father’s congregation. “She took a pride in her forest. Its people were her people. She made hearty friends with them; learned and delighted in using their peculiar words; took up her freedom amongst them; nursed their babies; talked or read with slow distinctness to their old people; carried dainty messes to their sick; resolved before long to teach at the school, where her father went every day as to an appointed task, but she was continually tempted off to go and see some individual friend–man, woman, or child–in some cottage in the green shade of the forest.“ When her father suddenly announces that he is moving the family North to the manufacturing town of Milton-Northern, she is shocked and grief stricken and wonders how this change will affect her family, most especially her mother. Life in Milton is as different as expected – the air is heavy with smoke, the streets are bustling and the people are rough. Margaret tries her best to ease her mother’s worries and anxieties. With time, she gets to meet some of the people of Milton and make friends with them, in spite of the differences in behaviour, customs and mannerisms. She manages to get herself embroilled in the politics of the town and finds herself in the middle of a strike. She also manages to draw the attention of Mr. Thornton, a mill owner and one of the wealthiest manufacturers in the town, who is also her father’s pupil. John Thornton finds Margaret haughty and thinks she treats him with contempt while Margaret finds him hard and unfeeling and only interested in getting wealthy at the expense of his poor workers. Yet the two are brought together time and time again by fate. Will they be able to overcome their differences and find common ground? “If Mr. Thornton was a fool in the morning, as he assured himself at least twenty times he was, he did not grow much wiser in the afternoon. All that he gained in return for his sixpenny omnibus ride, was a more vivid conviction that there never was, never could be, anyone like Margaret; that she did not love him and never would; but she –no! nor the whole world –should never hinder him from loving her.“ This story is engaging and well written. It demonstrates what happens when there is a clash of cultures. Margaret and her family are used to Southern mannerisms and she struggles to understand the industrial town and its people. She has also had a privileged life at the her aunt’s London home which is very different from the life her own family leads. Through the eyes of the other characters, we get to experience the industrial revolution and the inevitable clashes between the mill owners and their workers as each strives to protect their interests. I loved how the author presented us with different view points of the lives of the people of Milton – that of the owners, workers and outsiders in the form of the Hale family. “After a quiet life in a country parsonage for more than twenty years, there was something dazzling to Mr. Hale in the energy which conquered immense difficulties with ease; the power of the machinery of Milton, the power of the men of Milton, impressed him with a sense of grandeur, which he yielded to without caring to inquire into the details of its exercise.“ This was my first Elizabeth Gaskell book to read as part of my 50 classics in 5 years’ challenge. Having gotten used to Jane Austen books where the biggest differences in social class were as a result of inheritance and the sort of family that one came from, it was refreshing to read about self-made characters who were not trapped in the lives that they were born into. Adaptation North and South has been adapted for TV three times. I watched the above 2004 BBC adaptation. It was a four episode production featuring Richard Armitage and Daniela Denby-Ashe. I absolutely loved it and found the characters very fitting for their roles, save that the ending was to me a bit too different from the actual ending in the book. I would have loved to see that ending played out here, though I must admit that it did not come out very nicely in the last episode of the 1975 adaptation that I managed to find on YouTube! I enjoyed every part of this book and recommend it to all lovers of classics. I rate it 5 out of 5.

Author : Marian Keyes Genre : Family Drama Publisher : Michael Joseph -an imprint of Penguin Year of Publication : 2020 Number of Pages : 633 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I totally fell in love with Marian Keyes after reading Sushi for Beginners. It led me to her other books which I … Continue reading Grown Ups →

Author : Marian Keyes Genre : Family Drama Publisher : Michael Joseph -an imprint of Penguin Year of Publication : 2020 Number of Pages : 633 My Rating : 4 out of 5 I totally fell in love with Marian Keyes after reading Sushi for Beginners. It led me to her other books which I also absolutely loved. I know it says ‘gloriously funny’ on this book’s cover – a quote from the Sunday Times – but it was more of drama than humor to me. This is especially so when I compare it with some of her other totally hilarious ones, like Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married and Rachel’s Holiday. The book is based on the Casey family, complete with a family tree, so we know who fits where – and once you tally all the children, they are quite a number. The three Casey brothers are close and spend a lot of time together, despite their estrangement from their very cold and distant parents. The family is fairly well-to-do (or at least Johnny and his wife Jessie are) so a good portion of the book features them at elaborate dinners or on holidays in picturesque destinations. We see the usual family dynamics play out, as the different characters encounter their own unique challenges. The book is quite voluminous at over 600 hundred pages. It took me a while to get into the story, I suppose due to the many characters, each with their own backstory and peculiarities. In fact, this felt more like several stories told together. Thankfully, once the story got going, I found myself pretty much drawn into it and I was easily able to follow the different story lines. I enjoyed the way that Marian expertly combined them into one tightly woven tale and, towards the end, I could not put the book down. Whilst the story was not ‘laugh out loud’ (at least not for me), there was a lot of humor in it together with all the family drama. The characters felt pretty familiar to me. I loved the interactions between them, as I got to know them and watch as they evolved. Marian explores some pretty serious themes in the book as she reveals the characters’ strengths and weaknesses. There was no part of this story that I did not like and I would recommend it to anybody who enjoys warm family stories about relationships and the trials and tribulations that we all have to deal with in every day life. I especially loved that this story does not take itself too seriously and none of the characters is reflected as being perfect. I rate this heartwarming story as a 4. The only reason why it did not get a 5 is because I enjoyed some of Marian’s books so much more and actually laughed out loud!

Book Review Author : Colleen Hoover Genre : Romance Publisher : Simon & Schuster Year of Publication : 2016 Number of Pages : 384 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Lily Bloom is upset following her father’s very emotionally draining funeral and just wants to be alone on a rooftop where she can breathe … Continue reading It Ends With Us →

Book Review Author : Colleen Hoover Genre : Romance Publisher : Simon & Schuster Year of Publication : 2016 Number of Pages : 384 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Lily Bloom is upset following her father’s very emotionally draining funeral and just wants to be alone on a rooftop where she can breathe in the fresh air and unwind. She does not count on meeting handsome Ryle, a neurosurgeon with whom she makes an instant connection. During their brief chat, they tell each other some ‘naked truths’ about their lives. Lily is trying to overcome complicated feelings around her father’s death and the life that she left behind when she moved to Boston. Ryle is struggling with his own demons that plague him. After their initial rooftop encounter, Lily doubts she will ever see Ryle again, as they want different things from life. When they reconnect several months later, she finds herself unable to resist him. In addition to starting a new business, and settling her mother in Boston, she reminisces about her first love, Atlas. She met Atlas as a teenager, at a time when he was lost, and she saved his life. When she unexpectedly bumps into him again, she believes she will finally get the closure she needs to be able to move on with her life. This is a love story, but not just the usual love story. It is a love story that almost made me cry in some parts and left me frustrated in others. Colleen Hoover is a bestselling author of romance, young adult, thriller and women’s fiction. “And maybe a ghost story soon,” as she says in her Goodreads Bio. It is no wonder then that this was not just a romance story, even though romance is at the heart of the book. I really rooted for Lily and Ryle and the twist caught me by surprise. I honestly did not see it coming. As it turns out, this is a tale about life and relationships – and how complicated both can get. I found the story gripping, even as it took an unexpected turn. The author uses first person to narrate the story, so I felt all of Lily’s emotions intensely, as I followed her thoughts and experiences. I loved Lily as a character and wish I had her strength. The other characters were also well developed and easy to relate to. This story seemed so familiar to me, yet the author managed to show me that some circumstances in life are not as they seem at first glance. She shows how easy it is to judge people unfairly when we do not fully understand what they have been through and what makes them act the way they do. Ultimately, this is a story about one woman’s journey and her quest to overcome her past and build a fulfilling, meaningful life for herself. It tells us that we are not bound by our past – or even our present circumstances and we can make the decision to break patterns. No matter what path we take, there is always time and space to course-correct. This may not always be easy and it requires a lot of reflection to recognize where we went wrong and the right path. It also requires the courage to do what is right as opposed to what is easy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and rate it 5 out of 5. I recommend it to anyone who loves a good story with romance and a bit of a lesson.

Book Review Author : A. J. Finn Genre : Psychological Thriller Publisher : Harper Collins Published : January 2018 Number of Pages : 390 My Rating : 5 out of 5 The Woman in the Window is a psychological thriller by A. J. Finn. The main character, Dr. Anna Fox, suffers from severe agoraphobia and … Continue reading The Woman in the Window →

Book Review Author : A. J. Finn Genre : Psychological Thriller Publisher : Harper Collins Published : January 2018 Number of Pages : 390 My Rating : 5 out of 5 The Woman in the Window is a psychological thriller by A. J. Finn. The main character, Dr. Anna Fox, suffers from severe agoraphobia and is unable to leave her house. From the windows in her living room and her bedroom, she observes her neighbors. She knows all their goings and comings and sees everything that happens on her street. One day, she witnesses something shocking through her window. Unfortunately, no one believes her because of her condition. Dr. Anna Fox is an unreliable narrator. She has a severe anxiety disorder. At times, she either forgets to take her medication as prescribed, or takes double dosses after forgetting that she has already taken the medicine. She takes copious amounts of wine, even though she lies to her doctor that she will not take alcohol. She spends days and nights in her house, watching old thrillers shot in black and white. It is no surprise, therefore, that no one believes what she says. After a while, she even starts to doubt herself. I was drawn into this story from the beginning and it kept going at the same enthralling steady pace. It was full of twists and turns and a lot of suspense. At some point, I figured out part of the main character’s back story, but the main twist still caught me by surprise. I loved the way the author was able to clearly show us what Anna was going through, though at times, even Anna was confused and unclear about some of the events. I do not know anybody who suffers from agoraphobia, but I was able to feel the intensity of Anna’s fears, as they were set out so vividly. The characters were well developed. Most of the story is focused on Anna, but there is a good mix of supporting characters, who help to build the story. At the beginning, I thought this would be just a story about a nosy woman at a window spying on her neighbors – especially given how the story started. It turned out to be so much more. I’m glad I picked this as my last read of the year as I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I rate it 5 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who loves psychological thrillers. A film based on the book, starring Amy Adams and Julianne Moore, is currently under production and is expected to air in 2020. I’m looking forward to watching it and hope it remains faithful to the book, as I could not bear the disappointment if they mess it up.

Book Review Author : Margaret Atwood Genre : Literary Fiction/Science Fiction and Fantasy Publisher : Penguin Random House Year of Publication : 2019 Number of Pages : 401 My Rating : 5 out of 5 This book is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It is set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s … Continue reading The Testaments →

Book Review Author : Margaret Atwood Genre : Literary Fiction/Science Fiction and Fantasy Publisher : Penguin Random House Year of Publication : 2019 Number of Pages : 401 My Rating : 5 out of 5 This book is a sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale. It is set fifteen years after the events of The Handmaid’s Tale. The author, Margaret Atwood, is an accomplished author whose work has been published in more than forty-five countries. An adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale is now an award-winning TV series. Though I haven’t read The Handmaid’s Tale, I caught a few of the episodes which gave me some background into Gilead. The Testaments still reads well as a Standalone and prior knowledge of Gilead is not really necessary to follow the story. Atwood was selected as a joint winner of the Booker Prize in 2019 for The Testaments. Margaret Atwood This book takes us back to Gilead, a dystopian society that can only exist in one’s worst nightmare. It is a country set up after the so called ‘Sons of Jacob’ overthrow the US Government. They are deeply unhappy with a country bedeviled by numerous ills and want to make it better. I didn’t know there was a place in the Bible known as Gilead, but it makes total sense that the country would be named after a biblical place. Or maybe it was named after another actual town in the US called Gilead. The Sons of Jacob set up a theocratic government that has retrogressive views on the role of women in society, deeming them unsuitable for any positions of power. All steeped in religious bigotry. Women are not allowed to do any professional work. They can only be Wives, Aunts, Marthas or Handmaids. Marthas are domestic workers for the elites whilst the sole role of Handmaids is to get impregnated and carry babies for couples who are sterile. The world has a severe fertility crisis and most adults are sterile. Many babies are born with serious genetic defects and do not survive. As in many such societies, it is the women who are assumed to be infertile, hence the Handmaids are meant to bear children on their behalf. This makes the Handmaids extremely valuable and they are forced to perform their role with no escape. Handmaids wearing their ‘white wings’. The story is narrated through the voices of three women, whose connection becomes evident as it progresses. These are Aunt Lydia, who featured prominently in The Handmaid’s Tale and two young girls, Agnes and Daisy. Aunt Lydia is one of the founding women of Gilead. She is extremely resourceful, powerful and greatly feared. To ensure her own survival, she maneuvered her way into being placed in charge of all the women. She runs the revered Ardua Hall where Handmaids are trained and no men are allowed. She protects her position by ensuring she has incriminating information on all the senior members of Gilead’s governing council. Agnes is a fifteen year old girl, born after Gilead was formed. She is the daughter of a high ranking Commander. Through her story, we get an insider’s perspective of how life in a Commander’s house is and the sort of upbringing that Gilead girls have. She lets us in on life at school and the transition from being a girl to becoming a Wife. Eventually, she ends up at Ardua Hall under Aunt Lydia and gives us a front seat perspective of the lives of recruits selected to become Aunts. Daisy is a sixteen year old girl living with her parents in Canada. She only knows of Gilead through what she learns in school or sees on the news. She gives us an outsider’s perspective of Gilead, through the eyes of a young girl. She eagerly participates in anti-Gilead matches and disdains the Gilead Pearl Girls, who walk around her neighbourhood looking for fresh recruits to take to Gilead, thinking them ignorant. This is a story of horrific treatment meted out to others in the name of religion. Those in charge take it upon themselves to decide the fate of others with rigid oppressive laws, rules and guidelines. Spies are everywhere. Disobedience is severely punished and life in Gilead is full of fear, violence and death. Serious crimes by powerful men – such as pedophilia – are, for the large part, ignored and victims are more likely to be punished for speaking out than the perpetrators. Handmaids occasionally gather to carry out a horrific execution. Whilst this is not a story that one can call at all enjoyable, it was an intriguing look into what could happen when there is unchecked power. I loved the style that Atwood used to tell the story as I got a clear, firsthand view of events from different angles as represented by the three main characters. Whilst I really hated Aunt Lydia in the TV series, she somehow comes out as sympathetic in this book and I found myself empathizing with her, in spite of my better judgement. I suppose that is what happens when you are able to see a character’s motivation articulated so clearly. The book has quite a number of characters. Though many of them are totally unlikeable, they play a vital role in showing us the treachery, deception and vindictiveness pervading in Gilead. Some of them are heroes, working to end the tragedy that is Gilead. A few are even unsung heroes. All in all, what I loved most about this tale of woe was the ending. It gets a well deserved 5 out of 5. I recommend it to anyone who loves literary fiction.

A Classic’s Club Book Review Author: Henrik Ibsen Genre : Realistic Problem Play Publisher: T. Fisher Unwin Year of Publication: 21st December 1879 Number of Pages: 101 My Rating: 5 out of 5 I picked a Doll’s House as the next book to read for my Classics Club ’50 books in 5 years challenge’ because … Continue reading A Doll’s House →

A Classic’s Club Book Review Author: Henrik Ibsen Genre : Realistic Problem Play Publisher: T. Fisher Unwin Year of Publication: 21st December 1879 Number of Pages: 101 My Rating: 5 out of 5 I picked a Doll’s House as the next book to read for my Classics Club ’50 books in 5 years challenge’ because my son is reading it for school and I thought it would be cool to discuss it with him and share ideas on the themes. This exceptional read is a three-act play written by Henrik Ibsen, who was a leading Norwegian playwright. It features Nora Helmer and her relationship with her husband, Torvald. The play takes place just before Christmas. Nora is overjoyed because her husband has been appointed Manager of the local bank. He is to start at the beginning of the coming year. The family has been experiencing financial problems and Nora is looking forward to having more money than she can spend. Torvald believes his wife wastes money, calling her extravagant and a spendthrift who cannot save, even as she says that she really does save all that she can. His opinion of her is also evident in the way that he addresses her, calling her ‘a little squirrel’, ‘a little lark’, ‘a little skylark’ and ‘a little featherhead’. Ugh! When he says something that seems to upset her, he gives her money to cheer her up. Unknown to Torvald, Nora is not as helpless as he thinks, as she reveals to her old school friend, Mrs. Linde. She has had to work hard as well to support the family. Soon after their marriage, Torvald had overworked himself and fallen ill. The doctors had recommended that he travel south. The trip had to be taken, even though the couple did not have money to finance it. As far as Torvald knew, Nora borrowed some money from her father to pay for the trip. But Nora’s father had also been ailing at the time and she did not want to bother him. So she did the unthinkable and borrowed money from an unsavory man known as Nils Krogstad, without telling anybody else about it. Since then, Nora has saved what she can and worked long hours on whatever job she can get in order to repay the loan and the interest charged. When Mr. Krogstad realizes that Torvald is planning to fire him from his position at the bank because of a fraud that he committed, he attempts to blackmail Nora. He threatens to reveal that she borrowed money from him (and committed a fraud in the process) if she does not get her husband to retain him in his position. Nora is distressed by this as she knows Torvald detests loans and any impropriety. This play is a very insightful look into the way that women were regarded in society at the time. Torvald thinks his wife is a feather head and constantly refers to her as ‘little’. It is clear that he has all the authority in the home and does not regard his wife as an equal. Eventually, Nora realizes that her husband does not really love her, as he even refuses to do a favor for her. He implies that he would do anything for her, but when she faces condemnation, he turns on her and blames her for ruining him. All he cares about is himself. As appearances mean a lot to him, he is happy to keep her in his house but proclaims that she must not have any contact with her children, lest she infects them with her immorality. She also realizes that she does not love him anymore. She feels that she has been treated like a doll, first by her father, then by her husband. Her opinion does not matter. Torvald does not understand her and he has no respect for her. She decides to do the unthinkable and put herself first, for once, and look after her own interests. I found this play very thought – provoking. The characters were so well developed that I felt like I knew them and what drove them, within such a short period. Their obsession with societal expectations was evident as they place this above all else. I thought it was fascinating how they believed that a parent’s immorality or indiscretions would inevitably lead to the ruin of the children. And how Nora was astonished by the realization that altruistic intentions could not forgive a crime! The play shows us how damaging secrets can be. It also demonstrates how unreasonable it is to expect that others will always be grateful for what you do for them, especially when you cut some corners in the process. I found it hilarious that Torvald was quick to forgive his wife after he realized that no harm was to come to him and how he attempted to make her forget what he had said before when he thought he was going to be ruined. The only thing that puzzled me was how a mother can walk out on her children, especially when they had such a good relationship and the kids kept on insisting on spending more time with her. In as much as I understand the need to put herself first, this seems a bit extreme to me! It therefore does not surprise me that Ibsen was made to write an alternate ending to this play (which he called ‘a barbaric act of violence’) for a staging in Germany where Nora eventually decides to stay, as audiences of the time could also not fathom such an ending. All in all, A Doll’s House was an interesting take on life and marriage in particular in the 19th century and I give it 5 out of 5 stars! I also greatly enjoyed hearing my son’s take on the themes in the play, so that’s an added bonus. Adaptations This play was first performed at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark on December 21, 1879. Since then, it has been performed numerous times and adapted for TV, radio and cinema. I didn’t really enjoy watching the adaptations. I think this is because an adaptation of a play follows the script very closely, so I just felt like I was re-reading the play again! 1992: Part of the British “Performance” series, with Juliet Stevenson as Nora and Trevor Eve as Torvald. Directed by David Thacker. 1973 : Claire Bloom as Nora and Anthony Hopkins as Torvald. Directed by Patrick Garland. If you love plays or classical literature, I recommend that you check this one out!

Book Review Author : Heather Morris Genre : Biographical Fiction Publisher : Echo/ Bonnier Publishing Australia Year of Publication : 11th January 2018 Number of Pages : 194 My Rating :4 out of 5 The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been on my ‘to-be-read‘ list for a while. To be honest, it has stayed so long … Continue reading The Tattooist of Auschwitzt →

Book Review Author : Heather Morris Genre : Biographical Fiction Publisher : Echo/ Bonnier Publishing Australia Year of Publication : 11th January 2018 Number of Pages : 194 My Rating :4 out of 5 The Tattooist of Auschwitz has been on my ‘to-be-read‘ list for a while. To be honest, it has stayed so long on my TBR list because I really did not want to read a story about the horrors of the Holocaust, having never read one before. The movies and documentaries I watched on the subject gave me quite a chill! I still kept coming across it everywhere, so my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to read it. This is Heather Morris’ debut novel, originally written as a screenplay before being reworked as a novel. The book has received international acclaim with four million copies sold worldwide (according to Amazon). In the midst of all this success, there has also been some controversy surrounding the book. This is the story of Lale Sokolov, originally known as Ludwig Eisenberg. It is April 1942 when Lale leaves his home in Slovakia. The German government has demanded that each Jewish family provide an adult child to work for them. Failure to do this will lead to the whole family being sent to a concentration camp. To save his family from this fate, Lale presents himself to the Germans for service, believing his family back home will be safe. On the gate at Auschwitz are the words ‘Work will make you free’. Lale ponders the meaning of this phrase. A number is tattooed on his arm. He soon learns the true nature of life at Auschwitz where a simple misstep can lead to the loss of a life. Fortunately for Lale, he gets appointed as a Tätowierer, whose job is to tattoo other prisoners. This puts him in a protected and advantaged position but also at risk of being considered a collaborator, since he now works for the political wing of the SS. He meets Gita as he tattoos her arm and immediately feels a connection with her. They start a relationship that endures until they separately leave Auschwitz and find each other back home in Slovakia. Heather Morris wrote Lale’s and Gita’s story from Lale’s recollections, more than sixty years after the events had transpired. Lale told her the story after Gita had passed away. Gita and Lale I liked the author’s writing style. The story is well written and easy to follow. I was able to easily picture the events as they happened and follow Lale’s thoughts as he lived through the traumatic events. The horror of life at the concentration camp – fear, devastation and suffering – are laid bare in a manner that made me feel like I was watching the events unfold through the characters’ eyes. Yet in the midst of all that is a powerful story of the resilience of human beings, their ability to survive brutal events and remain hopeful, even when surrounded by suffering and death. Their ability to fall in love and trust that they can build a relationship. It would have been easy for the characters to just give up but throughout the book, the desire to overcome their circumstances was evident. It amazed me how Lale and Gita were able to find one another and develop such a close bond in such restrictive and devastating surroundings when their future was so uncertain. Although I really doubted the authenticity of some of their encounters given my (admittedly limited) knowledge of concentration camps, I rooted for them and admired Lale’s determination to be with his beloved. Most of all, I marveled at his courage and ingenuity. I rate this book 4 out of 5 and recommend it to anyone who loves stories about overcoming adversity. It would have been a 5 but for some discussions I came across online, which resonated with me, given some of my misgivings about the book. Controversy Given the historical significance of the Holocaust, any story that is centered on it is bound to attract a lot of attention. Some researchers have questioned the accuracy of some of the details in the book and have stated that some of the events that have been described could not have happened. Critics have been concerned that readers may take the story as a source of knowledge about life at Auschwitz – Birkenau. In as much as the author clearly states that she changed some facts to further the plot, the story is described as being ‘based on a true story’ and a lot of readers connected with the story because of this. When questioned about this, the author stated that she wrote “a story of the Holocaust, not the story of the Holocaust.” She told the New York Times that ;- “The book does not claim to be an academic historical piece of non-fiction, I’ll leave that to the academics and historians.” My Take on this This made me ponder on whether writers of historical fiction have an obligation to accurately depict historical events in their books. Is it not true that inaccuracies can mislead and leave readers with a wrong impression of events? Is it enough for authors to state that their stories are fictional and expect readers not to assume all the historical events are as they happened? What is the line between the fictional and the historical bit? And what is biographical fiction anyway? I think critics here were so concerned because this is described as a book about real people in a real place at a real time in history. A very sensitive time and place. This would therefore lead most readers to expect the story to be mostly true. And it should be. How much artistic license do you think an author has when they claim that a novel is based on a true story? Shouldn’t they at the very least get the actual known historical events correct? Let me know!

Book Review Author : Lola Shoneyin Genre : Literary Fiction Publisher: Serpent’s Tail Date of Publication: 2010 Number of Pages: 245 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Yes, I somehow ended up with two copies of this book. I think I bought the first one and whilst it was still on my ‘to read’ … Continue reading The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives →

Book Review Author : Lola Shoneyin Genre : Literary Fiction Publisher: Serpent’s Tail Date of Publication: 2010 Number of Pages: 245 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Yes, I somehow ended up with two copies of this book. I think I bought the first one and whilst it was still on my ‘to read’ list I came across it again and bought a second copy! Lola Shoneyin is a Nigerian poet. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives was her debut novel published in 2010. Lola was nominated for the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2010 for this book. She won the PEN Oakland 2011 Josephine Miles Literary Award and the 2011 Ken Saro-Wiwa Prose Prize. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives features the Alao family, made up of Ishola Alao (Baba Segi) and his four wives – Iya Segi, Iya Tope, Iya Femi and Bolanle. Iya is the Nigerian term for ‘mother of’ so they are named after their respective first born children. Baba Segi is, of course, named for the oldest child of the first wife. The book opens with Baba Segi contemplating a problem that he has had to deal with before. The latest addition to his family, his wife Bolanle, has not yet conceived a child. The last time he faced this problem, he found the solution at Teacher’s shack, where men gather and discuss different topics over whiskey. Teacher recommended a visit to a herbalist. Not long after taking the prescribed powder, his first wife got pregnant and Segi was born. Now with seven children from his three wives, he is again concerned because Bolanle has not yet conceived, after almost three years of marriage. Bolanle is different from the other wives. She has gone to university and is educated, whereas they are not. She refuses to see a herbalist. Teacher advises Baba Segi to take her to a hospital. Bolanle married Baba Segi against the wishes of her family and friends, who do not understand why she would marry an uneducated polygamist. Baba Segi’s other wives resent her because she is educated. As a result, they refuse to let her in on the secret that they all share, hoping to get rid of her. When Baba Segi decides to visit the hospital with Bolanle, he sets in motion a course of events that will change their lives in unimaginable ways. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It gives us a good view of life in a polygamous family and the power dynamics that influence it. The role of the first wife and how it evolves as the husband gets more wives is explored. I enjoyed seeing the different personalities of the characters and how they affect their relationships. Baba Segi believes he is fully in control of the family and tries as much as he can to be fair to all his wives. Iya Segi is cunning, wise and controlling. Iya Femi is spiteful and vengeful. Iya Tope is lazy and not so bright, yet she is also kind. Bolanle is lost and carries deep-seated pain. Lola tells this story in an engaging way. She lets the main characters tell us their backstories and show us their feelings by using a first person narrative. In other places, she uses the third person to further the story. These characters are well developed and authentic. I empathised with them, even when I did not like their actions. The book tackles themes such as polygamy, violence, infertility, prejudice and other social injustices. It is a beautiful narrative that both entertains, questions and challenges. It is a tale of how far people will go to get what they want and to maintain their livelihood. It shows how easy it is to misjudge people and not appreciate their strengths. How our prejudices can make us blind to what should be obvious. Perhaps the most important lesson of all is – always be wary of karma! I rate it 5 out of 5 and recommend it to lovers of African literature.

Book Review May contain spoilers….. Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers Date of Publication: 2004 Number of Pages: 307 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Best Debut Fiction Category) in 2004 and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005 … Continue reading Purple Hibiscus →

Book Review May contain spoilers….. Author : Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Genre: Literary Fiction Publisher: HarperCollinsPublishers Date of Publication: 2004 Number of Pages: 307 My Rating : 5 out of 5 Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (Best Debut Fiction Category) in 2004 and the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book in 2005 for Purple Hibiscus. Purple Hibiscus is Chimamanda’s debut novel, published in 2004. I read it after reading Americanah which resonated with me because of all the stories I had heard about the lives of immigrants in the US. Purple Hibiscus is a heartbreaking story about fifteen year old Kambili and her family. Kambili’s father, Eugene, is a wealthy Nigerian businessman. He is also a religious fanatic who does not allow any dissent in his family. Everything has to be done his way. He exercises tight control over their lives, planning and intricately scheduling every minute including family time, reading time, eating time and prayer time. There are prayers before and after meals, with a prayer before meals taking twenty minutes. Any dissent is met with horrific acts of violence. Eugene is fastidious about rituals and prayers but fails in kindness and compassion, yet he is blind to his many faults. Typically, he blames others for his wrongdoing and makes them go for confession when they have done nothing wrong. There are a lot of lessons to be glimpsed from the book. Chimamanda shows us how violence begets violence. Eugene was exposed to violence for behavior that was deemed ‘sinful’ by a priest he lived with while in school and metes out similar punishment to his family. Whilst this is no excuse, it helps us get a better understanding of his character. His family lives in silence and fear. This has greatly affected Kambili who rarely talks. When she does it is in a voice that is barely audible. Their mother, Beatrice, tries to prevent the violence by deflecting Eugene’s attention when she sees his temper rising, though she rarely succeeds. When Kambili and her brother, Jaja, visit their Aunt Ifeoma at the University campus in Nsukka where she works and lives with her family, they are surprised at how different life in her house is. Though Ifeoma’s family lacks the abundant resources that Kambili’s family has, they enjoy cheerful banter during meal times. Ifeoma’s house is full of music and laughter, which is alien to Kambili and Jaja. To their surprise, their aunt tells them that there is no need to follow their father’s strict schedule while they are at her house. At Nsukka, Kambili meets Father Amadi, a young catholic priest whose amiable behaviour is unlike anything her father would approve of. Father Amadi quickly notices that Kambili is different and pays her special attention. Kambili develops a crush on him. Though we do not see any inappropriate behaviour on Father Amadi’s part, he manages to draw Kambili out of her shell. She is able to open up and relax due to the way he treats her. Eventually she falls in love with him, even though she knows nothing can come out of this relationship (sigh………). Another theme that is explored in this book is how the wealthy are allowed to get away with ghastly behavior. Eugene is extremely generous. He is the main benefactor of his church. This gives him the confidence to stand in judgment of other worshippers, regarding those who missed communion on two consecutive Sundays as ‘having committed mortal sin’. Villagers flock to his rural home when he goes there and he gladly dishes out money. He is a highly regarded member of society, even though he permits his children only fifteen minutes to visit his own father whom he regards as a ‘heathen’. He refuses to have anything to do with his father. When they fail to report that they spent time with their grandfather at Aunt Ifeoma’s house, Kambili and Jaja are punished for knowingly being in the same house with a heathen. This in spite of the fact that their grandfather is only brought to Nsukka due to his deteriorating health. Eugene is not even moved when his father dies, his only comment is that a priest should have been called to pray for him and convert him. This does not stop him from sending a lot of money for the funeral, though he doesn’t bother attending it. Neither the villagers nor Father Benedict are shown as being at all concerned about the way he treats his family, though it must be clearly evident that something is off as others easily pick up on this. The only person who dares defy him is his sister, Ifeoma, who goes as far as to refuse his financial assistance because he tries to control her life in exchange for his support. Another theme that Chimamanda brings out is how society tends to turn a blind eye to things that make us uncomfortable. Nobody asks Kambili how she got hurt when she lands in hospital after her father repeatedly kicks her, not even Father Eugene or the doctor. The only person who dares broach the subject is her cousin, Amaka, who mentions it in a way that makes it obvious that she is already aware of what happened. How long can people really survive such treatment? Kambili’s mother, Beatrice, seems weak and helpless, as victims of domestic abuse often appear to be. She tries to protect her children but seems trapped by circumstances. She goes back to her abusive husband even after Ifeoma begs her not to go. Ifeoma often tries to talk some sense into her brother, although ultimately, she concludes that he is broken, perhaps beyond redemption. Jaja is wracked with guilt because of his inability to protect his mother. He is eventually able to take a stance against his father, and we see his character begin to develop. Unfortunately, the cycle of violence is doomed to continue as victims of violence often retaliate. All in all, this book was a poignant look at religious fanaticism and domestic violence. It is heartbreaking and distressing. It made me mad and frustrated. I wished I could enter into the book and shake some sense into some of the characters. I found the story well-paced and superbly written. The characters are well developed and easy to understand, even those that I did not like – Eugene and Father Benedict. I felt sorry for Kambili, celebrated Jaja’s growth into manhood, and empathized with Beatrice. I understood Ifeoma’s anger and frustration with her brother and even Amaka’s attempt at rationalizing her uncle’s behaviour. The story is told against the background of political instability and a military coup in Nigeria, which provides some useful information on what is going on in the characters’ lives. I love how Chimamanda uses the blooming of the newly planted and rare purple hibiscus to depict a new beginning for the family and how the characters are at last able to move on. The story is told from Kambili’s point of view and her emotional turmoil is brought out beautifully. I appreciated the way Chimamanda contrasts religion as depicted by Ifeoma’s family and Father Amadi, as opposed to Eugene and Father Benedict. The same religion expressed very differently. We see how Kambili feels isolated from her religion because of her father’s fanaticism, whereas her cousins embrace their religion and have a friendly and casual relationship with their priest, free from judgment. Even though a lot of violence is depicted, and I could clearly see how inhumane and traumatic this is for the characters, I did not find it at all graphic. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, even when it made me sad, and rate it 5 out of 5. I recommend it to lovers of African literature.

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Jovita’s father always told his daughter to use her palabras—her words—and when Jovita grows up, she doesn’t let him down; she writes and speaks about the injustices she sees in her community. As a teacher, she writes about the importance of bilingual and bicultural education. When she becomes a journalist, she uses her words to reach the ears of even the president, Woodrow Wilson. When Texas Rangers threaten the press because their “words got too fuerte, sharp. Like a hacha!” Jovita stands her ground. Louis captures the bravery and spirit of this pathfinding historical figure, emphasizing the power of words to bring about change. The text uses short, accessible sentences, couching Spanish words in English phrases in ways that makes them easy for English-only speakers to decode. (A helpful glossary is also given at the back of the book.) Triana’s painterly illustrations depict the beauty of the Texas landscape, as well as the threat the Rangers pose to the strong, straight-spined Jovita. Black birds, who mirror Idar’s pen name, Ava Negra, make symbolic appearances, and several minority groups who struggled for equal rights in the early 1900s are depicted as being members of Jovita’s community.

Zada opens his memoir with a terrifying scene: Yanked off a bus at a military roadblock on the way to Mardin, Turkey, in 2015, the seasoned journalist wondered if the men with semiautomatic weapons would ever let him go. The author then flashes back to his very first trip to “the East” at age 24, when he and his fellow Canadian travel companion found themselves in a Tangier drug den. As Zada continues to meander his way through stories of his life and career—from absurd anecdotes of his Egyptian landlady, “a diminutive Coptic grandmother with a Napoleon complex,” to his work as a TV producer in Dubai—he slowly threads together themes of identity and acceptance in the context of a rapidly changing world. The idea of storytelling itself also plays an important role within the memoir, acting as a type of cultural touchstone the world over—especially in the stories told by the author’s mentor and family friend, a “force-of-nature raconteur” Egyptian named Kamal Bey who memorably compares the increasing “tribalism” of the United States’ political parties to “the fanatics of the Middle East.” Zada’s own Egyptian ancestry, combined with his Westernized Arab upbringing and lifelong wanderlust, gives him a unique perspective—one that he eloquently expresses with a clear and vivid narrative voice that uses the desert as a metaphor for identity and nationality: “The desert constantly shifts and changes as we move through it… It is one desert, yet it is made up of endless permutations, all slightly different from each other but sharing a common, underlying reality.” This is a compelling travel memoir that doubles as a thoughtful reflection on the unnecessary (and self-imposed) national and cultural boundaries that exist only to distract us from our shared humanity.

“On a fraught, decade-long journey of dislocation,” Adams researched how queer people, mostly emigrants, survived and managed to thrive in the Persian Gulf States, where homosexuality is illegal and often punishable with hefty fines, a potential 10-year prison sentence, deportation, torture, and even death. In 2010, with a degree in Middle Eastern history from New York University, Adams relocated to the United Arab Emirates and began working as an academic researcher on cultural traditions. As a gay man, what he soon uncovered and focused more closely on was archiving life stories of queer people living in the UAE. Among the first interviews the author conducted was one with a Dubai-based, Pakistani Muslim competitive wrestler named Mohammed and his dedicated, demanding coach, Prashant, an Indian Hindu. Through hushed inquiry, Adams discovered that both men were lovers, having cast aside their national and religious differences to embrace love for each other. Through a mesmerizing succession of intimate disclosures and vivid conversations, the author profiled members of a flourishing clandestine community. Despite the perils of living as their authentic selves “in a place that persecutes them,” Adams met many vibrant people, including a figure skater from Iran; Sri Lankan and Turkish girlfriends; Filipino aestheticians who threw furtive “ladyboy” parties; and parkour athletes who remained in the UAE despite having exhausted attempts at Middle Eastern citizenship. Throughout his travels, Adams became intimately familiar with the rigidly structured and carefully calibrated intercourse taking place among the Gulf’s queer subcommunities. In doing so, he internalized that group’s struggle to find community, identity, love, and a place to call home and became a better man for it.

It’s 1978, and Jon Fenton, the courier for New York City’s notorious Flying Dragons gang, is on the run. After getting wind of gang leader Sifu Qiu’s plan to kill him, he took the money he was supposed to deliver and faked his own death. However, the gang still wants a measure of revenge, and they target Jon’s adult sister, Kim, who ends up in the hospital after a brutal assault. After she recovers, she takes martial-arts self-defense lessons from her childhood friend, Ethan Wolf, who owns an acupuncture and kung fu studio; the two bond over their mutual grief over Jon’s absence. As years go by, Jon attempts anonymity but still manages to get into trouble halfway around the world in China: “The gang exchanged glances before lunging. Jon’s training took over. He ducked a punch. His movements had the grace of a dancer and the power of a charging bull.” There, he fights for justice, and he forges a surprising career as a martial arts movie star. Along the way, he continues to grapple with his past, which, he eventually learns, he can never truly leave behind. Schulman’s novel briskly spans almost 20 years and includes its characters in historically significant events, as in multiple chapters toward the end, set in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in 1989. With a fluid narrative voice and a plot that moves along with a clear vision, the author writes with a confidence that smooths over occasional stiff dialogue. Although the action may sometimes strike some readers as a bit over the top, it never drifts into caricature. The main characters are well-developed, and their desires, regrets, and motivations plausibly move the story along at a refreshing clip, even when it touches upon serious topics.

Jordan McClellan is the youngest child of Rachel and Eamon, two Oklahoma farmers at the turn of the 20th century. His siblings, Danny and Becky, are both respected athletes—Danny is a draft pick for the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team, and Becky’s the star of her high school basketball team. Jordan, however, is more academically inclined and is at odds with his emotionally distant and abusive father. “I was fifteen when my father hit me,” Logan writes early on, beginning a story that captures the tension of the fraught family dynamic in simple, clear prose. After graduating high school as valedictorian and heading to college on scholarship, Jordan inadvertently causes an accident that injures both his father and his brother, ending his brother’s baseball career. Despite a promising career teaching literature at Oklahoma City University, guilt and depression lead Jordan to the bottle, and after a fateful night at a speakeasy, he gets behind the wheel of a car and causes the death of a pedestrian. Logan’s novel follows Jordan after he’s sentenced to four years in prison for manslaughter and tries to rebuild his life, all in the shadow of World War II, where his eldest brother has become a pilot. The driving force of the novel is whether the McClellan family—and particularly Jordan and Eamon—can heal after multiple tragedies, and if literature, and the life of the mind, can serve as a refuge in crises. In Jordan, Logan has crafted a compelling narrator and central character, whose faults feel realistic and whose emotional journey will keep readers engaged. The novel covers a vast span of time (from the late 1800s at the book’s opening, all the way through the 1950s), causing certain plot points to feel rushed, such as Jordan’s life in prison, which is effectively the core of the book. However, the narrative arc is nonetheless satisfying—occasionally moving, and even terrifying at times.

A diving hawk on the hunt for a mouse loses one of its beautiful feathers. When it lands on the ground, a squirrel snatches it up and uses it in her nest. The wind shakes it free, sending it high above the treetops until it lands in a woman’s hat. And so it goes, flying and floating until a girl spots the feather during her beach walk. She takes it home and uses it as a part of her handmade dream catcher, just the right permanent home for the wandering feather. An author’s note describes the cultural significance of the dream catcher to Ojibwe and other Indigenous cultures. Thanks to the feather’s constant relocation, the story bounces along with it from place to place, keeping the pace moving and readers curious. The illustrations nicely capture the feather’s sense of motion, from swirls as it falls to a tremble as it blows. The images are outlined in thick, black lines and make use of different layouts to great effect. The girl is drawn with light tan skin and long black hair in a single braid. The ending is lovely and unexpected; the feather’s final resting place is one of reverence and peace.

Having discovered in Forget Me Not (2024) that Jens Andersen, the principal of their boarding school, Rosenholm Academy, murdered former student Trine in the ’80s, the girls believed that Trine’s spirit was at peace. But Trine wants more—a confession. Victoria decides to tell the truth about Jens at her parents’ party, which will be attended by powerful mages. But before she can speak, Jens addresses the crowd himself, painting an alluring picture of a world in which mages have greater power. Bravely rising to speak after him, Victoria collapses, seemingly due to a seizure, while Jens mutters a spell. The girls believe he’s acquired greater powers since stealing Chamomile’s victory stone, and now he’s exerting his influence. Victoria, Chamomile, and Kirstine elect not to go back to school and instead organize a resistance movement. Malou, who’s remained at Rosenholm, isn’t answering Chamomile’s texts, bringing tension to the formerly close-knit group. Clever plot twists keep readers on their toes as a battle of wits, dark magic, and the ghosts of murdered girls unfolds in this translated Danish import. Romance is present, but the beating heart of the story is the exploration of friendship, courage, persistence, and morality. Kappel Jensen gives the timeless good vs. evil theme originality and fresh flourishes through the well-developed setting, atmosphere, and relationships.

The opening tableau in Wall Street Journal writer Higgins’ narrative is a federal courtroom, Covid-19 era, in which Apple CEO Tim Cook faces a carefully mounted challenge by Tim Sweeney, publisher of the wildly popular video game Fortnite. Sweeney charged that Apple was a monopolist, an argument, Higgins writes, that had some merit: “With the advent of the iPhone, in order for other businesses to gain access to its marketplace, Apple had set up a drawbridge for all of the companies that wanted to make money through it.” That drawbridge was largely monetary: Apple took 30% of revenues for the sale of every app, “akin to a tax for breathing their air,” protecting its practice inside a “Walled Garden” that other entrepreneurs longed to storm. It didn’t help that throughout the app sales ecosystem, favorable rates were being extended to some app makers but not others, with Sweeney stating, “We’re all in for a prolonged battle if Apple tries to keep their monopoly and 30% by cutting backroom deals with big publishers to keep them quiet.” To complicate matters, after the Capitol insurrection of January 6, 2021, Apple removed the conservative social media app Parler, Amazon dropped Parler from its servers, and Facebook and Twitter shut down Donald Trump’s account; then tech magnate Elon Musk entered the fray, pushing the argument that the Big Four were not only monopolizing markets but also controlling free speech, and in doing so he was “able to do something that Tim Sweeney…failed to do: frame Apple’s power in terms that resonated beyond the business.” Though, as Higgins chronicles, Apple survived most legal challenges, the debate continues as to whether the company and other giants are true monopolies—and just how much control over speech they exert.

“I wake in deep dark. So sleepy. My dog, Jesse, slumbers beside me, and my mom drives us farther into the black night.” So begins a child’s account of a typical day with Mom, who drives an 18-wheeler for a living. Their day includes a truck stop (a bathroom break, followed by breakfast to go), a game of I Spy from the cab, a rest-stop lunch, Mom’s safety check of the rig’s tires, some singing as the miles tick by, and another truck stop (an eat-in dinner this time). To readers, this will seem like a party, although Hundal keeps things real by having the narrator acknowledge feelings of boredom at one point. Though apparently about 6 or 7, the protagonist doesn’t have a young child’s voice, and Hundal’s occasional attempts at kidspeak can feel forced (“First stop: the bathroom. Fast, ’cuz this one’s kind of gross”). Regardless, readers should cotton to the novelty of the book’s milieu. Poon’s mellow-vibe art, which captures the day’s shifting light as it dusts the scenic views, delivers cool details, like the rig’s involved-looking dashboard and the cozy-cramped sleeper cab, which accommodates the narrator, Mom, Jesse, and several stuffies just fine. Mom and child are tan-skinned with dark hair and eyes.

The book opens in 1942, as Helen Anderson prepares breakfast for herself and her sister, Effie, before leaving for her day as a mail carrier in Glen Clova, Scotland. The post office job is one of many given to women while the area’s able-bodied men are away at war. Neither Helen nor Effie ever married, and they live in the family home, which also functions as the town’s schoolhouse. After Helen—or Nell, as she’s called—delivers mail, news of a plane crash nearby spreads through town. As Nell hurries to help the lone survivor, he hands her a photo of a woman before he's taken away. It’s not long before Nell discovers the woman in the picture, Mathilde, has arrived in Glen Clova to mourn the passing of her sweetheart, one of the crew members who died in the crash. As Nell begins to learn Mathilde’s story, the book flashes periodically back to the years between 1908 and 1917, showing how events during the first World War, including Nell’s work as an ambulance driver and Effie’s secret teen pregnancy, led inevitably to the complex family dynamics through which they are both trying to muddle in the 1940s. Gradually, the sisters discover many secrets and coincidences that help them understand who they are and what sort of lives they want to lead. Told in close third person throughout, the book alternates perspectives between Nell and Effie, also shifting briefly to their mother, Manon, and Mathilde. Full of interesting details about female ambulance drivers at Royaumont Abbey and life in rural Scotland during both world wars, the book offers an unhurried examination of the way secrets can burden their carriers over time. While this emotionally evocative novel would have benefitted from additional setting details to bring the village of Glen Clova more to life, the characters are drawn with depth and nuance. Similarly, although there are too many coincidences to feel entirely credible, the outcome is both satisfying and uplifting.

“The dark is for growing,” Alary writes, making a lovely comparison between a human baby developing in a dark womb and birds and turtles growing inside eggs. Throughout, the refrain “And you are not the only one” makes clear that both humans and animals enjoy aspects of the darkness. Humans dream and work through ideas in the dark, while a slumbering cat might be dreaming about how to catch a mouse. And sleep is useful for bees, huddled in their dark hive—it “clears [their] minds so they remember where to find food.” A spread about darkness healing the brain and body during sleep is festively illustrated with bright colors that pop against a black backdrop, filled with one- and two-celled creatures, stars, and a child slumbering beside a teddy bear. On another page, Hugo draws a connection between children sharing secrets at night, while trees communicate messages to other plants and fungi in the dark soil. One particularly moving scene shows a young child dealing with sensory overload tucked into a closet “to curl up in the comforting dark.” In a tribute to those humans and creatures that thrive in the dark and “want to stand out and be noticed,” Hugo illustrates children in glowing pajamas dancing, while a bioluminescent plant with “ruffles of bitter oyster mushroom” makes its own light at night. Human characters are diverse.

“The world’s biggest terrorist has a Pikachu bedspread.” So a reporter learned from former National Security Agency analyst Winner’s mother. In this matter-of-fact narrative, Winner, who “helped the United States government kill people,” opens on May 9, 2017, when she downloaded and printed a five-page document of Russian cyberattacks on U.S. election officials and a company that makes software for voter registration. Why she did so, she allows, was a subject she pondered often as she served out a five-year prison term, part of a sentence that was the longest incarceration for any single-incident leaker. (By contrast, Edward Snowden leaked 1.5 million pages.) Winner’s crime was to send those printed pages to an online site that specialized in national security matters. As she writes, astonishingly, a staffer described the pages to a source who in turn notified the FBI; meanwhile, the staffer also called the NSA and sent photographs of the printed pages, violating “standard Reporting 101 protocols for journalists who need to confirm the authenticity of leaked documents.” Traced to her by virtue of a printer code, the document occasioned her arrest and conviction under the terms of the Espionage Act of 1917, meant as a legal tool against German secret agents during World War I. After 15 months in jail, a plea bargain earned her a spot in federal prison, “a vacation, filled with activities and amenities,” compared to where she’d been. Winner writes candidly about the hellish nature of incarceration in America, from constant violence to boredom and the challenge of contending with conflicting and arbitrary rules, with her fellow prisoners more often than not less dangerous than the staff: “These weirdos, outcasts, and criminals loved me, and I loved them back.”

Cartoonist Pond (Over Easy, The Customer Is Always Wrong) weaves glimpses of her own life into an entertaining group biography of the notorious, eccentric Mitford sisters—Nancy, Pamela, Diana, Unity, Jessica, and Deborah. Growing up in suburban Southern California in the 1960s, Pond envied girls who had sisters rather than her boorish brothers; she envied, too, the Mitford girls’ rebelliousness, glamour, and sophistication. Born between 1904 and 1920, the sisters spent their childhood isolated on their family’s vast estate, each inhabiting “an island unto themselves.” Politically, they emerged with diametrically different views: Diana and Unity became unabashed fascists. At the age of 22, Diana divorced her husband to carry on an affair with Oswald Moseley, head of the British Union of Fascists, whom she eventually married. Unity, an ardent admirer of Hitler, went to Germany to meet him and soon, to her family’s horror, published a scandalous letter denouncing Jews. Jessica, on the other hand, touted communism and socialism. With Esmond Romilly (a nephew of Winston Churchill), she left home to aid in the Spanish Civil War. Defying her furious parents, they married and moved to the U.S.; she became a widow when Esmond was killed during World War II, and she later married a lawyer who shared in her labor and civil rights activism. Jessica made her name writing exposés, the first being The American Way of Death, skewering the funeral home industry. Nancy was the first to make her mark as an author, writing satirical novels that offended several members of her family. Pond recounts the sisters’ marriages, divorces, affairs, pregnancies, miscarriages, occupations, and preoccupations, all set in the context of the turbulent times in which they lived: “Across the scope of the entire 20th century,” Pond writes, “was the Mitford Circus.”

Since her best friend, Hope, died, Liv Porter has struggled with grief, anxiety, and debilitating panic attacks. The cops ruled Hope’s death a suicide, but Liv suspects that their other best friend, Brendan, was involved. On Halloween evening, she lures him to an isolated house and, with the help of her friends Kizzy and Sherie, sets up a plot to blackmail him into telling the truth. But their plan is derailed when two friends of Brendan’s show up and a storm knocks out the power. And then someone starts killing people, one by one. To get out alive, Liv must face her guilt and confront what really happened the night Hope died. This fast-paced page-turner jumps between past and present, delivering satisfying twists that will keep readers guessing until the end. The story explores heavy themes, including grief, mental illness (depression, bipolar disorder, and anxiety), domestic abuse, and online bullying, though the presentation of mental health feels lacking in depth. However, the characters’ authentic voices make the work accessible and will encourage ongoing discussion. Harris serves up complex, unreliable characters who help create that delightful sense of unease and distrust that makes thrillers so fun. Most characters are Black, and Kizzy, who’s a lesbian, is Black and Chinese American.

Dash is called “Diaper Kid” because he’s in no hurry to graduate to underwear. Why would he be, when in his diapered state, “he can GO anywhere”? The bold-type, capitalized verb in this clever line is best read with double meaning—Diaper Kid is always moving, and while on the go, he’s free to go (pee or poo) in his diaper. Garbutt’s lighthearted text is supported by Lowe’s playful cartoons, which recall Aliki’s style and depict Dash in a cape emblazoned with the letter D. Both words and art leverage potty humor to the story’s advantage as Dash’s parents gently encourage him to give underwear a try, only to be met with resistance. He interrupts his exuberant play with pit stops wherever he chooses, until an errant dip in a kiddie pool leaves his diaper sodden. The resulting discomfort and the realization that his friend Esme from next door wears underwear finally prompt Dash to acquiesce and try underwear out himself. A final, triumphant illustration shows Dash flying like a superhero, his cape now featuring a U patch covering the D that was visible earlier, as he is declared “Underwear Kid.” Dash and his family have light brown skin; Esme is darker-skinned.

After she was overlooked for a job promotion, Emmy Award–winning journalist and television producer Davis moved to Paris in 2016, hoping to escape from her “good but routine” life and embark on a fulfilling career. As she recounts in her candid debut memoir, the move thrust her into a starkly challenging reality. Before applying for what she hoped would be her dream job, she went back to school, earning a master’s degree in global communications at the American University of Paris. But despite having strong credentials, she was faced with a dismal job market, forced to take short-term low-paying internships just to maintain a visa. Housing was another problem: What she found were tiny, seedy apartments—one infested with mice; by 2020, she was in her fifth apartment. But her biggest challenge was medical. In 2018, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The title Davis chose for her memoir refers to physical as well as emotional survival: nine surgical procedures over five years in a health care system that made her feel unheard, “dragged along without agency over my body, my health,” she writes. After a mastectomy, reconstruction, and removal of lymph nodes, impending chemotherapy and radiation finally incited her to speak up. Fearing that chemotherapy would compromise her fertility, she insisted on freezing her eggs. Davis also writes about dating and forging a sense of community as a Black woman in a new culture. “Living in France,” she notes, “I’d had my fair share of ‘Was this person racist to me or just rude?’—even more than I did in the US.” Still, she has persisted, determined to survive and thrive in a place she has grown to love.

The book is a sequel to Citizen Orlov (2023), in which an unfortunate turn of events got Orlov, the fishmonger, implicated in the assassination of the king. Now desperate to return to his former life, Orlov is about to resign from the security post when revolutionaries stage a violent uprising following the coronation ceremony for the new sovereign. The intelligence minister, seated in a car next to Orlov, is shot in the head. The monarch is forced into hiding in a mountaintop convent. In dizzying fashion, the hapless Orlov is pressured first by the People’s Party—its deputy leader is a former colleague of his in the fish business—and then by royalists to spy on the other side. Back and forth he goes, double-talking his way out of trouble. As part of a group of government officials who disguise themselves in nun’s habits to make it safely to the convent, he is exposed to shocking realities. The actual Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrow are not what they seem (the guns are a dead giveaway) and all of the fake nuns don’t seem to be on the same page with each other. The king, who was outfitted as “Sister Karla” to evade detection, is befuddled by the situation. “So, the prisoners are dressed as nuns and the nuns are dressed as prisoners?” he asks. Seeming pumped with helium, ever light on its feet, the novel keeps springing satirical delights and hilariously absurd scenes. It’s a flawlessly entertaining read that raises expectations for the third installment in the series.

Reflecting on their long-term efforts to reduce violence between Israelis and Palestinians, Agha, a scholar who has represented the latter in peace talks, and Malley, a veteran of the last three Democratic presidential administrations, pen a doleful epitaph for the so-called two-state solution. The authors started their careers hoping to help establish “a single entity in which Jews and Arabs would coexist as equals.” Eventually, they yielded to “what appeared at the time the more realistic and pragmatic objective”—a Palestinian state bordering Israel. But Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel—and Israel’s ongoing counterattacks in Gaza—have muted such ideas. The best the authors hope for today is that peace negotiators consider “a departure from convention,” one that would neither accept the current carnage nor impose one- or two-state compromises doomed to failure. They offer several alternatives. Among the most concrete are a truth and reconciliation process and the establishment of “a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation.” Such a link “has historical antecedents” and might help address an otherwise intractable dispute: “What Israelis would not hand over to a Palestinian state, they might grant a joint entity headed by Jordan.” While looking ahead, the authors offer a riveting insiders’ account of high-stakes statesmanship. Then–Secretary of State John Kerry brought unequaled “passion and enthusiasm” to the negotiations, but his work was for naught, in part because his boss—President Obama—didn’t leverage the billions of dollars in U.S. military aid that goes to Israel to forge lasting peace. Past Palestinian leaders were often chided for “never miss[ing] an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” but the authors, looking closely at peace talks since the 1990s, demonstrate that this is a major oversimplification.

Songwriter and record producer Ronson is no stranger to the top of the charts. He produced Amy Winehouse’s blockbuster album Back to Black and scored an inescapable megahit of his own with the 2014 single “Uptown Funk.” (Movie fans might know him from his early cameo in Zoolander and for co-writing the earworm “I’m Just Ken” from Barbie.) Before all that, though, he was (and still is) a DJ, and his debut book focuses on his rise from a kid with a set of turntables he got as a high school graduation present to one of the country’s most in-demand record spinners. Ronson recalls his early life as a child in London, the son of parents who “were good people, but not good together,” and his move to New York, with his sisters, mother, and her new partner, Foreigner guitarist Mick Jones. He talked his way into DJ gigs, writing of one event, “I already had advantages that most others didn’t. My mother bought me the gear. I was raised by a musician with a home studio. But this was an absurdly lucky break, even for me.” Ronson writes beautifully about the allure of the nightclub: “For someone who grew up amid chaos and uncertainty, the DJ booth was the perfect refuge—a one‐man command center, where every fader and dial bent the world to my will.” His chronicle of his rise to success is entertaining, funny, and humble; while he allows that he’s good at his job, he remains well aware of the role that chance played in his career. You don’t have to love dance music to enjoy this thoroughly charming memoir.

Sixth grader Nathan’s existence is disrupted when something unusual happens: He grows a tail. It seems to have a mind of its own, and he names it Tuck. Nathan’s parents refuse to call themselves aliens—they’re “Visitors” from the planet Kast. They’ve had extensive training in Earth culture, language, and gestures, and they closely monitor Nathan, logging his food and controlling his activities. Nathan’s best friend, Victor (who’s the Calvin to Nathan’s Hobbes in their favorite comic book character alter egos), knows nothing about any of this until Nathan and his parents are suddenly recalled to the Wagon, the place where they were raised on their journey to Earth. The family’s visit to the Wagon—which is disguised as a storage unit facility outside Altoona, Pennsylvania—leads Nathan to suspect that something is very wrong. His discovery of the exploitation of sentient beings by a coldhearted experimenter nearly leads to his permanent expulsion from Earth. Stead’s narrative focuses on the likable, gentle Nathan, but also offers perspectives from Victor, Nathan’s mother, family cat Toto, Tuck, and even the villain. The pacing is superb, neatly blending family dynamics, friendship, and tween romance with page-turning mystery, adventure, and horror. Nathan’s people have assumed “all Earthly skin tones”; his skin is “a few shades deeper” than that of his crush, golden-skinned Izzy.

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Hold on to the edge of your seat as we hunt for clues and solve the case with these exciting new mystery and thriller books for the week! There are so many bestselling authors with new novels for you to dive into this week including Dheepa Maturi, Ruth Harrow, Peter Colt, and...

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The post New Mystery and Thriller Books to Read | September 16 appeared first on NewInBooks.

Looking to fall in love with some new romance reads? You’ll adore these exciting new novels! This week you can get your hands on books by bestselling authors J.J. DiBenedetto, Jessa Kane, Cassie Mint, and more. Enjoy your new romance books and happy reading! Sign up for our email and we’ll send...

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The post New Romance Books to Read | September 16 appeared first on NewInBooks.

Set off on an adventure to new worlds this week! This selection of new science fiction and fantasy books will surely please! Science Fiction fans should be excited about the latest from bestselling authors Gene Doucette, Daniel Ellrick, Julia Twaddle, and more. If Fantasy is what your library needs, you’ll be able...

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The post New Science Fiction and Fantasy Books | September 16 appeared first on NewInBooks.

Literary fiction readers are in for a treat. This week’s latest releases list is full of intriguing reads you won’t want to miss! The new releases list includes so many bestselling authors like Peter Mann, Fern Michaels, Lisa Greenwald, and more. Enjoy your new literary fiction books. Happy reading! Sign up for...

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The post New Books to Read in Literary Fiction | September 16 appeared first on NewInBooks.

Looking for some new biography and memoir books for your library? There are so many new releases this week that you’re bound to find a new favorite. You can pick up new books from Bradford J. Beyer, Uli Paulin, August Quinn, and more. Enjoy your new biography and memoir books. Happy reading! Sign...

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The post New Biography and Memoir Books to Read | September 16 appeared first on NewInBooks.

Romance book reviews. Reviews of books that make my heart race, have a beautiful love story, and a happy ending.

After a decade of reading and reviewing books, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to take a step back from blogging. Running this book blog has been such a huge and wonderful part of my life. I’ve written over 600 book reviews and loved the experience of getting to share my love of reading ...Read More  >

After a decade of reading and reviewing books, I’ve decided that it’s time for me to take a step back from blogging. Running this book blog has been such a huge and wonderful part of my life. I’ve written over 600 book reviews and loved the experience of getting to share my love of reading with so many other readers from around the world. Blogging was quite an unexpected journey for me though as I never set out to “start” a blog at all. Back in 2011, I simply began reading so much that I wanted a way to remember which books were my most favorites… and that’s when I started writing reviews. At first, my reviews were written more for my own sake than anyone else’s. They began as a way for me to keep track of the books I enjoyed and remember what I loved most about each one. You see, I was quite picky about the types of books I wanted to read and had a hard time finding anywhere specifically recommending what I was looking for. I was drawn to romantic books that made my heart race, but I also strongly preferred no stupidity powering the storyline or eye-roll-enducing drama, and of course I needed a happy ending as I’ve always been quite allergic to cliffhangers. At that time, there weren’t many romance book review sites out there in general and none that focused on the particular type of books I personally wanted to read so my reviews were a way for me to catalogue the books I’d found that fit within the criteria I was looking for. At first, I really didn’t expect anyone else to read my reviews, but as I began to realize that my reviews were actually helping other readers find books they loved as well, I decided to officially begin blogging and started this website to hold all my reviews. Writing reviews was also quite cathartic for me because, after reading a truly wonderful book, I was often overwhelmed with thoughts and feelings so writing my thoughts down in reviews helped give me closure from a story and highlight/remember what I loved most about a book. I also found that I genuinely loved helping other readers find new books. So my blog began and I continued reading and reviewing books for it for almost a decade. However, the truth is that in the last while, I found myself falling in love with fewer and fewer books — I don’t know if it’s because I started to feel like I’d basically read every plotline within the types of stories I loved so many times over, or maybe if the other parts out my life just became too busy and I began having less time to read, but, regardless of the reason, I was falling in love with fewer and fewer books. And here’s the thing – this blog has always been a passion project for me so if I genuinely wasn’t falling in love with as many books, I didn’t want to continue to review books just for the sake of reviewing them. That was never what this blog was about so I just felt myself naturally drifting away from reviewing and blogging. A few months ago, I decided to try taking a break from blogging and honestly I have really been enjoying the mental freedom that came from that decision. So, least for the immediate future, I’m going to officially step away from my blog. I may begin reviewing books again one day – and that might be in a month, a year, or never… I can’t say for sure, but that door will always remain open. My blogging goal was always to put a spotlight on the wonderful books I loved and to share them with other readers. So even though I’m not reviewing new books at this time, I will leave this whole website up in the hope that it will continue to help new readers find new favorite books to fall in love with. I have 630 reviews and recommendations of books I’ve personally loved and would love for other readers to fall in love with too and I can see through my analytics that, even though I’m not actively blogging, readers continue to come to my blog every day and read my older reviews so it makes me happy to know that my reviews are still connecting readers with awesome books. I also want to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to the thousands of amazing readers who’ve followed my blog over the years, and THANK YOU to the wonderfully talented authors who’ve written the beautiful stories that we’ve all fallen in love with. You’ve all given me so much joy and I’m so very grateful for all of it. I may return to blogging one day, and I may randomly post a surprise review/recommendation every now and again, but for now I wanted to officially make a statement that explains why my blog hasn’t been updated in a while and why it won’t have new content for the foreseeable future. If I ever start reviewing again, I will announce it by email, so please subscribe to my email list if you’d like to get a notification should that day come. I will not be sending emails out via that list until then though. In the meantime, if you’re looking for my top recommendations, here’s a list of my standout favorite books: The Bronze Horseman Trilogy by Paullina Simons (My Review) – this will always and forever by my #1 fav! The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay (My Review) – one of the most powerful endings ever! The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel (My Review) – incredibly unique love story with all the feels! Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah (My Review) – this has possibly my favorite epilogue ever! Archer’s Voice by Mia Sheridan (My Review) – gorgeous, heart-warming romance! Slammed & Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover (My Review) – one of my first reviews, and still a top fav! Devney Perry books: reading list – heart-warming, gorgeous romance perfection every single time! Kristen Ashley books: reading list – badass alpha romance – pure epic, great families, much variety! Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon: reading list – addictive paranormal romance, my fav PNR world! On The Island by Tracey Garvis Graves (My Review) – just a truly beautiful story! The Starcrossed series by Leisa Rayven (My Review) – the best purely angsty romance I’ve read! A Thousand Boy Kisses by Tillie Cole (My Review) – ugly cry romance perfection! Crossfire series by Sylvia Day (My Review) – hot sexy romance but deeply emotional and addictive! Addicted series by Krista & Becca Ritchie – great romances and one of the best family dynamics ever! Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind (Series Overview) – fantasy, fantastic morals and world building! Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost (Series Overview) – action-packed vampire romance fun! Mists of the Serengeti by Leylah Attar (My Review) – an ugly cry favorite! Becoming Calder & Finding Eden by Mia Sheridan (My Review) – another ugly cry favorite! Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward: reading order – badass/epic paranormal vampire romance! The Girl He Used To Know by Tracey Garvis Graves (My Review) – second half of the book hit me so hard! In The Stillness by Andrea Randall (My Review) – the feels… literally all the feels! Wallbanger by Alice Clayton (My Review) – most I’ve ever laughed reading any book! The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah (My Review) – stunning wartime story! A full list of all my reviews can also always be found at this link. Happy reading! ~Aestas

BOOKWORM NEWS: Juniper Hill by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Memphis Ward arrives in Quincy, Montana, on the fifth worst day of her life. She needs a shower. She needs a snack. She needs some sanity. Because moving across the country with her newborn baby is by far the craziest thing she’s ever done. ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Juniper Hill by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Memphis Ward arrives in Quincy, Montana, on the fifth worst day of her life. She needs a shower. She needs a snack. She needs some sanity. Because moving across the country with her newborn baby is by far the craziest thing she’s ever done. But maybe it takes a little crazy to build a good life. If putting the past behind her requires a thousand miles and a new town, she’ll do it if it means a better future for her son. Even if it requires setting aside the glamour of her former life. Even if it requires working as a housekeeper at The Eloise Inn and living in an apartment above a garage. It’s there, on the fifth worst day of her life, that she meets the handsomest man she’s ever laid eyes on. Knox Eden is a beautiful, sinful dream, a chef and her temporary landlord. With his sharp, stubbled jaw and tattooed arms, he’s raw and rugged and everything she’s never had—and never will. Because after the first worst day of her life, Memphis learned a good life requires giving up on her dreams too. And a man like Knox Eden will only ever be a dream.” The Girl in the Mist by Kristen Ashley is now live!! — “Renowned author Delphine Larue needs a haven. A crazed fan has gone over the deep end, and she’s not safe. Her security team has suggested a house by a lake. Secluded. Private. Far away. In a beautiful area of the Northwest close to the sleepy town of Misted Pines. It’s perfect. So perfect, Delphine has just moved in, and she’s thinking she’ll stay there forever. Until she sees the girl in the mist. After that, everything changes. Delphine quickly learns that Misted Pines isn’t so sleepy. A little girl has gone missing, and the town is in the grips of terror and tragedy. The local sheriff isn’t up for the job. The citizens are up in arms. And as the case unfolds, the seedy underbelly of a quiet community is exposed, layer by layer. But most importantly, girls are dying. There seems to be only one man they trust to find out what’s happening. The mysterious Cade Bohannan.”” The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland is now live!! — “The first time I met Max Yearwood was on a blind date. Max was insanely gorgeous, funny, and our chemistry was off the charts. He also had the biggest dimples I’d ever laid eyes on. Exactly what I needed after my breakup. Or so I thought… Until my real date arrived. Turned out, Max wasn’t who I was there to meet. He only pretended to be until my real date showed up. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. Before he left, he slipped me a ticket to a hockey game a few blocks away, in case things didn’t work out on my actual date. I tossed the ticket into my purse and went about trying to enjoy the man I was supposed to meet. But my real blind date and I had no connection. So on my way home, I decided to take a chance and stop by the game. When I arrived, the seat next to me was empty. Disappointed again, I decided to leave at the end of the period. Just before the buzzer, one of the teams scored, and the entire arena went crazy. A player’s face flashed up on the Jumbotron. He was wearing a helmet, but I froze when he smiled. You guessed it: Dimples. Apparently, my fake blind date hadn’t invited me to watch hockey with him, he’d invited me to watch him play. And so began my adventure with Max Yearwood. He was everything I needed at the time—fun, sexy, up for anything, and only around for a few months since he’d signed with a new team three-thousand miles away. Max proposed we spend the summer helping me forget my ex. It sounded like a good plan. Things couldn’t get too serious when we had an expiration date. Right? Though, you know what they say about the best-laid plans.” Only One Mistake by Natasha Madison is now live!! — “Two pink lines changed all my plans. So did the guy I had a one-night stand with, a man who made me laugh and smile, a guy who I called to share my unexpected news with, only to find out his number was no longer in service. Once more letdown by the opposite sex, I figured I was doing this on my own. Then one day, I was staring into the eyes of the man I hated, the father of my baby. All it took was only one mistake to change everything.” Baden by Sawyer Bennett is now live!! — “While my injuries are physical, the same can’t be said for the woman I rescued. Suffering from wounds that can’t be seen, Sophie Winters has withdrawn from the world in fear and guilt. I didn’t know Sophie before that fateful night and have only met her once since, but I refuse to let her face her demons alone. Determined to be a friend, I support Sophie in the only way I know how… by simply being there. Through our shared trauma, Sophie and I begin to find peace within one another. As we grow closer, what started as friendship becomes more intimate until our broken pieces become one. But can a love born of anguish endure, or will the pain of our past prove too much to overcome?” Shielding Sierra by Susan Stoker is now live!! — “No one knows she’s been taken. Her missing belongings point to desertion—which means no one is looking for her, either. But someone is. Fred “Grover” Groves never forgot the redheaded spitfire working the chow line on a base in the desert. He’d felt an instant attraction to the petite woman, a connection deep in his bones…which Sierra herself clearly didn’t feel, since she’d promised to keep in touch after his mission ended, only to ghost him—and seemingly her job. But she didn’t. When several contractors go missing from the base, it looks more and more like Sierra didn’t abandon her post. Then a long-lost letter proves she’d followed through on her promise to stay in touch with Grover—and suddenly, all bets are off. He bucks every protocol he’s ever known… If Sierra’s still alive, he’ll find her. Or die trying.” Flame by Helen Hardt (Steel Brothers Saga) is now live!! — “Callie Pike always considered herself the plain sister—stuck in the middle between beautiful Rory and vivacious Maddie—so she still can’t believe gorgeous perennial bachelor Donny Steel has fallen in love with her. She should be the happiest woman on the planet, and she is…but her nemesis from ten years ago seems intent on destroying her newfound bliss. Donny Steel will do anything to protect his family, even sacrifice his ethics and his own happiness. As much as he loves Callie, he knows he can’t be the man she deserves—not until he solves the mysteries of his family’s past and finds out who shot his father. Though the two erupt in flames whenever they’re together, the secrets they both harbor could destroy any chance for a future together.” Wright Rival by KA Linde is now live!! — “No one on this planet pushes my buttons like Hollin Abbey. I don’t know if it’s the rugged, sexy cowboy look or the Harley Davidson motorcycle or the cocky swagger. Or just him. But whenever we’re together we fight like cats and dogs. Now our vineyards are rivals in the annual wine competition, and I’m determined to win. I just have to take out my Wright rival.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Juniper Hill by Devney Perry (small town neighbors to lovers romance, standalone in The Edens series) The Girl in the Mist by Kristen Ashley (romantic thriller, Misted Pines series) The Summer Proposal by Vi Keeland (sports romance, standalone) Only One Mistake by Natasha Madison (surprise pregnancy romance, standalone in Only One series) Baden by Sawyer Bennett (hockey romance, standalone in Pittsburgh Titans series) Wright Rival by KA Linde (enemies to lovers romance, standalone in Wright Vineyard series) Shielding Sierra by Susan Stoker (romantic suspense, standalone in Delta Team Two series) Flame by Helen Hardt (romantic suspense, Steel Brothers Saga) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES Jan 18 Pre-Order Jan 18 Pre-Order Jan 18 Pre-Order Jan 24 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Jan 25 Pre-Order Feb 01 Pre-Order Feb 01 Pre-Order Feb 08 Pre-Order WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: Shelter by Kristen Proby is now live!! — “Remi Carter has survived her fifteen minutes of fame and is putting LA in her rearview mirror. As a former reality show contestant, she’s trading staged expeditions and faked wilderness tours for real adventures. Only one fluke storm in Glacier National Park has her stranded ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Shelter by Kristen Proby is now live!! — “Remi Carter has survived her fifteen minutes of fame and is putting LA in her rearview mirror. As a former reality show contestant, she’s trading staged expeditions and faked wilderness tours for real adventures. Only one fluke storm in Glacier National Park has her stranded with a handsome man, and adventure takes on a whole new meaning. Seth King is as rugged and sexy as he is annoyed to be trapped with Remi. Probably because she ghosted him at the local bar not three days ago. But she’s got her reasons for ditching him, and twenty-four hours in an abandoned Montana cabin with the wildlife biologist isn’t nearly enough time to explain. As tempting as he is by firelight, she’s been burned too many times. Except one day together and suddenly her travel van doesn’t hold as much appeal. The open road feels lonely. Remi’s about to learn that shelter is more than a safe place to weather a storm. Shelter might just be the man himself. If he can give her a reason to stay.” Code Name: Disavowed by Sawyer Bennett is now live!! — “Life works in mysterious ways. Jameson Force Security has just received notice of a disavowed CIA agent in need of rescue in Central America. My blood runs cold when I learn that agent is none other than Greer Hathaway—my former fiancée. Having gone our separate ways more than a decade ago, I still have bitter feelings toward Greer and the demise of our relationship. Those feelings don’t change the fact that I loved her more than anything, so I’m on the next flight out to embark on a rescue mission. Besides, Greer once saved my life, so now it’s time to return the favor and put her firmly in my past. Face-to-face for the first time since ending our engagement, Greer and I are left with not only anger, unanswered questions and regrets, but also the undeniable chemistry we apparently still have. Will the promise of a new future together be enough, or will the same obstacles tear us apart again?” Homecoming King by Penny Reid is now live!! — “Rex “TW” McMurtry’s perpetual single-hood wouldn’t bother him so much if all his ex-girlfriends didn’t keep marrying the very next person they dated, especially when so many of those grooms are his closest friends. He may be a pro-football defensive end for the Chicago Squalls, but the press only wants to talk about how he’s always a groomsman and never a groom. Rex is sick of being the guy before the husband, and he’s most definitely sick of being the best man at all their weddings. Bartender Abigail McNerny is the gal-pal, the wing-woman, the she-BFF. She’s dated. Once. And once was more than enough. Privy to all the sad stories of her customers, ‘contentment over commitment’ is her motto, and Abby is convinced no one on earth could ever entice her into a romantic relationship . . . except that one guy she’s loved since preschool. The guy who just walked into her bar. The guy who doesn’t recognize her. The guy who is drunk and needs a ride home. The guy who has a proposition she should definitely refuse.” My Unexpected Surprise by Piper Rayne is now live!! — “I never thought of myself as dad material. Until my one-night stand showed up in my small Alaskan town five months pregnant. But I don’t shy away from responsibility. First, because I’m a Greene and not to boast but we’re kind of a big deal in Sunrise Bay. Second, I’m the Sheriff. I couldn’t have predicted how protective I’d become for the safety of her and my unborn baby to the point of asking her to move in with me and be my roommate. Just when I think I have the situation under control, another surprise knocks me over, but it only spurs me to double down. I’ll be the first to admit, I didn’t think it through. Somewhere between the dinners, the TV show binging, the doctor appointments, and me walking in on her naked, lines blurred. In what feels like warp speed, my bachelor for life status is in jeopardy and I’m fighting for the most important thing of all—my family.” Dark Alpha’s Silent Night by Donna Grant (Reapers series) is now live!! — “There is no escaping the Reapers. We are elite assassins, part of a brotherhood that only answers to Death. But when Death says it’s our time to live, we are more than happy to obey. We have suffered betrayal, heartbreak, chaos, and even death. Despite another foe lurking around the corner, most of us have found happiness and love. While some still search, there is contentment—a sense of peace and purpose. And with the holidays upon us, it is time to celebrate the family we have made. The one we chose. The season is for revelry, and we intend to take advantage. Whatever may come next will still be there after the last present is unwrapped.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Shelter by Kristen Proby (close proximity romance, standalone in Heroes of Big Sky series) Code Name: Disavowed by Sawyer Bennett (second chance romance/suspense, standalone in Jameson Force Security series) Homecoming King by Penny Reid (small town romance, standalone in Three Kings series) My Unexpected Surprise by Piper Rayne (pregnancy/roommates, standalone in The Greene Family series) Dark Alpha’s Silent Night by Donna Grant (paranormal Christmas tale from Reapers series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: Dream Keeper by Kristen Ashley (Dream Team series) is now live!! — “Pepper Hannigan is determined to keep any romance off the table while her daughter Juno is still young. Sure, a certain handsome commando is thoughtful, funny, and undeniably hot, but Pepper’s had her heart broken before, and she won’t let it ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Dream Keeper by Kristen Ashley (Dream Team series) is now live!! — “Pepper Hannigan is determined to keep any romance off the table while her daughter Juno is still young. Sure, a certain handsome commando is thoughtful, funny, and undeniably hot, but Pepper’s had her heart broken before, and she won’t let it happen again. Not to her or her little girl, even if this hero could melt any woman’s resolve. Augustus “Auggie” Hero can’t deny his attraction to beautiful, warm-hearted Pepper or how much he wants to make a home with her and her little girl, but Pepper’s mixed signals have kept him away. That is, until Juno decides to play matchmaker. Her efforts finally bring Pepper into his arms, but they expose the danger Pepper is in. To protect Pepper and Juno, Auggie will have to live up to his last name and prove happy endings aren’t just for fairy tales.” Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (Outlander series) is now live!! — “Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them twenty years to find each other again. Now the American Revolution threatens to do the same. It is 1779 and Claire and Jamie are at last reunited with their daughter, Brianna, her husband, Roger, and their children on Fraser’s Ridge. Having the family together is a dream the Frasers had thought impossible. Yet even in the North Carolina backcountry, the effects of war are being felt. Tensions in the Colonies are great and local feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows loyalties among his tenants are split and it won’t be long until the war is on his doorstep. Brianna and Roger have their own worry: that the dangers that provoked their escape from the twentieth century might catch up to them. Sometimes they question whether risking the perils of the 1700s—among them disease, starvation, and an impending war—was indeed the safer choice for their family…” Change With Me by Kristen Proby (With Me In Seattle series) is now live!! — “Zane Cooper. Hollywood royalty. Fourth generation superstar. He knows what it is to be one of the biggest celebrities in the world. And how lonely that title truly is. When scandal hits, his career hangs in the balance, and Zane flees LA for Seattle, laying low with his newly married best friend. Things will eventually blow over, and he’ll have his life back soon enough. Aubrey Stansfield arrives in Seattle excited to start a new job, and eager to settle into her new home. But when she arrives at her rental, Aubrey’s sure she’s imagining things because the uber sexy Zane Cooper is unpacking in her new bedroom. Thanks to a rental snafu, and unwilling to relocate on such short notice, Aubrey and Zane are thrust into being roommates…” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Dream Keeper by Kristen Ashley (alpha romance, Dream Team series) Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon (latest book in Outlander series) Change With Me by Kristen Proby (novella in With Me In Seattle series) Wrapped in Black by Tiffany Reisz (Christmas novella in Original Sinners series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: The Wolf by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, Prison Camp spinoff) is now live!! — “Return to the sizzling glymera’s prison camp in this dark and sexy second novel in the new Black Dagger Brotherhood Prison Camp spin-off series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward. In the next ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: The Wolf by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, Prison Camp spinoff) is now live!! — “Return to the sizzling glymera’s prison camp in this dark and sexy second novel in the new Black Dagger Brotherhood Prison Camp spin-off series from the #1 New York Times bestselling author J.R. Ward. In the next installment of bestselling author J.R. Ward’s Prison Camp series, things get steamy when Lucan, a wolven forced into bartering drug deals for the infamous Prison Colony, meets Rio, the second in command for the shadowy Caldwell supplier, Mozart. After a deal goes awry, a wolf with piercing golden eyes swoops in to save her from certain death. As shocking truths unfurl, Rio is uncertain of who to trust and what to believe—but with her life on the line, true love rears its head and growls in the face of danger.” Next Time I Fall by Scarlett Cole is now live!! — “Love rocks. Heavy guitars, a voice with the burn of pure single malt, and lyrics that distill the meaning of love are the greatest things. If only the man singing didn’t have a temperament as foul as the Michigan winter. Jase sitting in her car while yelling at her to get him out of there is a surprise. Why she hits the accelerator and takes him to her father’s cabin on the lake is an even greater mystery. How was she supposed to know they’d end up snowed in for days? Or that when they got out again, their relationship, and her views on love, would be changed irrevocably?” 14 Days of Christmas by Louise Bay is now live!! — “I hate Christmas. As CEO of my company, I’ve banned decorations from the office, festive music from the lobby and any kind of secret Santa gifts between employees are strictly forbidden. I’m heading to the airport, away from the Christmas lights and the mulled wine, heading for sunshine and margaritas when I get a call from Granny. She’s sprained her ankle and needs my help filling in for her as head of the village Christmas Committee. Snowsly is the Christmas Capital of England and the last place I want to be in the lead up to Christmas. But there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for Granny. When I arrive in Snowsly, I’m introduced to Celia Sommers who is Christmas’ biggest fan and therefore my own personal nightmare before Christmas. Worse than that, I have to work with her to make Snowsly’s Christmas market a success. Celia is determined to get me in the festive spirit. It’s not going to work. It doesn’t matter if she’s smart and funny and easy to flirt with—if she doesn’t stop looking at me with her sparkling eyes and pouting her completely kissable lips, Celia is going straight to the top of my naughty list.” The Enigma by Jodi Ellen Malpas is now live!! — “After leaving her fiancé at the altar and quitting her job as a Miami cop, Beau Hayley stumbles through life, feeling only resentment. Injustice. Loss. Her mom’s death was called an accident. She’s not convinced. Grieving, she becomes numb to everything except the constant, biting pain of heartbreak and hate. She can see no light. Until she meets James Kelly, a man who seems as damaged as she is, inside and out. And yet despite his twisted, cold façade, he stimulates feelings. Pleasure. He is a respite from her own flaws. A complete mystery.” The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan is now live!! — “Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal. Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job. Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping?” Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid is now live!! — “Propositioning the Iron Wraiths’ money man seemed like a good idea at the time… Diane Donner—recently divorced pillar of polite society—is craving danger. She’s tired of playing it safe and she knows just the sexy criminal motorcycle man to proposition for a good time. Problem is, she doesn’t actually know his name. Jason “Repo” Doe never takes risks. So when the queen of local commerce walks into his club, looking to get risky and frisky, Jason knows the smartest thing to do is save himself a headache while saving the new divorcee from her worst impulses. But then one thing leads to another, and the memory of just-one-night doesn’t feel like enough. Theirs is a story with no future, because how can a dangerous criminal win (and keep) a queen?” Head Over Hooves by Erin Nicholas is now live!! — “You know in movies where the big city girl lands in a small town for the holidays and falls for the hunky guy who saves Christmas? This isn’t that story. But this guy does look fantastic in flannel. And out of flannel… Finding true love with his one-and-only soul mate? Drew Ryan’s given up on that. But a hot holiday fling in Louisiana, far from his responsibilities and good guy image back home, is now on the top of his list for Santa. So when he’s knocked on his ass—literally—by a Christmas elf who’s stealing a sleigh full of gifts and using his reindeer to commit the crime, he definitely doesn’t expect to fall head over heels.” The Singles Table by Sara Desai is now live!! — “After a devastating break-up, celebrity-obsessed lawyer Zara Patel is determined never to open her heart again. She puts her energy into building her career and helping her friends find their happily-ever-afters. She’s never faced a guest at the singles table she couldn’t match, until she crosses paths with the sinfully sexy Jay Dayal. Former military security specialist Jay has no time for love. His life is about working hard, staying focused, and winning at all costs. When charismatic Zara crashes into his life, he’s thrown into close contact with exactly the kind of chaos he wants to avoid. Worse, they’re stuck together for the entire wedding season. So they make a deal. She’ll find his special someone if he introduces her to his celebrity clients. But when their arrangement brings them together in ways they never expected, they realize that the perfect match might just be their own.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP The Wolf by JR Ward (Black Dagger Brotherhood Series, Prison Camp spinoff) Next Time I Fall by Scarlett Cole (rockstar romance, standalone in Excess All Areas series) The 14 Days of Christmas by Louise Bay (CEO/small town holiday romance, standalone) The Enigma by Jodi Ellen Malpas (romantic suspense, Unlawful Men series) The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (heartwarming holiday novel, standalone) Beard in Hiding by Penny Reid (small town romcom, Green Valley world) Head Over Hooves by Erin Nicholas (holiday fling, standalone in Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series) Kingdom Come by Aleatha Romig (dark romance, standalone) The Singles Table by Sara Desai (romantic comedy, standalone in The Marriage Game series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase LATEST BOOK SALES UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! 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  BOOKWORM NEWS: Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves is now live!! — “Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves is now live!! — “Love doesn’t always wait until you’re ready. Layla Hilding is thirty-five and recently divorced. Struggling to break free from the past—her glory days as the lead singer in a band and a ten-year marriage to a man who never put her first—Layla’s newly found independence feels a lot like loneliness. Then there’s Josh, the single dad whose daughter attends the elementary school where Layla teaches music. Recently separated, he’s still processing the end of his twenty-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He chats with Layla every morning at school and finds himself thinking about her more and more. Equally cautious and confused about dating in a world that favors apps over meeting organically, Layla and Josh decide to be friends with the potential for something more. Sounds sensible and way too simple—but when two people are on the rebound, is it heartbreak or happiness that’s a love song away?” Just One Chance by Carly Phillips is now live!! — “As a former Marine, Xander Kingston’s writing keeps him sane. Bonus? His thrillers made him one of Hollywood’s most desired screenwriters—and also introduced him to a fledgling starlet who broke his heart. With his close-knit family in New York, Xander returned home and found peace. Until Sasha Keaton shows up at his Hamptons retreat. Now an A-Lister, she’s as beautiful as he remembers. And just as dangerous to his heart. Sasha learned from watching her mother to never sacrifice her dreams for anyone—only to discover how empty life could be without the man she loved. Now cast in Xander’s latest movie, she needs his insight to play the part, but secretly hopes for a second chance.” My Sister’s Flirty Friend by Piper Rayne is now live!! — “I broke the cardinal rule and slept with my sister’s best friend. Granted, I’d just found out that I was now a single father to a three-year-old little girl and was low on willpower. It should also be noted that there’s been sexual tension between us for years. There’s no way it would be a surprise if anyone in our small town found out. That is if we were telling people, which we’re not. We’re in agreement to keep our affair a secret, especially since neither one of us do relationships. You’ve probably figured it out already, but things didn’t go as planned.” More Than Hate You by Shayla Black is now live!! — “I’m Sebastian Shaw—CFO, pragmatist, and moneymaker. I’ve mismanaged love in the past, but when it comes to business, I’m pure shark, able to cut down any threat to my success…except Sloan O’Neill. We’re vying for the same major client, so I do what any self-respecting cutthroat does to gain the upperhand: spy on the ball-busting piece of work. She may be gorgeous and unnervingly clever, but I have skills. My gutsy roadblock doesn’t stand a chance. Until I realize I’m falling for her. Suddenly, everything from my objectives to my morals is cloudy. Stay loyal to my best friend and boss to win this critical client at any cost…or give my heart another chance? But the more time I spend with my redheaded adversary, the more I realize she’s not just ambitious but kind, vulnerable…and perfect…” Dark Tarot by Christine Feehan is now live!! — “Sandu Berdardi continues to exist only to protect his people. An ancient Carpathian, his entire long life has been dedicated to honor above all else. He knows his time has passed, especially since he has not been able to find his lifemate—the anchor to keep him sane in a world he no longer understands. But just as he truly starts to give up hope, a voice reaches out to him in the night and his world explodes into color. Adalasia enters Sandu’s mind seamlessly, as if she has been a part of him forever. While she can see the shape of things to come in her deck of cards, her gift is both a blessing and a curse. The true course of Sandu’s quest remains unclear, with danger waiting at every turn. She cannot see everything the future holds, but she does know it is a journey they will take together.” The Rhythm Method by Kylie Scott (Stage Dive novella) is now live!! — It all started in Vegas… After a wild and tumultuous beginning to their relationship, Evelyn Thomas and her rock star husband David Ferris have been happily married for years. Nothing needs to change, their life together is perfect. Which means that change in the shape of an unexpected pregnancy is bound to shake things up some. But could it be for the better? WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Heard It in a Love Song by Tracey Garvis Graves (starting over & second chances, standalone) The Rhythm Method by Kylie Scott (novella in Stage Dive series) Just One Chance by Carly Phillips (second chance romance, standalone in The Kingston Family series) My Sister’s Flirty Friend by Piper Rayne (single dad romance, standalone in The Greene Family series) More Than Hate You by Shayla Black (enemies to lovers, standalone in Reed Family Reckoning series) Dark Tarot by Christine Feehan (paranormal romance, The Dark series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

  BOOKWORM NEWS: Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Winslow Covington believes in life, liberty and the letter of the law. As Quincy, Montana’s new chief of police, she’s determined to prove herself to the community and show them she didn’t earn her position because her grandfather is the mayor. According to ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry is now live!! — “Winslow Covington believes in life, liberty and the letter of the law. As Quincy, Montana’s new chief of police, she’s determined to prove herself to the community and show them she didn’t earn her position because her grandfather is the mayor. According to her pops, all she has to do is earn favor with the Edens. But winning over the town’s founding family might have been easier if not for her one-night stand with their oldest son. In her defense, it was her first night in town and she didn’t realize that the rugged and charming man who wooed her into bed was Quincy royalty. Sleeping with Griffin Eden was a huge mistake, one she’s trying to forget. He’s insufferable, arrogant and keeps reminding everyone that she’s an outsider. Winslow does her best to avoid Griffin, but when a woman is found dead on Eden property, the two of them have no choice but to cross paths. As clues to the murderer lead to one of Quincy’s own, Griffin realizes Winslow is more than he gave her credit for. Beautiful and intelligent, she proves hard to resist. For him. And the killer.” Riggs by Sawyer Bennett is now live!! — “As a professional hockey player, people think I live a charmed life. On the surface, I do. But they don’t know the horrors of my childhood, or the real reason that I have custody of my seventeen-year-old sister, Janelle. And that’s exactly the way I like it. They may think I’m a prick because I don’t like to share, but that’s fine. They don’t know me, and they don’t need to. In an effort to help Janelle get settled in Phoenix and stay out of trouble at school, I set her up with a job at Clarke’s Corner, the local bookstore owned by the girlfriend of a teammate. It’s there that she makes friends with Veronica Woodley, the extremely annoying, arrogant, money-hungry divorcee who I don’t want anywhere near my sister. Janelle insists I’m completely wrong about Veronica, but I refuse to accept that. I have to keep reminding myself that that the gorgeous blond with legs for days is off limits. Through a series of events, I start to see Veronica for what she really is—an amazing woman who has survived her own hell to come out even stronger. I have to admit, we’re more alike than not…” Until April by Aurora Rose Reynolds is now live!! — “With happily ever after being something that happens to other people, April Mayson has decided to put all her energy into her career and living her best life, and things are better than ever. Little does she know that her world is about to be turned upside down when she’s asked to help out a family friend, Maxim Kauwe. Now, she’s dealing with a man unlike any she’s ever met before, her ex—a famous musician who’s decided he wants her back—and a possible serial killer. With all the drama suddenly swirling around her, she will have to figure out if she is brave enough to trust Maxim with her heart and maybe even her life.” Rebel North by JB Salsbury is now live!! — “In a city where image is everything, Gabriella turns heads for all the wrong reasons. The marks that slash across her neck and face turn people away. But I see the beauty that lies beneath, feel a kinship to her pain. I regret the way she found me—mugged and left for dead. I should walk away, follow the rules, but I can’t. I want to see her again. There’s only one problem. My brother convinced her I’m gay. I use that lie to my advantage, persuade her to be my pretend girlfriend, to help protect my fake-sexual identity from my judgmental family. But what starts as a shameless excuse to be near her leads to crossed lines and midnight confessions. I’m not who I led her to believe. I’m sin wrapped in silk. Betrayal masked by beauty. And she’s not the only one with scars…” Inked Devotion by Carrie Ann Ryan is now live!! — “Brenna Garrett watched her best friend fall in love with another woman all the while keeping his darkest secrets from her. Now she’ll have to figure out who she is without him while not letting the rest of the Montgomerys see her break. When her family forces her on a road trip, she finds herself bringing Benjamin Montgomery with her. The problem? He’s her best friend’s twin, so there’s no escaping that familiar face. Benjamin didn’t want to leave his family in a lurch, but Brenna isn’t the only one who needs a break. Only a drunken mistake leads to a night of passion with unintended consequences. When it turns out they can’t walk away, they’ll have to make a choice: remain just friends or start something new and possibly risk everything. Including themselves.” Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard is now live!! — “Born to a life of privilege, Lady Ravenna Huntley rues the day that she must marry. She’s refused dozens of suitors and cried off multiple betrothals, but running away—even if brash and foolhardy—is the only option left to secure her independence. Lord Courtland Chase, grandson of the Duke of Ashvale, was driven from England at the behest of his cruel stepmother. Scorned and shunned, he swore never to return to the land of his birth. But when a twist of bad luck throws a rebellious heiress into his arms, at the very moment he finds out he’s the new Duke, marriage is the only alternative to massive scandal. Both are quick to deny it, but a wedding might be the only way out for both of them. And the attraction that burns between them makes Ravenna and Courtland wonder if it’ll truly only be a marriage of convenience after all…” Man For Me by Laurelin Paige is now live!! — “Brett Sebastian is the very best kind of friend. Who else would get me a job at one of the biggest corporations in America? And hook me up with his uber-rich cousin to boot? And let me cry on his shoulder every time said cousin blows me off? Okay, it’s pretty obvious that Brett cares about me in a different way than I do for him, but he seems fine with how things are, and our friendship works. Until one fateful night when I’m mooning over his cousin, and Brett utters four words that should make me happy for him, should make me relieved, should balance out our uneven relationship: “I met a girl.” Suddenly my world is crashing down around me, and I’m forced to ask myself—am I only interested in Brett now that he’s taken? Or have I been looking at the wrong man all along?” Moonstone by Helen Hardt is now live!! — “As Moonstone, she was held captive. Now Katelyn Brooks is starting fresh and is determined to reclaim her life. With the help of the Wolfe family, she’s working toward healing…which doesn’t necessarily include falling for a gorgeous waiter. Luke Johnson is a recovering alcoholic who just wants to fly under the radar. He’s not looking for love, but when Katelyn walks through the doors of the restaurant where he works, he’s struck by her beauty and her meekness. Circumstances throw them together, and neither is able to resist the attraction that sparks between them. But Luke has a secret—a big one—that could spell danger for both of them.” Archangel’s Light by Nalini Singh (Guild Hunter series) is now live!! — “Illium and Aodhan. Aodhan and Illium. For centuries they’ve been inseparable: the best of friends, closer than brothers, companions of the heart. But that was before—before darkness befell Aodhan and shattered him, body, mind, and soul. Now, at long last, Aodhan is healing, but his new-found strength and independence may come at a devastating cost—his relationship with Illium. As they serve side by side in China, a territory yet marked by the evil of its former archangel, the secret it holds nightmarish beyond imagining, things come to an explosive decision point. Illium and Aodhan must either walk away from the relationship that has defined them—or step forward into a future that promises a bond infinitely precious in the life of an immortal…but that demands a terrifying vulnerability from two badly bruised hearts.” Home for a Cowboy Christmas by Donna Grant is now live!! — “Tis the season—for everyone except Emmy Garrett. She’s on the run after witnessing a crime. But when it becomes clear that trouble will continue following her, the US Marshal in charge takes her somewhere no one will think to look–Montana. Not only is Emmy in a new place for her protection, but now, she’s stuck with a handsome cowboy as her bodyguard…and she wants to do more than kiss him under the mistletoe. Dwight Reynolds left behind his old career, but it’s still in his blood. When an old friend calls in a favor, Dwight opens his home to a woman on the run. He tries to keep his distance, but there’s something about Emmy he can’t resist. She stokes his passion and turns his cold nights into warm ones. When danger shows up looking for Emmy, Dwight risks everything to keep her safe.” One Christmas Wish by Brenda Jackson is now live!! — “Vaughn Miller’s Wall Street career was abruptly ended by a wrongful conviction and two years in prison. Since then, he’s returned to his hometown, kept his head down and forged a way forward. When he is exonerated and his name cleared, he feels he can hold his head up once again, maybe even talk to the beautiful café owner who sets his blood to simmering. Sierra Crane escaped a disastrous marriage—barely. She and her six-year-old goddaughter have returned to the only place that feels like home. Determined to make it on her own, Sierra opens a soup café. Complication is the last thing she needs, but the moment Vaughn walks into her café, she can’t keep her eyes off the smoldering loner.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry (small town enemies to lovers romance, The Edens series) Riggs by Sawyer Bennett (hockey romance, standalone in Arizona Vengeance series) Until April by Aurora Rose Reynolds (contemp romance, standalone in Until Him/Her series) Rebel North by JB Salsbury (NA romance, standalone in The North Brothers series) Inked Devotion by Carrie Ann Ryan (roadtrip romance, standalone in Montgomery Ink series) Rules for Heiresses by Amalie Howard (historical romance standalone) Man For Me by Laurelin Paige (friends to lovers, standalone novella in Man in Charge series) Moonstone by Helen Hardt (love after hardship, new series) Archangel’s Light by Nalini Singh (paranormal romance, Guild Hunter series) Home for a Cowboy Christmas by Donna Grant (holiday romance, standalone) One Christmas Wish by Brenda Jackson (small town holiday romance, Catalina Cove series) now live Purchase now live Pre-Order now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! 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BOOKWORM NEWS: Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey is now live!! — “Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. I’m standing alone in front of the famous Vivant department store, when a charming man named Aiden asks my opinion of the décor. It’s a tragedy in ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey is now live!! — “Two weeks before Christmas and all through Manhattan, shop windows are decorated in red and green satin. I’m standing alone in front of the famous Vivant department store, when a charming man named Aiden asks my opinion of the décor. It’s a tragedy in tinsel, I say, unable to lie. He asks for a better idea with a twinkle in his eye. Did I know he owned the place? No. He put me on the spot. Now I’m working for that man, trying to ignore that he’s hot. But as a down on her luck girl with a difficult past, I know an opportunity when I see one—and I have to make it last. I’ll put my heart and soul into dressing his holiday windows. I’ll work without stopping. And when we lose the battle with temptation, I’ll try and remember I’m just window shopping.” Only One Regret by Natasha Madison is now live!! — Him: “My name came with big skates to fill. . At the top of my game, I had everything I wanted, or so I thought. . Being traded to Dallas was not what I was expecting but neither were the divorce papers I was served. . Now I’m a single dad in a city that isn’t my home.” | Her: “Handed my biggest client when I was twenty-two made my dreams come true. . Over time, our work relationship changed, and we grew closer, leaning on each other for support. . He was my rock, my best friend.. Then one drunken night changed everything, and I saw what was in front of me all along. . I just hope that when the dust settles, we won’t regret it.” Promise Me Forever by Layla Hagen is now live!! — “As a divorced single father, I live by three rules: 1. Make sure every day my daughter, Paisley, knows she’s number one in my life. No. Matter. What. 2. Keep contact with my cheating ex-wife to a minimum. 3. Turn Maxwell Wineries into a legacy that keeps Paisley set for life. When I hire Lexi to look after my daughter, I realize I need another rule: don’t pursue Paisley’s nanny. But even if I had that rule it wouldn’t matter. Because I’m breaking it already.” Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen is now live!! — “The hottest player on the Moo U hockey team hangs a flyer on the bulletin board, and I am spellbound: Rent a boyfriend for the holiday. For $25, I will be your Thanksgiving date. I will talk hockey with your dad. I will bring your mother flowers. I will be polite, and wear a nicely ironed shirt… Now everyone knows it’s a bad idea to introduce your long-time crush to your messed-up family. But I really do need a date for Thanksgiving, even if I’m not willing to say why. So I tear his phone number off of that flyer… and accidentally entangle our star defenseman in a ruse that neither of us can easily unwind. Because Weston’s family is even nuttier than mine. He needs a date, too, for the most uncomfortable holiday engagement party ever thrown. There will be hors d’oeuvre. There will be faked PDA. And there will be pro-level awkwardness…” Sealed With A Kiss by Erin Nicholas is now live!! — “What’s a girl to do when faced with a hurricane, her celebrity crush, and a power outage in their shelter? Keep her damned feelings to herself. And her clothes on… Naomi LeClaire is just a small-town girl who loves her quiet, simple life. Donovan Foster is a sexy, charming, wildlife rescuing internet sensation who loves the spotlight. What do these opposites have in common? Only an impossible-to-resist chemistry that, when they’re stuck together in a storm becomes, well, impossible to resist. But the aftermath of the storm gives them something else in common—a rescue mission to help victims. Oh, and a heat-of-the-moment kiss caught on camera by the local paparazzi. Not to mention an offer for a reality TV show documenting them falling in love while saving animals from crazy, dangerous situations…” Well Matched by Jen DeLuca is now live!! — “Single mother April Parker has lived in Willow Creek for twelve years with a wall around her heart. On the verge of being an empty nester, she’s decided to move on from her quaint little town, and asks her friend Mitch for his help with some home improvement projects to get her house ready to sell. Mitch Malone is known for being the life of every party, but mostly for the attire he wears to the local Renaissance Faire—a kilt (and not much else) that shows off his muscled form to perfection. While he agrees to help April, he needs a favor too: she’ll pretend to be his girlfriend at an upcoming family dinner, so that he can avoid the lectures about settling down and having a more “serious” career than high school coach and gym teacher. April reluctantly agrees, but when dinner turns into a weekend trip, it becomes hard to tell what’s real and what’s been just for show…” Serendipity by Kristen Proby (Bayou Magic series) is now live!! — “My sight is a gift and also a curse. It cost me the love of my life. We may have been young, but some things you don’t get over. Like being the cause of the biggest tragedy of your boyfriend’s life. It’s something I’ll never forget, and a reflection of who I am. But now that Jackson’s back in town, with scars and a hero’s badge of honor, it’s time for me to be brave, too. A malevolent evil hell-bent on making my sisters and me pay for rebuffing him is still stalking my family, and some ancient writings portended that the six were the only ones who could defeat him. Jackson Pruitt and I round out that magical number, which means I have to face the evil and the things Jack makes me feel, to save my family and my city…” Infamous Like Us by Krista & Becca Ritchie (Like Us Series: Billionaires & Bodyguards) is now live!! — “22-year-old Sullivan Meadows knew dating Akara & Banks would be complicated, but now that her relationship is public, everything has been put on blast: @HeatherB: Can’t believe Sullivan Meadows is dating TWO men and they’re like all together. Like OMG. Totally didn’t think the rumors were true. @YuiK: anyone know what happened to Sullivan Meadows? News is saying something bad went down. Seems bad. @PaulieP: Why is there no reporting on the thing that “allegedly” happened to that Meadows girl? They aren’t saying whether her boyfriends were there??? @TiffanyW: Y’all I can’t with Sullivan’s boyfriends. They just sandwiched her in PUBLIC to avoid cameras lmao @RiverT: Banks Moretti & Akara Kitsuwon are totally banging. I don’t make the rules @CarlaR: OMGOMGOMG Sullivan Meadows qualified for the Olympics! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! @LacieA: Celebrity Crush is saying ALL the families will be at the Olympics to root for Sullivan. Im dead #HalesMeadowsCobalts @GeorgieO: Dude no way she wins a gold medal. Sulli the Slut is too busy screwing anything that walks @VenusQ: I bet her boyfriends will distract her. Last Olympics, she was single. This one, she’s a MESS. Messiness isn’t getting gold #sorrynotsorry” A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout is now live!! — “Born shrouded in the veil of the Primals, a Maiden as the Fates promised, Seraphena Mierel’s future has never been hers. Chosen before birth to uphold the desperate deal her ancestor struck to save his people, Sera must leave behind her life and offer herself to the Primal of Death as his Consort. However, Sera’s real destiny is the most closely guarded secret in all of Lasania—she’s not the well protected Maiden but an assassin with one mission—one target. Make the Primal of Death fall in love, become his weakness, and then…end him. If she fails, she dooms her kingdom to a slow demise at the hands of the Rot. Sera has always known what she is. Chosen. Consort. Assassin. Weapon. A specter never fully formed yet drenched in blood. A monster. Until him…” House of Shadows by KA Linde (Royal Houses series) is now live!! — “Kerrigan Argon, a half-human, half-Fae, has joined the Dragon Society against almost everyone’s wishes. A year of training is required with her dragon. First she must travel with the dark Fae prince, Fordham Ollivier, back to his home in the House of Shadows. Nothing but slavery and death has ever awaited a half-Fae in their halls. But something is wrong within their wicked world. A thousand year old spell is weakening. Cracks forming in the foundation. And Kerrigan may just be their ruin or their salvation.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP Window Shopping by Tessa Bailey (feel-good holiday romance, standalone) Only One Regret by Natasha Madison (single dad hockey romance, standalone in Only One series) Promise Me Forever by Layla Hagen (single dad romance, standalone) Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen (hockey romance, standalone in Moo U Hockey series) Sealed With A Kiss by Erin Nicholas (opposites attract romcom, Boys of the Bayou Gone Wild series) Well Matched by Jen DeLuca (friends to lovers romance, standalone) Serendipity by Kristen Proby (paranormal romance, Bayou Magic series) Infamous Like Us by Krista & Becca Ritchie (Like Us Series: Billionaires & Bodyguards) A Shadow in the Ember by Jennifer L Armentrout (spinoff of Blood and Ash series) House of Shadows by KA Linde (fae romance, Royal Houses series) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels is now live!! — “I was totally over Joshua Parkerson. Sure, I had a teenage crush on him way back when—and everyone knew it—but he never saw me as anything but his little brother’s friend, the girl who got tongue-tied any time he walked into a ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels is now live!! — “I was totally over Joshua Parkerson. Sure, I had a teenage crush on him way back when—and everyone knew it—but he never saw me as anything but his little brother’s friend, the girl who got tongue-tied any time he walked into a room. I had long ago accepted the fact that his strong arms would never hold me, his lush lips would never claim mine, and his blue eyes would never see me as anything more than who I used to be. But now he’s back in Willow Creek Valley, and there’s a brand-new spark between us—even he can’t fight it. Our chemistry is explosive, and every time we’re together, I swear I can feel the earth shake. It doesn’t mean anything… how could it? I’m over him. Until I see that little pink plus sign, and the earth stops turning completely. Now I want it all again, a life with him. But Joshua built walls around his heart for a reason, and his secrets haunt him. How can I show him that the ghosts of his past don’t have to define our new family’s future?” Not Without Your Love by Lexi Ryan is now live!! — “Two and a half years ago, I hit rock bottom and lost everything. Since then, I’ve turned my life around—no more booze, no more drugs, no more self-sabotage. With a new business to run and old promises to keep, the last thing I need is smart-mouthed hellcat Veronica Maddox disrupting my world. Veronica’s as beautiful as she is infuriating. She pushes all my buttons. Maybe that didn’t matter before, but now she’s working for me. She keeps this place running. As a business owner, I appreciate that. As the man she hates and the one who can’t forget our wild night together, I’m slowly losing my mind. I told myself I could resist her, but we only get along when our hands are doing the talking. Before I know it, our relationship is anything but professional [and] no matter how much I try to convince myself otherwise, what started as two enemies has developed into something neither of us imagined possible. And while Veronica’s a complication I never wanted, she is exactly what I need.” Hold On To My Heart by Bella Andre is now live!! — “Nash Hardwin has been on the road full time since leaving his rough childhood behind when he was sixteen. Beloved by millions of fans around the world, he’s never had a real home and never trusted anyone enough to fall in love. Not until he meets Ashley Sullivan. After she unexpectedly steps in to help him out of a very tricky situation, he ends up having the best day of his life with her in Vienna. Ashley is sweet, beautiful and intelligent…with the biggest heart of anyone he’s ever met. When their perfect day together inevitably turns into an even more perfect night, there’s no denying that they make incredibly beautiful music together. But is there even the slightest chance that the small-town single mom and the road warrior rock star can make things work? Or will the realities of lives that are polar opposites make it impossible to hold on to each other’s hearts?” Fallen Royal by Rachel Van Dyken (Mafia Royals #4) is now live!! — “I grew up knowing it would happen one day. Believing that I would fall into my father’s footsteps… So I fought it. I lived. I loved. I teased. And then one day… I destroyed… She saw my rage, my madness, and tried to stop me from destroying myself, and I hated her for it, pushing her away past the point of no return. She was supposed to be mine. But there are some things people can never come back from. I hurt her, she hurt me, and now I’m living a lie. Telling the ones I love that I’m on one side when for years I’ve been forced to play both. I’m no angel. I’ve fallen… I will win her back… She fell for the bad one. She fell for the sinner. So why does that make me smile?” The Blood That Binds by Madeline Sheehan & Claire C Riley (Thicker Than Blood #3) is now live!! — “Two brothers. A childhood sweetheart. Life has never been easy for this trio, and especially not after the end of civilization as they knew it. Having had their formative years ripped from them, they were thrust into a shattered, savage world, a world where they only had each other. Love and loss. Weary travellers on the brink, there is a storm brewing, a turbulent tempest that has nothing to do with the weather. When tragedy strikes, everything changes in the blink of an eye– facades come undone, and loyalty is pushed to a breaking point. A diamond in the rough. Immersed back into something akin to normal society, a safe-haven in the midst of misery, our travellers are forced to finally confront their demons–long-kept secrets that have been haunting them for nearly a decade. Love is never easy; And love during the end of the world is a hell of a lot more complicated.” The Butler by Danielle Steele is now live!! — “Joachim takes a job working for Olivia as a lark and enjoys the whimsy of a different life for a few weeks, which turn to months as the unlikely employer and employee learn they enjoy working side by side. At the same time, Joachim discovers the family history he never knew: a criminal grandfather who died in prison, the wealthy father who abandoned him, and the dangerous criminal his twin has become. While Olivia struggles to put her life back together, Joachim’s comes apart. Stripped of their old roles, they strive to discover the truth about each other and themselves, first as employer and employee, then as friends. Their paths no longer sure, they are a man and woman who reach a place where the past doesn’t matter and only what they are living now is true.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP A Moment For Us by Corinne Michaels (surprise baby/unrequited love romance, standalone) Not Without Your Love by Lexi Ryan (enemies-to-lovers office romance, standalone in The Boys of Jackson Harbor series) Hold On To My Heart by Bella Andre (single mom/rock star romance, standalone in The Sullivans series) Fallen Royal by Rachel Van Dyken (mafia romance, Mafia Royals series) The Blood That Binds by Madeline Sheehan & Claire C Riley (love triangle, Thicker Than Blood series) The Butler by Danielle Steele (women’s fiction, standalone) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase LATEST BOOK SALES 45% OFF ★ Purchase 65% OFF ★ Purchase under $2 ★ Purchase 50% OFF Purchase 50% OFF Purchase under $1 Purchase under $2 Purchase under $1 Purchase under $3 ★ Purchase under $3 ★ Purchase 50% OFF ★ Purchase under $1 ★ Purchase UPCOMING BOOK RELEASES Oct 13 Pre-Order Oct 18 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 19 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Oct 26 Pre-Order Nov 02 Pre-Order WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! LET’S STAY CONNECTED To get these lists sent to you every week, subscribe by email. FOLLOW THE BLOG Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest | BlogLovin’ | Google+ | Goodreads

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueure is now live!! — “It’s the summer of 1941. Europe is at war, but New York’s Thousand Islands are at the height of the tourist season. Kennet Fiskare, son of a hotel proprietor, is having the summer of a lifetime, having fallen deeply in love with a ...Read More  >

BOOKWORM NEWS: A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueure is now live!! — “It’s the summer of 1941. Europe is at war, but New York’s Thousand Islands are at the height of the tourist season. Kennet Fiskare, son of a hotel proprietor, is having the summer of a lifetime, having fallen deeply in love with a Swedish-Brazilian guest named Astrid Virtanen. But the affair is cut short and the young lovers permanently parted, first by Astrid’s family obligations, then by America’s entry into the war. The rigors of military life help dull his heartache, but when Kennet’s battalion reaches France, he is thrown into the crucible of front line combat. As his unit crosses Europe, from the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium to Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria, Kennet falls into a different kind of love: the intense camaraderie between soldiers. It’s a bond fierce yet fragile, vital yet expendable, here today and gone tomorrow. Sustained by his friendships, Kennet both witnesses and commits the unthinkable atrocities of warfare, altering his view of the world and himself. To the point where a second chance with Astrid in peacetime might be the most terrifying and consequential battle he’s ever fought…” Wild at Heart by Zoe York is now live!! — “Everyone in Pine Harbour loves Will Kincaid—except the one person he cares about actually impressing. Can grown men have crushes on their frenemies? When Catie joins the small town’s Search and Rescue team, Will finds himself spending every Thursday night swapping glares with the hairdresser while they get in each other’s way. Catie Berton has a long list of reasons why Will is an arrogant jerk. But the more time she spends with him, the more she’s forced to admit sometimes they make a good team. That doesn’t change the fact that Will has always been her right crush, wrong guy. When the SRT goes on a road trip to a competition, she surprises herself by agreeing to ride shotgun in his truck. The long drive could be a chance to repair a shredded friendship, if Catie can get past her complicated feelings for the too-attractive-for-his-own-good school principal.” Mr. Park Lane by Louise Bay is now live!! — “I haven’t seen him in over a decade, but Joshua Luca can still get to me. And I hate it. At twenty-nine, I’m a doctor and I’ve traveled the world, but just the thought of him has me sliding my sweaty palms down my jeans and wishing I could steady my racing heartbeat. Joshua was an almost obsession until, at seventeen, he cost me my future. In one night, I grew up and let go of my silly crush. My infatuation for Joshua is dead and buried. Forever. It doesn’t matter that he’s my new roommate. Or that he still has that same sexy smile. I barely notice how, despite his billions, he’s the kindest man I know. Or that when he touches me, a thousand tiny fireworks explode all over my body. I’m completely over Joshua Luca.” Spark by Helen Hardt (Steel Brothers Saga) is now live!! — “Donovan “Donny” Steel is on a partnership track with a major Denver law firm. He loves his city career and his luxurious downtown loft, and life is going just how he planned it…until his mother, the city attorney for his hometown of Snow Creek, Colorado, asks him to move back and work for her when her assistant retires. Mom asks? Donny goes. Because he’ll do anything for the family who took him in twenty-five years ago. The fact that he can pick up where he left off with gorgeous Callie Pike is simply a fringe benefit. Caroline “Callie” Pike was looking forward to finally beginning law school at age twenty-six, but the western slope fire that destroyed most of her family’s vineyards put that plan on hold. At least she has Donny Steel’s return to look forward to. After she spent an evening with him at a recent party, he hasn’t strayed far from her mind…” Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis is now live!! — “On a snowy evening in March, thirty-something Noelle Butterby is on her way back from an event at her old college when disaster strikes. With a blizzard closing off roads, she finds herself stranded, alone in her car, without food, drink, or a working charger for her phone. All seems lost until Sam Attwood, a handsome American stranger also trapped in a nearby car, knocks on her window and offers assistance. What follows is eight perfect hours together, until morning arrives and the roads finally clear. The two strangers part, positive they’ll never see each other again but fate, it seems, has a different plan. As the two keep serendipitously bumping into one another, they begin to realize that perhaps there truly is no such thing as coincidence.” A Reckless Match by Kate Bateman is now live!! — “Madeline Montgomery grew up despising––and secretly loving––the roguish Gryffud “Gryff” Davies. Their families have been bitter rivals for hundreds of years, but even if her feelings once crossed the line between love and hate, she’s certain Gryff never felt the same. Now, she’s too busy saving her family from ruin to think about Gryff and the other “devilish” Davies siblings. Since he’s off being scandalous in London, it’s not like she’ll ever see him again…” Wild Heart by Laurelin Paige (Dirty Wild #3) is now live!! — “Secrets, surprises, and second chances. This trip down memory lane with Jolie has mended as much as it’s torn up. I promised her I could handle anything. Whatever she was hiding, my wild heart would always belong to her. But I could never have imagined this truth. And she can’t blame me for how this will all end.” WEEKLY NEW RELEASES RECAP A Small Hotel by Suanne Laqueure (military/love/family fiction) Wild at Heart by Zoe York (frenemies to lovers romance, standalone in The Kincaids of Pine Harbor series) Mr. Park Lane by Louise Bay (second chance/roommates romance, standalone) Wild Heart by Laurelin Paige (contemp romance, book #3 in Dirty Wild series) Eight Perfect Hours by Lia Louis (snowstorm/strangers romance, standalone) More Than Possess You by Shayla Black (romance novella, standalone in More Than series) Spark by Helen Hardt (romantic suspense, Steel Brothers Saga) A Reckless Match by Kate Bateman (historical romance, Ruthless Rivals) now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase now live Purchase WHAT KIND OF BOOKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR? __________________________________ Let me know if there are any other books you’re loving right now too!! 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196 countries, countless stories...

This month, a dream came true. I spent two weeks visiting Greenland with my hero, legendary Togolese explorer Tété-Michel Kpomassie, sixty years after he first arrived in the country that became his home from home (an experience recorded in his landmark memoir, An African in Greenland, tr. James Kirkup, and recently rereleased as a Penguin […]

This month, a dream came true. I spent two weeks visiting Greenland with my hero, legendary Togolese explorer Tété-Michel Kpomassie, sixty years after he first arrived in the country that became his home from home (an experience recorded in his landmark memoir, An African in Greenland, tr. James Kirkup, and recently rereleased as a Penguin Modern Classic, titled Michel the Giant, with a new afterword, tr. Ros Schwartz). It will take me a while to process this incredible experience and I am working on several projects to tell the story of it. Watch this space! In the meantime, however, I decided it would only be right to make Greenlandic literature the focus for my latest Book of the month. And, it being #WITMonth, I knew I would feature a book by a female author. If you ask anyone about contemporary Greenlandic literature, one name will dominate: Niviaq Korneliussen, a young Greenlandic writer hailed widely as the leading light of a new generation of voices telling stories on the world’s largest island. Her writing is fresh, daring and confronting, and having started the month reading her novel Last Night in Nuuk, I would have found it an easy choice to feature one of her books. (And she is extremely well worth reading – if you are looking for Greenlandic literature you should absolutely start with her.) But as I try to highlight lesser known voices on this blog, I decided to look further afield. This brought me to Nauja Lynge’s Ivalu’s Color, adapted from the Danish by the author and International Polar Institute Press. Lynge is something of a hybrid writer. Describing herself as a Danish Greenlander, she is the descendant of several figures who were instrumental in establishing Greenlandic identity, including Henrik Lund, author of the national anthem, and Hans Lynge, who promoted independence. At first, given her Danish heritage, I was hesitant as to whether to include her in my reading. But as many of the conversations I have had over the past few weeks have involved the influence of colonialism and other political agendas on Greenland, and the way those stories are woven into the Inuit experience (and, as we have seen over the thirteen years of this project, storytelling is a messy, cross-pollinated business that rarely fits neatly in a single box), I decided to give Ivalu’s Color a try. From the pitch, the novel sounds as though it follows a familiar formula. In 2015, three women are found murdered in the Greenlandic capital, Nuuk. Whodunnit? Yet, the similarities with anglophone crime fiction end with the premise. Even before you turn to the first page, it’s clear that this is a book that marches to a different beat. In place of a blurb, the back cover has a lengthy endorsement from Martin Lidegaard, former Danish foreign minister. And on the inside flaps we are told that the true victim of the crime will turn out to be the Inuit people. This political focus continues in the body of the book. In place of an epigraph, we find an unattributed paragraph appealing for a moderate approach to Greenlandic independence: It’s almost as if there is a chapter in our common history missing. My major concern is that we open the doors to outsiders before we are ready to welcome them. Things take time. This applies to Greenland to such an extent that we might be better off seeing ourselves as a developing country, not co-opted immediately into the international economy. The characters of the book take a similar tone. Indeed, rather than focusing on the grisly fate of the three women whose bodies have been found in a shipping container (two of whom are barely mentioned), most of the dialogue rehearses political concerns, feeding off the fact that Ivalu, the most prominent victim, was a blogger on issues connected to independence. Unlike the traditional anglophone detective novel, there is not one sleuth on the trail of the culprit but many. They include the Chinese agent Hong and the Russian agent Nikolai (both of whom do little to disguise their roles in trying to further their countries’ interests in controlling the Arctic), as well as local figure Else. Like the murder victims, these characters remain relatively faceless. What seems to interest Lynge is not so much the personal stories of the figures she portrays but the bigger forces that drive them. These she explores by choosing to focus on aspects a mainstream anglophone writer would not normally centre, and selecting and ordering details in a way that might seem bewildering or even irrelevant to a Western eye. It is as though the apparatus of a European crime novel has been commandeered and turned to different ends. As a reader, I found this challenging. The old knee-jerk irritation I often feel when I struggle to understand literature that works on other terms rose in me, and I was tempted to dismiss the book as bad. Indeed, there are aspects of Ivalu’s Color that will be deeply problematic for many anglophone readers, particularly when it comes to the presentation of Hong. Lynge describes him and his actions in terms that betray a strikingly different, even shocking, approach to presenting otherness. There is also a challenging discussion of femininity and ‘primal’ womanhood running throughout the book, which at times seems to take a stand against ‘the modern age’s fussily democratic women’. This, when set against Hong’s shocking encounter with Else, raises uneasy questions. However, as I continued on through the pages of this book, I found another Greenlandic title that I was reading in conjunction with it beginning to shift my thinking. Knud Rasmussen’s The People of the Polar North, tr. and ed. G. Herring, features the verbatim accounts of many Inuit myths collected by the great explorer on his expeditions through his homeland. Striking and strange, these tales share some of the hallmarks of Lynge’s writing. There is a similar relative effacement of the individual and focus on bigger forces. Extreme and sometimes shocking acts are presented baldly and with little ceremony. They inhabit a framework that calibrates ideas of community, duty, tradition, physicality and individuality very differently. Perhaps Lynge was fusing the storytelling ethos of the country of her birth with the commercial structures of European literature? Wasn’t that, in itself, thought-provoking and subversive? For me, Ivalu’s Color wasn’t an easy or enjoyable read, but it was a valuable one. It was fascinating to see Nauja Lynge testing the limits of a familiar genre and trying to reshape them to accommodate her aims. It was a reminder that truly reading widely (far beyond the offerings that the mainstream outlets curate for us) requires openness, and a readiness to embrace gaps and questions. There is still so much we don’t know. Ivalu’s Color by Nauja Lynge, adapted from the Danish by the author and International Polar Institute Press (IPI, 2017)

This writer came onto my radar thanks to Keith Kahn-Harris, author of The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language, with whom I did a musical incomprehension experiment a few years back. He shared some information with me about Llanito, the language of Gibraltar (a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian […]

This writer came onto my radar thanks to Keith Kahn-Harris, author of The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language, with whom I did a musical incomprehension experiment a few years back. He shared some information with me about Llanito, the language of Gibraltar (a British Overseas Territory at the southern tip of the Iberian Peninsula). It was, he told me, an amalgam of Spanish and English with bits of Maltese and Genoese thrown in. In fact, the literary scene in Gibraltar was similarly fascinating, a kind of experiment in answering the question of how small a population you need to establish a literary culture. Yorkshire-based M.G. Sanchez is a key player in this, having co-founded Patuka Press, which publishes anthologies of Gibraltarian writing. Indeed, several of Sanchez’s own books feature Llanito and his most recent has both an English and a Llanito edition. The title that caught my eye on his back catalogue, however, was Diary of Victorian Colonial and other Tales, my latest Book of the month. Originally published in 2008 through Rock Scorpion Books, a now-defunct publishing forum that Sanchez also founded after he struggled to find an outlet for Gibraltarian work, Diary is Sanchez’s second work of fiction. It features one novella and two shorter works that, according to its marketing material centre on ‘themes of emotional and geographical displacement’. The title work is the most ambitious piece. Chronicling the return of ex-convict Charles Bestman to Gibraltar, the land of his birth, in the nineteenth century, it explores what it means to belong and how history can entrap us in many senses. After this comes ‘Intermission’, a stream-of-consciousness account of a UK-based magazine publisher’s snap decision to give up the world and enter a French monastery. Last and, for my money, least is ‘Roman Ruins’, the story of an Italian lawyer’s attempt to save a homeless Kosovan man. Voice is one of the key strengths of Sanchez’s writing. The first two pieces lift off the page thanks to compelling, energetic and distinctive first-person narrators. The diary form is not easy to pull off and sustain for a whole work of fiction, and it’s credit to Sanchez that Bestman’s account is engaging, and peppered with telling observations. Meanwhile, the would-be monk of ‘Intermission’ is often extremely funny. His claim that the notorious British serial killer Fred West looked ‘a bit like an ugly Tom Jones’ had me laughing out loud. Although his spiel is occasionally repetitious and tips over into raw ranting on a few occasions, lines like this meant that I was more than happy to stay with him for the ride. There is a rich, mischievous seam to the writing in the first two-thirds of the book that put me in mind of anglophone authors such as Helen DeWitt and C.D. Rose, as well as the Brazilian writer Machado de Assis. It’s also fascinating to see colonialism and Britishness discussed from fresh angles, as Sanchez does in the first two pieces. There is a Trojan horse element to many of the passages, with certain ostensibly harmless or familiar formulations being used to smuggle in sentiments that challenge the status quo or reframe ideas. Some of these, such as the magazine publisher’s reflections on political correctness gone mad, now feel a little dated, but many are still disconcertingly fresh. There’s a meta element to the title work too. At the end of the text, an editor’s note informs us of the way in which the diary was discovered and praises Rock Scorpion Books for publishing it after it was rejected by many other outlets. Finding a way to be heard and recognised is, it seems, part of the story. Language has a big role to play in this. Llanito and Spanish feature in dialogue in the opening piece, while French appears in ‘Intermission’, and Italian and Serbian ring the changes in the final story. Multilingualism and pluralism are part of the fabric of this literary world, with Sanchez rarely choosing to translate on the page. Bewilderment and codeswitching are de rigueur. All that said, the final story is an odd fit in this collection. Whereas the first two pieces complement each other tonally, stylistically and thematically, ‘Roman Ruins’ feels as though it is out on a limb. From the retail blurb, I see that a story called ‘The Old Colonial’ is listed in its place in the collection, and I wonder if a late need for a substitution has led to this piece being shoehorned in. Certainly, there is a stilted, slightly unfinished quality to it. Characters often seem to exist to make arguments rather than to act in their own right, with several conversations featuring long expositions of the history of the former Yugoslavia and the atrocities committed during and since its collapse (although as I write this, I’m conscious that numerous literary traditions have a much higher tolerance for political and historical discussion than is generally accepted in anglophone literature – it may be that Gibraltarian literature does too). Coming after the mischievous, subversive antics of the first two pieces, the straightness of ‘Roman Ruins’ is hard to take. I also found the female lawyer less convincing than Sanchez’s male creations. All in all, the story felt uneven. But then perhaps evenness isn’t necessarily a virtue, or a quality essential to every work or literary tradition. It may be that Sanchez and his fellow Gibraltarian writers are nurturing a literary culture that works according to other standards – one that has no need to appeal to the sensibilities of a citizen of the country that once colonised their homeland. Sanchez has since published numerous works that may have taken his writing in any number of directions. I’m intrigued to learn more. Diary of a Victorian Colonial and other Tales by M.G. Sanchez (Rock Scorpion Books, 2012) Picture: ‘Gibraltar’ by John Finn on flickr.com

Last Thursday, I had the unusual experience of giving a paper at an academic conference. The event was about the future of English studies, and I was there because of a call for papers put out in association with Wasafiri magazine, a British publication championing international contemporary writing. I suggested that I might speak about […]

Last Thursday, I had the unusual experience of giving a paper at an academic conference. The event was about the future of English studies, and I was there because of a call for papers put out in association with Wasafiri magazine, a British publication championing international contemporary writing. I suggested that I might speak about my work with embracing not-knowing in reading, which forms the basis of my Incomprehension Workshops and forthcoming book, Relearning to Read. The organisers liked the sound of this, and so, last Thursday morning, I found myself joining other speakers and delegates in the gracious surroundings of York’s Guildhall for the start of the three-day event. The University of York’s Professor Helen Smith opened proceedings, saying that she felt the event was about survival and finding positive ways that the field of English studies could continue. As an English literature graduate myself, I was a bit taken aback – surely the subject couldn’t be in so much trouble? But as the discussion opened up and academics from universities across the UK began to speak, it became clear that there are many challenges facing those teaching English literature, language and related disciplines today. From the declaration last year that the English GCSE isn’t fit for purpose and the increased testing of performance all through school, to the encroachment of AI on students’ work practices, the sector seems increasingly restricted and hobbled. The main issue, as several of the people sitting near me said, was a lack of joy in the classroom these days. This made me sad. For me, reading has always been about joy. I was eight when I decided that I wanted to study English literature at university, having been entranced by L.M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables. Reading was magic, it seemed to me. I couldn’t imagine a better thing than spending three years reading stories. How miserable to think of today’s young readers having all that pleasure squashed out of them. Still, when I thought about it, I could recognise what was being said. Last year, I ran an Incomprehension Workshop at a sixth-form college near where I live in Folkestone. It being World Book Day, I started the session by asking participants to write down how they would complete three sentences: Reading is… The world is… Stories are… At the end of the session, I invited students to read out what they’d written. One said this: Reading is boring The world is crazy Stories are exciting It was clear that something of that disconnect the university lecturers were describing had happened for that sixth-former. Although they still felt the power of stories, this had somehow become separated from reading for them. Books were not the source of connection and electricity they had been for me. I hope my panel helped propose some ways in which that gap might be rebridged. Titled, ‘Incomprehension and Living Between’, it opened with Turkish writer and translator Elif Gülez reading from her memoir about the culture clash she experienced growing up. The extract was powerful and resonated with the small but highly engaged audience, showing how personal narrative can cut through barriers and make experience live in other minds. Then, I spoke about incomprehension and how I try to foster a spirit of play in my work with this. I was particularly touched when one audience member said afterwards that the demonstration I had given had taken her back to the wonder of reading like a child once more. Lastly, we were joined remotely by Indian academic Gokul Prabhu, who delivered a fascinating paper on ‘Queer Opacity in Translation’ – considering how the attempt to make things legible and understandable may sometimes work against the spirit of a text, and how translators may sometimes need to leave gaps and jolts in work that does not intend to make its meaning plain. There was a marvellous electricity in the room, and this carried on into the afternoon, in a session on teaching creative writing, chaired by poet Anthony Vahni Capildeo, whose work-in-progress memoir I read as my Trinidadian pick back in 2012. The panel featured four writers who all teach at UK universities: J.R. Carpenter (University of Leeds), Joanne Limburg (University of Cambridge), Juliana Mensah (University of York), and Sam Reese (York St John University). They were honest about the challenges facing the industry and sector, but so full of enthusiasm and powerful insights that it was impossible not to be encouraged. I was particularly struck by Carpenter’s statement that a poem ought to unfold in the same way that it was gathered up, although, as Mensah observed, this idea is faintly terrifying when I think about the chaotic nature of my own creative process! I came away heartened to think that the academic branch of the field I love has such people working in it. And grateful that so many of those labouring under such pressure at the UK’s universities felt it was worth taking three days out of their hectic schedules to consider how better to foster and share a love of reading stories. I also felt a renewed energy for and commitment to the possibilities of embracing not-knowing and incomprehension too. More soon! Picture: ‘Municipal Offices and Guildhall, York, North Riding of Yorkshire, England’ by Billy Wilson on flickr.com

‘I’ve got a book I think you’d like,’ said bookseller Erin when I wandered into my local bookshop, The Folkestone Bookshop, a few weeks back. They were right. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, translated by Joshua L. Freeman, is a memoir by Tahir Hamut Izgil, one of the leading contemporary Uyghur poets. It tells […]

‘I’ve got a book I think you’d like,’ said bookseller Erin when I wandered into my local bookshop, The Folkestone Bookshop, a few weeks back. They were right. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night, translated by Joshua L. Freeman, is a memoir by Tahir Hamut Izgil, one of the leading contemporary Uyghur poets. It tells the story of his decision to flee his homeland, along with his wife and children, in the late 2010s, following decades of mounting discrimination and persecution of the Uyghur population in Xianjiang, a nominally autonomous region in northwestern China. Through Izgil’s eyes, we live the experience of seeing your world contract to the point where there is no longer space for you to exist. The accounts of the imprisonments of many of Izgil’s friends and associates – often for minor or even unspecified breaches of the ever-shifting rules – are chilling and heartrending, yet it is the cruel absurdity of many of the directives that restrict everyday life that sticks in the mind. The requirement, for example, for Muslim clerics to participate in televised disco dancing competitions (and the brave attempt of one to embrace this insult as good exercise). Or the Looking Back Project, under which ‘many previous legal things had become illegal’, rendering authors vulnerable to being arrested for books that had been published with the censors’ blessing in previous years. Perhaps most horrifying of all is the List of Prohibited Names, a sporadically updated inventory setting out which names may no longer be used. In light of this, anyone may suddenly find themselves banned from using the appellation by which they have been known all their lives. ‘A name is a person’s most personal possession,’ as Izgil, writing through Freeman, reflects. ‘If he cannot hold on to his own name, what hope does he have of keeping anything else?’ The way language is weaponised to curb and control is similarly disturbing. As the Chinese government’s restrictions on the Uyghurs grow ever tighter, seemingly innocuous words turn traitor. People called in for questioning are said to be taking ‘tea’, those removed to the concentration and re-education camps have been sent to ‘study’, if you have a black mark on your record, you are said to carry a ‘dot’. Uyghurs too, learn to bury their meaning to keep safe: ‘A political campaign was a “storm”, while innocent people caught up in mass arrests or in a Strike Hard Campaign were said to be “gone with the wind”. A “guest” at home often meant a state security agent. If someone had been arrested, they were “in the hospital”. Yet, language is also a source of great joy and beauty in this book. As Freeman explains in his introduction, poetry is a way of life in Izgil’s homeland: ‘Verse is woven into daily life – dropped into conversation, shared constantly on social media, written between lovers. Through poetry, Uyghurs confront issues as a community, whether debating gender roles or defying state repression. Even now, I wake up many mornings to an inbox full of fresh verse, sent by the far-flung poets of the Uyghur diaspora for me to translate.’ Poetry is central to this memoir too. Several of Izgil’s poems appear. What’s more, there is a beautiful litheness and directness to the prose, which captures key moments in the story with memorable clarity. When Izgil’s wife, Marhaba, learns that after years of fighting bureaucracy the family have finally received the visas that will enable them to escape to the US, her face opens ‘like a flower’. Because of the quality of the writing, we feel the Izqil family’s bravery and the loss that goes with uprooting yourself from all you know (including necessarily severing ties with those who stay behind for their safety). As the best writing does, the story speaks for itself, urging itself on the reader, making the pages fly past. Nevertheless, as I read, I found a question surfacing repeatedly in my mind. There are many urgent and brilliant stories by writers from persecuted minorities in the world today. Most of them do not find homes with some of the English-speaking world’s biggest publishers as this one has (coming out through Penguin Random House on both sides of the Atlantic). If they make it into English at all, such stories are usually released by small presses, which, as I often say on this blog, are where most of the risky, exciting, boundary-pushing publishing happens these days. (Books like Beata Umubyeyi Mairesse’s The Convoy, translated by Ruth Diver and published in February by Open Borders Press, for example.) So what is it about this story that has enabled it to cut through? I think there are a couple of reasons. The first is that the book paints the West in a relatively flattering light. Although Izgil likens the contempt of the Han Chinese authorities to the attitudes of European colonialists and quotes a friend saying they wish China would conquer the world because the rest of us are so ignorant about the realities they are facing, the US is a place of safety for Izgil. It is where he can finally taste freedom once more and thrive. I think this is a picture that fits with what many of us in the English-speaking global north would like to believe about our homelands. The second is that the story necessarily reinforces certain narratives about China that happen to serve Western agendas. This portrayal of the Chinese authorities as harsh and unpredictable feels familiar and relatively comfortable. In this respect, although it may challenge other preconceptions, this book will resonate with significant aspects of many people’s prevailing world view. This is not to call into question anything Izgil has written: the atrocities he describes are well documented. Nor is it to detract at all from the brilliance of this book. Rather, it is to say that this may be a story to which many in the English-speaking world may be able to listen to more easily than we can to comparable narratives that do not align with Western agendas so neatly. If anything, this may make this book even more important. It may speak more directly and powerfully about the refugee experience to many anglophone readers because it will not invite the sort of resistance that can often arise when we read challenging books from elsewhere. By happening to echo ideas that feel familiar and safe, it may move us to deepen our sense of humanity and connection with those forced to leave their homelands. Waiting to Be Arrested at Night by Tahir Hamut Izgil, translated from the Uyghur by Joshua L. Freeman (Vintage, 2024)

This book came on my radar through fellow international bibliophile Suroor Alikhan, who kindly hosted me at an online event organised by the Hyderabad Literary Festival last year. A few weeks ago, she contacted me saying that she had found a website that she thought I’d be interested in, featuring a list of more than […]

This book came on my radar through fellow international bibliophile Suroor Alikhan, who kindly hosted me at an online event organised by the Hyderabad Literary Festival last year. A few weeks ago, she contacted me saying that she had found a website that she thought I’d be interested in, featuring a list of more than 100 books by Pacific Islanders. I was intrigued. The Pacific Island nations were among the most difficult countries to source stories from during my 2012 quest to read a book from every country. And although the criteria of the list’s compiler were a little different from mine – she included a number of titles by writers with Pacific Island heritage (including herself) – there were many fascinating-sounding works. The book I’ve picked to feature – Is Anyone Out There? And Other Stories by Julian Maka’a from the Solomon Islands – didn’t strike me as the most satisfying of those I read from the list, but I found it interesting for several reasons. The Solomon Islands are hard to source stories from: back in 2012, the best option I could find was The Alternative, a 1980s boarding school novel. So I was curious about what this much more recent short story collection would be like. My interest was also piqued by Maka’a’s statement on the back cover that the collection – which he self-published in 2012, 27 years after his first collection was brought out by the University of the South Pacific – draws on various aspects of his professional life, including efforts to build staff understanding about sexual reproductive health in his capacity as the manager of Wantok FM, part of the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation. This is reflected in frank descriptions of the treatment of and stigmas around sexually transmitted diseases in several of the earlier pieces. As with many of the books I read ‘from’ Pacific Island nations in 2012, the collection seems written with a consciousness of needing to represent its nation. ‘The themes and general messages [of the stories] are different and varied,’ writes Maka’a, ‘but the one thing that is common is they reflect what life is like in Solomon Islands’. To an outsider like me, this manifests itself most tellingly in the glimpses into local beliefs and customs, presented most richly in the title story, in which a legend about a philandering man ritually killed for breaking taboos haunts the narrator. The emphasis on education, so apparent in The Alternative, is also strong in Maka’a’s work. The most ambitious piece in the collection, a three-part story called ‘Is This Fair?’ centres on a teenage pregnancy at a boarding school and makes clear the sacrifices that the nation’s geography and economic situation demand of families keen to give their children opportunities. Some eight thousand students drop out of education every year, we learn, and just getting to school at the start of term often requires many stomach-churning hours in a boat. As is so often the case in books from elsewhere, it is the assumptions and things taken for granted that prove most intriguing. One of the central characters in ‘Is This Fair?’, for example, seems not to bat an eyelid at the notion that her parents will decide her career path, as set out in a letter her mother sends her: ‘In her brief letter which she wrote in language and pijin, she explained that she and dad always discussed about me. About the future that I would give them from my education – benefits to cut a long story short. She said they had differences in the job I should take up after I graduate in form five. My mother said she wanted me to become a nurse – that way I would help her when she gets sick or even my father. My father on the other hand wanted me to be a teacher.’ For all its interest, however, this book is a challenging and occasionally bewildering read. My knee-jerk reaction is to pin this on the fact that it has probably not been through the editorial processes of many traditionally published books in mainstream anglophone literature, with the result that there are structural idiosyncrasies, and spelling and grammatical oddities that are sometimes distracting. There seem to be some inconsistencies in the character names between the different parts of ‘I Am Fair?’ that make it hard to follow. There is also an abruptness to certain emotional shifts and transitions that risk interrupting the flow of the story. But I’m also aware that what I read as errors or idiosyncrasies may in many cases not be considered as such by readers in the Solomon Islands. There, a different form of English is used, one in which certain formulations and word uses that sound odd to me may be customary. Similarly, shifts between registers and emotional states that jar for me may simply reflect different norms or storytelling traditions beyond my experience feeding into this book. Regardless of how I read it, what remains is a sense of urgency. A desire to communicate. A hand stretched out from this place we in the UK rarely hear of, seeking connection and the chance to convey something. This is me, this book says. This is us. This is where we are. Is Anyone Out There? And Other Stories by Julian Maka’a (Xlibris, 2012)

One of the joyous things that has come out of this project is the way that I’m frequently invited to take part in discussions about writing and the ways stories travel. Often, these conversations take place at literary festivals or conferences, but they sometimes involve podcasts too. Last year, I was asked to produce a […]

One of the joyous things that has come out of this project is the way that I’m frequently invited to take part in discussions about writing and the ways stories travel. Often, these conversations take place at literary festivals or conferences, but they sometimes involve podcasts too. Last year, I was asked to produce a new podcast for the Royal Literary Fund, a UK charity that has supported professional writers for more than 200 years and with which I’ve been involved since 2017. Over the preceding decade, the RLF had built a sound archive featuring recordings of hundreds of writers talking about the creative process, and the challenge and joys of putting words on the page. Now the team wanted a new format to bring this rich bank of material to a wider audience. The Collected podcast is the result. Built around clips from the RLF archive, the episodes bring special guests into conversation with those recorded voices. Hosted by a brilliant team of presenters, including South Asia Speaks founder Sonia Faleiro, award-winning poet Julia Copus, and musician and crime writer Doug Johnstone, the conversations present a lively, funny, surprising and often moving account of what it means to be a writer in the early twenty-first century. The aim is to offer a more nuanced picture than we often see in the media, and it’s been wonderful to hear guests including Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse, crime writer Howard Linskey, and visual artist and poet Ella Frears embracing the concept with warmth and frankness. Although the writers RLF supports are UK-based, it’s been a joy to reflect my interest in international storytelling in the line-up too. Examples include discussions with Kerala-born novelist Deepa Anappara, who talks thought-provokingly about the gap between the expectations of mainstream anglophone publishers and the sort of writing that interests her, and Colin Grant, director of RLF’s WritersMosaic platform for writers of the global majority, who draws on his Caribbean heritage in his writing on race and migration. Collected is available on all the usual platforms. I’d love to know what you think.

I’m not really a book blogger. Yes, I write about books on this blog – and yes, I did once upon a time review close to 200 books in a year here – but the commitment, stamina and output of other book reviewers in the virtual sphere now leave me and my once-a-month writeups in […]

I’m not really a book blogger. Yes, I write about books on this blog – and yes, I did once upon a time review close to 200 books in a year here – but the commitment, stamina and output of other book reviewers in the virtual sphere now leave me and my once-a-month writeups in the dust. In the international-literature arena, some of the names that spring to mind include Marina Sofia, Stu Allen and Tony Malone. These bloggers and others like them maintain an astonishing pace, easily equally my efforts in 2012 in many cases. And they’ve been going for years, bringing attention to thousands of titles that deserve to be better known by readers of the world’s most published language. Within the anglophone literature sphere, there is a whole raft of other, equally industrious reader/reviewers. I knew little about them until my publisher, Renard Press, organised a blog tour for my novel Crossing Over two years ago. For a month leading up to the release of the book, I had the initially daunting but ultimately lovely experience of seeing my story thoughtfully and generously reviewed by a different book blogger each day. It helped build buzz around the book and, at what can often be an oddly lonely and unsettling time for an author, allowed me to enjoy seeing my work going out into the world. I was so impressed by the blog tour that I wrote an article about it for The Author, the member’s magazine of the UK’s Society of Authors. As part of my research for this, I interviewed former English teacher Linda Hill of Linda’s Book Bag. I was amazed by what she told me: the volume of books she features is such that she operates a traffic light and scoring system to help her keep track of them, and she schedules her posts many months in advance. It sounds like a full-time job, except that, of course, for Linda and most other bloggers like her, it is unpaid: the only material reward they get for the hours and hours they spend reading, planning and reviewing are free advance copies. Because blog tours are less of a thing when it comes to international literature, and because I only rarely feature brand-new books (preferring to promote older titles that deserve a second look) and only do one review a month, I have never taken part in a blog tour. This month, however, I am making an exception for a title that is close to my heart. Where Snowbirds Play, Gina Goldhammer’s debut novel (published by Renard Press’s imprint Hay Press on 6 May 2025), takes us into the privileged world of 1990s Palm Beach, where British graduate Philip has just secured a placement at a new marine life institute. But all is not what it seems both among the super rich who fund him and in Philip’s own story. Soon, secrets, rivalries and financial scandals are bubbling to the surface, and as hurricane season looms it seems unlikely that everyone will escape unscathed. I love this book for two reasons. Firstly, I love it because I’ve had the privilege of seeing it develop over several years in my capacity as a mentor/editor to its author. Working with a writer and seeing their ideas fill and rise until they find their fullest expression is an extraordinary process, and one that I’ve had the joy of experiencing a number of times since I was published, most frequently as a mentor for the Ruppin Agency Writers’ Studio. But I particularly love this book because it is so singular and true to itself. Only Goldhammer could have written it. As I say in the supporting blurb I gave for the book, the novel offers an arresting perspective on a lifestyle few experience firsthand. Taking readers into the heart of privilege, Goldhammer spins a compelling story that lays bare the tensions, frailties, desires and self-deceptions that drive human beings everywhere. Sumptuous, witty and surprising, this novel will transport you to a world that is at once absorbingly fresh, and a charming – and alarming – reflection of our own. And I’m delighted to see that other readers are already recognising the book’s uniqueness. On one of the earlier stops in the Where Snowbirds Play blog tour, bobsandbooks wrote that they were ‘left feeling like this was something a little bit different’. I couldn’t agree more. Where Snowbirds Play by Gina Goldhammer (Hay Press, 6 May 2025)

A few months ago, I was contacted by Bridget Farrell, founder of Bullaun Press, an Irish publisher dedicated to translations. Would I be interested in reading an advance copy of The Rarest Fruit, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert, the second novel they were publishing by Gaëlle Bélem and also the second novel by […]

A few months ago, I was contacted by Bridget Farrell, founder of Bullaun Press, an Irish publisher dedicated to translations. Would I be interested in reading an advance copy of The Rarest Fruit, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert, the second novel they were publishing by Gaëlle Bélem and also the second novel by a writer from Réunion ever to make it into English? Since then, the first, There’s a Monster Behind the Door, also translated by Fleetwood and Saint-Loubert, has been longlisted for the International Booker Prize. To my mind, The Rarest Fruit, which comes out in the UK and Ireland later this week, easily maintains this standard. Based on the true story of Edmond Albius – an orphan slave raised by Ferréol Beaumont, a white botanist on Bourbon Island, as Réunion was known until 1848 – the novel explores appropriation and the injustices embedded in the economic forces that govern international trade to this day. When Edmond unlocks the secret to the pollination of vanilla, the consequences ripple out around the world, changing the Western palate and enriching many of those engaged in the commodity’s exploitation. But for its bright young discoverer, who harbours ambitions ‘to become the first Black botanist in this world of Rich Whites’ but ‘doesn’t have the right colour skin to have callings’, the repercussions are much darker and more painful, bringing him up against the systemic injustices and human cruelty that robbed him of his natural parents in the first place. Rhetoric and rhythms are at the heart of Bélem’s craft. She wields repetition with a barrister’s flair, driving home the force of what she’s presenting and, by getting the reader to look and look again, forcing us to recognise injustices and assumptions that we might at otherwise choose to ignore, or else be habituated to. Take this early passage obliging us to unpack the significance of the first question Ferréol asks when he lays eyes on baby Edmond: ‘What is it?’ ‘It’ – this ebony child that casts him into partial shadow as it comes between the curve of a pale sun and his screwedup eyes. ‘It’ – three kilos and six hundred grams of tender flesh, wrapped up like a black lamb in a woollen cloth. ‘It’ – a living bundle of obvious trouble. Juxtaposition plays a similar role. As Edmond’s life turns towards ruin and jail, and, in the wake of so-called emancipation, he, like many others, finds himself bound by a ‘freedom that shackles him’, we read of the vanilla-infused delicacies dreamed up by leading chefs to grace the tables of the beau monde. Structures like these make the injustices at the heart of the story evident without Bélem needing to state them. By writing in this way, she leads us to construct the points for ourselves rather than proclaiming them. We collaborate with her and the book seems to throw its arms around us, bringing all readers into the human story rather than excluding and shaming those who might take criticism of colonialism as a personal attack. This profound understanding of human motivation soaks the novel in empathy. Instead of two-dimensional actors in a morality play, Bélem gives us human beings in the round. For all his blind spots and hypocrisy, Ferréol is a vulnerable, lonely creature whose world is enriched by the relationship he forms with his adopted son. Likewise, Edmond for all his hopefulness and brilliance, is not immune to exhibiting internalised racism and double standards. We see systemic injustice, but we also see human ingenuity and specificity – the ability to manoeuvre around seemingly immovable obstacles and build bridges against the odds. All of which makes Edmond’s betrayal and the fallout from it particularly poignant. That these two people should be able to hold themselves aloof from social mores for so long only to collapse beneath the weight of expectations and their own conditioning is a tragedy – a painful revelation of the dangers of failing to recognise the limits on our own thinking when we imagine ourselves to be free. Bullaun Press’s edition of The Rarest Fruit publishes in the UK and Ireland on 1 May. And for readers in the US, another version, translated by Hildegarde Serle, comes out from Europa in June. It would be very interesting to compare both English versions. The fact of their release only a month apart is surely testament to the power of the original text. The Rarest Fruit by Gaëlle Bélem, translated from the French by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert (Bullaun Press, 2025) Photo: ‘Vanilla’ by Linda De Volder on flickr.com

I’m not a travel writer. At least, that’s what I’ve always thought. This year, however, I do seem to be spending quite a lot of time speaking, writing and thinking about travel. Not only am I preparing to cover the literary trip of a lifetime for a national newspaper later this summer (watch this space), […]

I’m not a travel writer. At least, that’s what I’ve always thought. This year, however, I do seem to be spending quite a lot of time speaking, writing and thinking about travel. Not only am I preparing to cover the literary trip of a lifetime for a national newspaper later this summer (watch this space), but I’ve also taken the stage at two travel writing festivals. The second of these was the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival, which took place earlier this month. Now in its third year, the three-day event in Dorset, UK, is the brainchild of Rory MacLean, who is celebrated for writing genre-busting books about moving across and beyond national borders. His debut, Stalin’s Nose: Across the Face of Europe, was published in 1992 and is still startlingly relevant (and very funny) today. Much like MacLean’s work, the festival celebrates travel writing in the broadest sense. The traditional formula of the white European reporting on how he finds remote corners of the globe was not much in evidence in this year’s line up. Instead, the programme included an extraordinary range of speakers, from the brilliant Nandini Das, who held the audience captive with a talk on Britain’s first bungling attempts to forge diplomatic relations with the Mughal Empire, to Kapka Kassabova, who spoke movingly of the three months she spent living with Europe’s last moving pastoralists in the mountains of her native Bulgaria while researching her latest book Anima. I was privileged to take the stage twice. I started off in the interviewee’s chair, spending a wonderful hour talking about Reading the World with journalist and fellow translation champion Rosie Goldsmith (you can see us pictured above). Ten years on from the launch of the first edition of that book, it was a pleasure to reflect back on the journey so far and look forward to the publication of Relearning to Read this September. Goldsmith is one of the best in the business when it comes to chairing literary discussions. If you’re a fan of book podcasts, the Slightly Foxed Podcast, which she hosts, is well worth a listen. Then it was my turn to ask the questions. I was joined on stage by Xiaolu Guo, who I had the privilege of chairing at Cheltenham Literature Festival last year. An artist who has travelled in many senses (across the world, between languages, between media, through books and across numerous periods of literary history), Guo is a fascinating writer and speaker. We focused on her memoir, My Battle of Hastings, which draws on a year she spent living in the British seaside town of Hastings, where William the Conqueror routed the Anglo-Saxons in 1066. But it was also great to touch on her new novel, Call Me Ishmaelle, a feminist retelling of Moby Dick. Offstage, there were many similarly fascinating discussions. It was a joy to meet many enthusiastic readers and writers, and a testament to the warm welcome Rory MacLean and his team offer that so many authors from the first two editions of the festival were also in attendance. The weekend was crowned by the announcement of a new annual travel writing prize attached to the festival, the Sherborne Prize for Travel Writing, which will be awarded for the first time next year to a published British or European author whose work encourages understanding between peoples and across societies. Given the breadth and creativity of the team’s vision of travel writing, it’s exciting to think of what this new award might do to broaden the field. And I wonder if in future years the organisers might be persuaded to expand the remit even further to include works published in English from all over the world. In my experience, there are two kinds of literary festival – those that capitalise on culture and those that nurture it. Sherborne Travel Writing Festival is firmly in the second camp. I left fizzing with ideas and thrilled by new connections. It will be exciting to see where the festival takes us next. Picture: courtesy of Rosie Goldsmith.

This book was given to me by the Cameroonian writer Ernis, who I was lucky to meet in Assam last month. Conscious that I had not read any Cameroonian literature since Peter Green’s translation of Mongo Beti’s 1956 classic Mission to Kala, I asked her what contemporary writing from the country (in addition to her […]

This book was given to me by the Cameroonian writer Ernis, who I was lucky to meet in Assam last month. Conscious that I had not read any Cameroonian literature since Peter Green’s translation of Mongo Beti’s 1956 classic Mission to Kala, I asked her what contemporary writing from the country (in addition to her own, of course) I should know about. Her response was to press this novel into my hands. Days Come and Go by Hemley Boum, translated by Nchanji Njamnsi, is the story of three generations of women navigating a changing and turbulent world. Obliged to accept her daughter Abi’s care as she faces death, the historically aloof Anna reflects back on the events that have led her from Cameroon to Paris, and the education that at once enriched and distanced her from her roots. Abi, meanwhile, must contend with family breakdown and the pressures of caring, while Tina, a friend of her son Max’s back in Cameroon, finds herself caught up in a violent new threat sweeping her home region. This is a book that disarms with its directness. Boum’s insights and the clarity with which she expresses them through her characters’ voices are startling and winning. Whether it’s the familiar setting of Paris made strange through Abi’s critical gaze or ‘the undeniable, exquisite delight in succumbing to violence and corruption’ that comes through in several of the episodes, there is a frankness to the writing that speaks to the humanity in people everywhere. Often, this frankness centres on the ruptures caused by colonialism and the imposition of a foreign way of seeing, thinking and learning on a culture that operates by other means. ‘Today, I believe Western knowledge is both simple and despotic,’ states Anna. ‘There is only one God and he is present in church. Education is found only in textbooks. Art is separate from spirituality, confined to specific spaces. The law applies equally to everyone and all values have a price.’ Such thinking jars with the more sensuous, embodied, holistic ways of knowing that used to be common in her home region. ‘Our people never claimed detachment from the world nor dominion over it.[…] We were the world and the world was us: water, wind, sand, the past, the future, the living, the dead… we were all woven into the fabric of the world.’ Falling into the gulf between these two ways of being is a violent experience from which none of the characters in Days Come and Go escape unscathed. Boum makes us feel what this is like, taking us through the stages by which the women are led to conspire in their oppression and suffering so that we seem to live their experiences, from Anna’s grappling with maternal ambivalence and the toll this may have taken on her relationship with her daughter to Abi’s struggle to parent amid marital breakdown. The most powerful section in the book is Tina’s account of how she and two friends got drawn into the terrorist group Boko Haram. This is an astonishingly insightful and compelling delineation of how people can be made to commit the worst acts, including suicide bombing. ‘Nobody asks a grenade about to explode, “Why?”‘ says Tina. ‘The reason is obvious: it has been unpinned. All they do is pull out our pins and throw us at good people.’ Boum makes us feel how those pins get pulled out. And in so doing, she commits a deeply humane act – making it impossible to ignore the humanity we share with those who do the worst things we can imagine, with all the hope and challenge that comes with this. With this understanding, we can make sense of things that might seem unfathomable to us, such as Tina’s silent appeal to Michelle Obama to stop speaking out against Boko Haram because such well-intentioned, distant activism only makes her tormentors crueller. Yet an embodied approach to knowing does not mean a reduction in intellectual rigour. This is, in many ways, one of the most erudite novels I’ve read in a long time. It includes critiques of the work of John Steinbeck, Michelangelo and Frantz Fanon – Anna is not a fan of the latter: ‘my disinclination resides in the fact that there are people indeed more invisible than the damned of the earth – their wives.’ This is a novel that walks to a different beat than the sort of writing commonly celebrated in the anglophone literary world. As a result, readers used to mainstream English-language literature may stumble here and there over pacing that will not meet their expectations, and the inclusion or exclusion of certain statements or details. There is also drama-offstage, some declamatory monologuing and various other things traditionally frowned upon on creative writing courses. And that’s precisely the point. Boum’s storytelling operates by standards other than Western norms, knitting together the emotional, spiritual, physical and intellectual, and presenting these things as a glorious, moving, troubling unity. It is a book of extraordinary range and power. ‘What does a life boil down to?’ asks Anna. This, Boum shows us. This. Days Come and Go by Hemley Boum, translated from the French by Nchanji Njamnsi (Bakwa Books, 2022)