After doing a major clear-out of my books, I should have refrained from re-stuffing my shelves, but what can I say? I have a book-buying problem that I excuse by saying I am supporting indie bookstores. This part of my pre-Christmas haul includes A Moonless, Starless Sky: Ordinary Women and Men Fighting Extremism in Africa, … Continue reading Merry-Christmas-to-Me Book Haul #1
One of my top books of the year: The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. Something I struggle with in reading modern nonfiction is finding books that are substantive and complex but not unrelentingly grim or horrific. This book isn't sweetness and light, but the tribulations the characters encounter don't render them forever miserable. What I … Continue reading The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Julia Spencer-Fleming started the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mystery series in 2002, and the eighth book came out in 2013. I read them all, and eagerly awaited the next one...which came out seven years later in 2020! Hid From Our Eyes was worth the wait. The last installment, Through the Evil Days, was not my … Continue reading The Seven-Year Itch…for the Next Julia Spencer-Fleming Book
The Yellow House by Sarah Broom is labeled as a memoir, but that label doesn't really capture what the book is. Broom tells the story of her family, starting with her grandmother Amelia and then turning to her mother, Ivory Mae. If there is a central character in the book, it's Ivory Mae. She is … Continue reading Book Review: The Yellow House
The Train to Crystal City by Jan Jarboe Russell recounts the story of the World War II internment camp at Crystal City, a small South Texas town not far from the border with Mexico. Russell interviewed several survivors of the camp, and she uses these personal stories to illustrate not only the betrayal and displacement … Continue reading Review: The Train to Crystal City
