I have been reading books since the early 1950s and reviewing/posting the reviews for the past decade. I do not know how I missed Blake Pierce for all of those years. I have just read book one in the European Voyage Cozy Mystery series entitled Murder (and Baklava). It has two components that I am …
Portland author Ellen Notbohm interviewed author Linda Stewart Henley of Anacortes, WA. She Reads recognized Estelle as “One of Summer’s Most Anticipated Historical Fiction Titles” for 2020. The novel is available now through independent bookstores. EN: Tell us about Estelle. LSH: Estelle is an historical novel about the painter Edgar Degas’s five-month stay with his …
I love Donna Leon’s Brunetti mysteries! To me, her latest, Trace Elements, is one of her more “Italian” stories. There is a lot about the canals of Venice and Venetian politics, as well as a mystery that starts with the deathbed whisper, “They killed him. It was bad money. I told him no.” –Wendy B., …
I love to learn things from the books I read, and this book taught me so much— not only about the South Korean island Jeju, its matrifocal society of haenyeo (women divers), and its culture and traditions, but also about friendship, the horrors of war, loyalty, and grief. The Island of Sea Women is vividly imagined and …
Sujata Massey introduced us to Perveen Mistry in The Widows of Malabar Hill and has now released a sequel, The Satapur Moonstone. The mysteries are a delightful blend of thoughtful lawyering and high-stakes drawing room drama. Inspired by real-life lawyer Cornelia Sorabji (who also makes an appearance in the first book in the series), Perveen …
This heart-breaking novel is storytelling at its best! It follows Rachel, a young Hawaiian girl whose dreams are shattered the day she is taken from her family and sent to Kalaupapa, the quarantined settlement for lepers on the island of Moloka’i. Rich in history and characters, this special story will stay with you forever. And now after …
This book may be more for ex-kids like me, for whom the mysterious M. Sasek created a fascinating world of cities and landmarks in the ’50s and ’60s in his This Is… picture books. This Is Paris, This Is San Francisco, This Is Hong Kong, This Is Cape Canaveral: all told, he made eighteen locations his own, …
What a subtitle: “An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders!” This is beautiful, bizarre, intriguing, absurd– arm-chair travel at its most curious and delightful. I’m recommending this as the gift to get for the person who has everything and/or the most interesting person on your list. Life will never be boring with a book like …
If you are a foodie and Francophile, or if you like a rags-to-riches story, you should arm yourself with a strong cup of coffee and a croissant, curl up in an armchair, and tuck into Craig Carlson’s memoir, Pancakes in Paris. A bit like Gabrielle Hamilton of Blood, Bones and Butter, Carlson starts life treading the …
“The ‘Upstairs, Downstairs’ of Mediterranean yachting, told from the chef’s point of view.” –Carol Spurling, BookPeople of Moscow, Moscow, ID Upper crust Italian locavores, gorgeous ports-of-call, elegance, and deliciousness all in one true story? Plus a forward by Mario Batali? How had we not read this before? Let’s all get our copies at BookPeople or another independent …
