After nearly 40 years as a book professional, I retired in 2011 and began traveling for pleasure. Many of the trips my wife and I have taken have a close relationship to books I have read. In 2011 we traveled to Carcassonne in southwestern France. I had read several books in which that part of …
As a reader, I have lists of authors that are favorite writers. Sometimes I like to discover authors that are “new” to me. Brad Thor is an old favorite. The last time I read a book by Mr. Thor was 5 years ago (my bad!). I returned to the world of Scot Harvath with Use …
In 2006, I discovered Jack Whyte’s multi-volume series on King Arthur entitled The Camulod Chronicles. Arthurian legends are one of my favorite topics to read. The series combined some of the myths as well as some factual information. I really enjoyed reading those books. The combination of truth and fiction is another attention-getting device to …
Michael Jecks has written many medieval mysteries featuring a defrocked Templar set in the early 14th Century. I have read about a dozen of those mysteries, the last one about five years ago. So many books, so little time! A few years ago, Mr. Jecks branched out to write novels about other historical events but …
Imagine you are Jewish, living in Prague, and it is the summer of 1939. Author Peter Curtis does not have to imagine that. He lived it and he survived. Peter was two when his family left Prague. He is now a retired doctor and lives in Seattle, Washington. In his book, The Dragontail Buttonhole, Peter has …
You have heard the cliché “Never judge a book by its cover!” Thank goodness I heeded that advice. I saw the cover of At the Table of Wolves by Kay Kenyon at a writers’ conference. It had a couple of icons that I recognized: Big Ben in London, WWII aircraft, and a woman dressed as a …
This book was recommended to me by a longtime friend. I trusted her judgment when she told me I would enjoy this author and book. Elena Hartwell captured my attention with One Dead, Two to Go. This is the first book in a series featuring a Jewish (but not practicing) private investigator in Bellingham in the northwest …
I generally do not read memoirs but I made an exception for this book. Twelve Stones: Notes on a Miraculous Journey is a memoir by Barbara Carole. Her writing is melodious. Her life story is full of extreme peaks of Joy and Sadness. This book reminds of “The Perils of Pauline” in that her chapters leave …
Major Thomas Greer, pen name Dalton Fury, wrote Kill Bin Laden, which documented his time in 2001 as the leader of a large platoon of Delta Force and British Special Boat Service on a raid to the Tora Bora region of Afghanistan in search of Osama Bin Laden. Under the Dalton Fury pseudonym he then …
I read lots of British history set in the period from 500 C.E. to 1500 C.E. I read both fiction and nonfiction. I have now read both Sworn Sword (#1) and Splintered Kingdom (#2) by James Aitcheson in his series “The Conquest,” dealing with post Norman Conquest (1066) England. The history is accurate but the time frame …
