Adolf Hitler has been chancellor of Germany for only four weeks, when on February 27, 1933, the Reichstag—home of the parliament in Berlin—suddenly bursts into flames. The Nazis promptly blame unruly communists, and in response suspend civil liberties throughout the country. Caught up in the ensuing escalation of lies, divisiveness, and bigotry is John Russell, …
The last novel from Italian writer Camilleri (1925-2019), who produced more than two dozen wonderful Inspector Montalbano mysteries over the past four decades, this was written years ago as a final installment and locked away until after the author’s death. In it, an early morning murder outside a bar becomes immediately complicated. As always with …
As someone who loves Louise Penny’s Three Pines books, I couldn’t NOT read her new book, co-authored by Hillary Clinton. More of a political thriller than Penny’s standard mystery fare, State of Terror is an action-packed book that takes place over a period of just a few days. Spoiler—the main character is a female Secretary …
For want of a nail, the shoe was lost, then the horse, then the battle, then the war, or so it has often been said. Laurent Binet’s new novel plays intriguingly with this conceit, postulating what kind of world we’d be living in today if a few tiny things had been different. In his counterfactual …
What a treat it was to read Colson Whitehead’s new book Harlem Shuffle. It is the best trip I have taken during the last year. I did not actually “shuffle” around Harlem in the early 1960s, as that would have included using my feet, but I spent time riding on a truck bed, sometimes accompanied …
You deserve all the love, romance readers! Independent bookstores around the country (and beyond!) celebrate romance books and romance readers with the third Bookstore Romance Day on Saturday, August 21, 2021. Visit participating stores to browse their romance selections. Register for virtual events on both Saturday and Sunday (just note: the site has East coast …
Watch Rachel Griffin talk about her book, The Nature of Witches A magical YA debut about accepting and even embracing changes in yourself. The Nature of Witches is also a love letter to our planet, showing readers how to appreciate what each season has to offer us, to see the beauty in the world we …
We’ll cut to the chase: Jessica Anya Blau may have written one of the best novels of the year, in our opinion. Mary Jane follows its titular character, a 14-year-old girl growing up in 1970s Baltimore who is offered a summer nanny job for the hippie family down the street. Forced to come to terms …
The Daughters of Yalta is a wonderful companion to Eric Larson’s The Splendid and the Vile, which topped two of our booksellers’ Best Of lists last year. Catherine Grace Katz’s debut book will satisfy the appetite of any reader who is hungry to know more about the unique connection between the Churchills and the Harrimans. Katz also …
As a kid growing up in late 1950s and 1960s Seattle, imagined visits to foreign lands were a focus of my inner life, what with 707s (and later 747s) soaring over the city, and twice- or thrice-yearly sightings of ocean liners that actually traveled all the way around the world. As it turns out, I wasn’t …
