‘Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee’ After assisting Truman Capote with his research for “In Cold Blood,” Harper Lee endeavored to follow her bestselling “To Kill a Mockingbird” with her own book of true crime, spending a year in the late 1970s in her native Alabama reporting on a
Read More →‘Black Death at the Golden Gate: The Race to Save America from the Bubonic Plague’ Both fascinating and frightening, this tale of the entry of the bubonic plague into the continental United States has elements that should sound familiar to the reader. The first victim of Yersina pestis (the bacterium
Read More →‘Country Dark’ Chris Offutt deftly captures life in rural Kentucky. “Country Dark” begins in 1954 when Tucker, not quite 18, leaves Korea as a decorated veteran and heads toward his Kentucky home. Navigating life outside of warfare, he’s not too far into the woods when he saves a young girl
Read More →‘Biloxi’ “Always Happy Hour” by Mary Miller was one of my favorite books of the year when it came out, and she did not disappoint with her latest offering, “Biloxi.” “Biloxi” is named for the city in which it takes place, Biloxi, Mississippi. Miller tells the story of Louis McDonald,
Read More →‘American Eden: David Hosack, Botany, and Medicine in the Garden of the Early Republic’ Dr. David Hosack was a doctor and botanist who lived among and treated some of the Founding Fathers. In the later part of the 18th century, he traveled to England to add to his medical knowledge.
Read More →‘The Calculating Stars’ There is a small handful of writers who don’t just craft a good story, or comment smartly on modern life, or create fascinating characters you’d want to have a beer with. Instead, they do all three while entertaining even the most experienced reader. Mary Robinette Kowal is
Read More →‘American Dialogue: The Founders and Us’ In “American Dialogue,” Joseph Ellis, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian, has taken some of the most vexing issues of the current political scene and related them back to the Founding Fathers. He reflects on Thomas Jefferson and race, John Adams and economic inequality, James Madison and
Read More →“The Gown” by Jennifer Robson “The Gown” tells a beautiful story set in 1947 London, when England is still recovering from World War II. Ann Hughes and Miriam Dassin are two talented embroiderers at the famous fashion house of Norman Hartnell. They have been selected to create the wedding gown and train
Read More →“Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country” by Pam Houston Pam Houston’s affecting new title consists of essays depicting scenes of life at her ranch home. In 1993, with funds from the success of her first book, “Cowboys Are My Weakness,” Houston purchased a 120-acre ranch near Creede, Colorado. Twenty-five
Read More →‘My Year of Rest and Relaxation’ The unnamed narrator of “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” has one goal in mind: to remain asleep for as much of the day as possible. She accomplishes this goal by finding a quack psychiatrist who is willing to prescribe her an elaborate mix of sleeping and antianxiety medication. With
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