Category Archives: adult

The White Princess – Philippa Gregory

Princess Elizabeth of York knows she will be England’s queen one day.  The problem is that she doesn’t know who will be king.  She is in love with the present king, Richard III, who has promised marriage, but she is … Continue reading

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The Humans: A Novel – Matt Haig

Professor Andrew Martin is dead.  His body is now inhabited by a member of a highly intelligent species from the far side of the universe. The original Andrew Martin has just solved the Riemann hypothesis, which will lead to amazing … Continue reading

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The King’s Deception – Steve Berry

Gary Malone is one angry teenager.  Not surprising, considering his mother has just revealed that he’s the result of an affair. That the man he has always called “Dad” isn’t really his dad. His mother has refused to tell him … Continue reading

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Cotton Tenants: Three Families – James Agee, photographs by Walker Evans

In the summer of 1936 James Agee, then a staff writer for Fortune magazine, was commissioned to write an article on sharecroppers in Alabama.  He and Walker Evans, a staff photographer, spent two months observing three families, chronicling every aspect … Continue reading

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The Riddle of the Labyrinth: The Quest to Crack an Ancient Code – Margalit Fox

British archeologist Arthur Evans was convinced that Mycenaean society was too advanced to be without writing, but no firm evidence had emerged.  Clues began to point him toward Crete, and he eventually chose Knossos, the seat of Minos’ empire, for … Continue reading

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The Boleyn King: A Novel – Laura Andersen

On a summer’s night in 1536 a rush of falling stars accompanied the birth of a prince, Anne Boleyn’s healthy baby boy.  Now, seventeen years later King Henry IX, known to his family as William, is impatiently entering the last … Continue reading

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For Adam’s Sake: A Family Saga in Colonial New England – Allegra di Bonaventura

Joshua Hempstead of New London, Connecticut was a rather ordinary man and lived a rather ordinary life in the first half of the 18th century. But he did an extraordinary thing. For nearly forty-seven years he kept a diary, dutifully … Continue reading

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A Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra

When she was only eight years old, Havaa’s father instructed her to pack her suitcase and have it ready, should she need to leave in a hurry. So when the pounding on the front door began he gave her the … Continue reading

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The Golden Egg – Donna Leon

Davide was quietly in the background, doing simple tasks for the local dry-cleaners in the San Polo area of Venice. Deaf and mildly mentally challenged, he was a sweet boy. No one knew his name; they just called him the … Continue reading

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Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond – John Joseph Adams and Doublas Cohen (editors)

Oh boy, this was fun!  What a delightful collection of tales from the Oz I remember, from an Oz that might have been, and from a completely impossible Oz.  Fifteen of today’s best fantasy authors contributed to this anthology, providing all … Continue reading

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Fever: A Novel – Mary Beth Keane

Her grandmother taught her how to make griddle cakes and brown bread, to make salmon with butter and cream, to tuck turnips and potatoes around the meat.  And it was her grandmother who bought her a one way trip to … Continue reading

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The Mapmaker’s War: A Legend – Ronlyn Domingue

Aoife was a wild child.  At least that’s what the nursemaid said.  Her mother tried to tame her, make her into a child of her image.  Her father loved her just as she was. He was the King’s most trusted … Continue reading

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Eighty Days: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland’s History-Making Race Around the World – Matthew Goodman

Nellie Bly was a daring undercover reporter for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York newspaper, The World.  She had exposed the dreadful treatment in an insane asylum, worked in a paperbox factory, sought treatment in a medical clinic for the poor, trained … Continue reading

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The Lady and her Monsters: A Tale of Dissections, Frankensteins, and the Creation of Mary Shelley’s Masterpiece – Roseanne Montillo

The night of August 30, 1797, was stormy, with a dramatic display of thunder and lightning.  It is fitting, then, that this night also saw the birth of Mary Godwin, for Mary Godwin Shelley led a stormy and unconventional life.   … Continue reading

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A Week in Winter – Maeve Binchy

No one had ever called her Geraldine.  She had always been Chicky.  The youngest of a large brood of Ryans, her job had been to care for the hens.  Stoneybridge, on the Atlantic coast of Ireland, was a wonderful place … Continue reading

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