May 8, 2024
January 2, 2024
Once Upon a Tome by Oliver Darkshire
An unlooked-for career in antiquarian and rare bookselling brings all sorts of adventures and misadventures in the dusty, musty world of old books and the eccentric types who populate the bookselling trade. Fully engaging and enchanting, highly literary in tone and subject.
April 25, 2023
First Blood by Amelie Nothomb
At times appalling, always lively, uniformly loving, this account of the author’s father and his life experiences is a bright and interesting read, and the reader is left with a warm regard for both the subject and his biographer.
April 18, 2023
The Postcard by Anne Berest
A gripping search for the enigmatic meaning of a postcard bearing the names of relatives killed in the Nazi camps becomes a quest for personal identification and the finding of an appropriate place in the world. Absolutely intriguing.
March 25, 2023
The Wager by David Grann
A sea disaster story of the first order, this is a tale of courage, cowardice, loyalty and treachery, of unwavering dedication to duty and desperate preservation of life in spite of commitments to an imperial military power. It is a “cracking good tale”.
March 22, 2023
The Half-White Album by Cynthia J. Sylvester
A powerful collection of short works of fiction and nonfiction skillfully crafted to chronicle the lives and trials of native people living in a hostile world.
March 1, 2022
Saving Yellowstone by Megan Kate Nelson
The history of Yellowstone is checkered with altruism, egotism, greed and cruelty juxtaposed with notions of preserving important natural features for the enjoyment of the people. Great effort went into the conservation of what we now view as one of our nation’s greatest treasures.
March 1, 2022
After the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport
A comprehensive view of the Russian emigres, exiles from Imperial Russia and subsequently the Soviet Union. Intimate details of persons and outlines of the cultural and political outcomes engendered by the exodus at the turn of the 20th century. Rich with information and meticulously researched, it is a work of great merit.
February 14, 2022
In the Margins by Elena Ferrante
A penetrating examination of the sources of creative writing and the methods and motives thereof. For all lovers of books, words and writing.
December 17, 2021