- May 1, 2020
During the Nazis’ brutal siege of Leningrad, Lev Beniov is arrested for looting and thrown into the same cell as a handsome deserter named Kolya. Instead of being executed, Lev and Kolya are given a shot at saving their own lives by complying with an outrageous directive: secure a dozen ...
Read more… - April 24, 2020
I am cheating a bit, because I haven’t quite finished this book; I am reviewing it because I am sure I will recommend it by the time I have finished. It’s a very good read.
Whatever you do, don’t skip the introduction, in which Pulitzer-Prize-winning author Weingarten describes how he pitched the idea for this ...
Read more… - April 17, 2020
I lost a friend this month, a friend known to PFL’s lovers of mysteries: Peter Bowen, the author of the Gabriel Du Pré series set in Montana. I met Peter decades ago, when I was at the University of Michigan. He once said, “I attended the University of Michigan ...
Read more… - April 9, 2020
In 1870, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd
is asked to deliver a 10-year-old German girl back to her relatives in San
Antonio in exchange for $50 in gold. He agrees. Johanna’s parents had been
killed by the Kiowa when she was 6, but she was spared and raised as one of
their own for four years. Facing a 400-mile journey ...
Read more… - March 27, 2020
I started The Book of Three, the first book in this classic fantasy series by Lloyd Alexander, with a great deal of skepticism. First of all (with the exception of the Harry Potter series), I am not fantasy fan. Secondly, the series involves five books, and when you have a reading wish list ...
Read more… - March 12, 2020
I borrow every baking book we get here and this book by David Norman is my favorite since The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg. They’re similar in scope and difficulty and each provides histories of the breads in each recipe. The difference is that Ginsburg’s book is exclusively rye while Norman’s tackles all sorts of ...
Read more… - March 5, 2020
“The Devil Made Me Do It!”: Crime and Punishment in Early New England, by longtime Bath resident Juliet Haines Mofford, is an excellent and informative read. The book provides detailed stories on the types of crime and the punishments applied in the early days of our country. Whatever the crime — public intoxication, infanticide, ...
Read more… - February 28, 2020
I am a huge fan of graphic memoirs and have ready many over the last few years as these books have grown in popularity. One of my top five graphic memoirs is In Waves written and illustrated by AJ Dungo and published in 2019 by Nobrow Press. This memoir is about surfing, grief, and loss. ...
Read more… - February 20, 2020
I recently finished this little gem of a novel, and was reminded of its sparkle and shine last night after seeing a wonderful interview with the author, Kevin Wilson, on the PBS News Hour. If you are looking for a quick read that will warm your heart on a cold winter day, look ...
Read more… - February 14, 2020
On the surface, this is a story about the life of a
housewife, Mrs Bridge, who lives in Kansas City with her husband and three
children between the two World Wars. Beneath the surface, this novel is
actually about a lonely woman who avoids change at all costs and who cannot
comprehend the fact that she is living an ...
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