In the 21 years since the U.S. invaded Iraq, the world has sought answers as to why our political and intelligence leaders blundered into strategic and moral catastrophe.
In Jewish folklore, Lilith was the first wife of Adam. The stories say God created them side by side, as equals. But Adam wanted a subservient wife. Unwilling to submit to her husband's authority, she was banished from the Garden of Eden. The legendary Lilith has grown into an emblem of female liberation and male contempt. In southern Vermont author Eric Rickstad's seventh novel, a gripping thriller that bears her name, she becomes a national symbol for women no longer willing to put up...
Frustration drives in an anxious Zoomer’s tour of the web“My rules for our world weren’t followed.” Thus laments Honor Levy, NYC lit scene enfant terrible, in her debut short story collection, My First Book. Levy’s legislative longing becomes a kind of refrain, revisited and reconstructed throughout the book’s vignettes. These index the worries and fixations of an extremely online young person (Levy is 26): internet love, cancel culture, apocalypse, techno-dystopia, the merits of identity...
Loved not only for her epic Wolf Hall trilogy, but also her short stories, other novels, and wonderful non-fiction and journalism, Mantel was, quite simply, a genius. When she died at age 70 and talking about the books she still had in her, it was devastating. For those of us mourning her loss, and looking for some consolation, A Memoir of My Former Self was published posthumously, a collection of her writing for newspapers and journals. The book includes reflections on her own extraordinary...
In Weybridge author Julia Alvarez's abundantly populated new novel, an aging writer named Alma, who publishes under the nom de plume Scheherazade, decides to call it quits. She leaves Vermont and returns to her childhood home in the Dominican Republic, claiming a plot of derelict land she's inherited but never seen. Her plan is to build a cemetery there, where she can entomb her never-completed book manuscripts: She needed a place to bury her unfinished work, a space honoring all those...
Years ago, after three sequels to the original series, we were led to believe there would be no more. But perhaps Maupin was missing his old friends too, because Mona of the Manor re-introduces them again, in an engaging, easy to read, cosy-crime page-turner. Mona Roughton, nee Ramsey, is living in a charming but decrepit English manor estate. Following in the footsteps of Anna Madrigal, she’s making a living from having people to stay. Guests such as Rhonda, a wide-eyed middle-aged innocent who...
The warning comes after a highly-discussed excerpt was released about the Republican governor shooting her dog
Age 7 plus: Solstice: Around the World on the Longest, Shortest Day Jen Breach and 14 Global Artists Explore the daily lives of children around the world through the lens of one single special day – June 21 – the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere, and the shortest in the southern hemisphere. With the help of 14 artists from different corners of the world, this beautiful and informative book allows readers to meet 14 fictional children in 14 places from the far south to the far...
But award-winning author Liz Fenwick, dubbed queen of the contemporary Cornish novel, digs beyond the beauty of her local landscape to unearth a moving tale of danger, daring and romance starring the wartime map girls those unsung female cartographers who played vital roles in land surveying, meteorology and intelligence. Mapping was vital to secret operations on the coasts of both Cornwall and occupied Brittany, with extensive, pre-D-Day small boat flotilla runs taking place in the Helford...
But award-winning author Liz Fenwick, dubbed queen of the contemporary Cornish novel, digs beyond the beauty of her local landscape to unearth a moving tale of danger, daring and romance starring the wartime map girls those unsung female cartographers who played vital roles in land surveying, meteorology and intelligence. Mapping was vital to secret operations on the coasts of both Cornwall and occupied Brittany, with extensive, pre-D-Day small boat flotilla runs taking place in the Helford...
Age 9 plus: Angel of Grasmere Tom Palmer and Tom Clohosy Cole Inspired by the much-loved Swallows and Amazons outdoor adventure books of Leeds author Arthur Ransome, award-winning writer Tom Palmer – who hails from the same city – once against uses the majestic backdrop of wartime in the Lake District for a moving story based on real events. Palmer, who brought us Arctic Star and After the War: From Auschwitz to Ambleside, has a long-standing love affair with the Lakes, and in this sharply...
On the morning of August 12, 2022, author Salman Rushdie was preparing to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution, US, when a man wearing black clothes and a mask rushed towards him with a knife. Rushdie’s initial thought was, “So it’s you. Here you are.” What followed was a horrific act of violence that deeply affected Rushdie and those around him. In his new book, ‘Knife,’ Rushdie recounts the events of that day and their aftermath in vivid detail. “No matter what I’ve already written or...