The Witch’s Kind, by Louisa Morgan. Redhook Books, 2019A magical realism/historical fantasy story, The Witch’s Kind completely captivated me. It’s the story of Barrie Anne Blyth, a young woman in the time of WW 2, and her aunt Charlotte, who raised her. Barrie has a past with a man who turned out to be not what he seemed: a college man who joined ( Read more... )

Josephine Baker’s Last Dance, by Sherry Jones. Gallery Books, 2018Josephine Baker, born in 1906 to a poor family in St. Louis, was used pretty much as a slave from the time she could walk. Her mother put her out to white families as a live in servant, with Josephine’s pay going to her. Josephine never saw anything of it. Worse, she was sexually ( Read more... )

The Woman in the White Kimono, by Ana Johns. Park Row Books, 2019
Tori Kovac, in present day America, watches her father die right after he gives her a letter that was written by him to someone in Japan, and it was returned in the mail. Who is it to, and what does it mean ( Read more... )

The Ash Family, by Molly Dektar. Simon & Shuster, 2019
As someone who came of age in the late 60s/early 70s, I’ve always been fascinated with communes. Not fascinated enough to ever even think about joining one, but being torn between admiration for the hard work it took to make a successful one and astonishment at how people could fall for the ( Read more... )

The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper, by Hallie Rubenhold. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019 In 1888, five women were killed by the person who would be called Jack the Ripper. The killings were horrific- they weren’t just killed, but disemboweled- and the newspapers of the time made a mint writing sensational stories ( Read more... )

Mosquitoes, by William Faulkner. Horace Liveright Inc. 1927
“Mosquitoes” was the second novel Faulkner wrote. It’s a satire set in New Orleans, and while it’s amusing it’s not really laugh out loud funny. It’s a sort of “Ship of Fools” but with a smaller boat and possibly more foolish people ( Read more... )

The Vanishing Box, by Elly Griffiths. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 2018Set in 1950’s Brighton, this fourth installment in the authors Magic Man Mystery series gives us Max Mephisto- one of the Magic Men- and his daughter, Ruby, playing a gig at the Brighton Hippodrome. On the same bill is Vic Cutler’s tableaux vivante, where almost naked young women ( Read more... )

A Student of History, by Nina Revoyr. Akashic Books, 2019
Grad student Rick Nagano’s life isn’t going well. He’s been stuck on his thesis for months and sees no future for it, his grant is about to run out and not be renewed, and his girlfriend has dumped him. Then things turn better: his friend is leaving the country, and leaving her job as a ( Read more... )

Shadow Daughter: A Memoir of Estrangement, by Harriet Brown. Da Capo Press, 2018Harriet Brown admits she led a pretty good childhood; she was not physically abused (much), she had food and clothing, hers was not a broken home. But her mother was emotionally abusive, tearing Harriet down constantly. No one could praise Harriet without her mother ( Read more... )

Feast, by Graham Masterton. Pinnacle Books, 1988
Charlie McLean is a restaurant critic who is on the road constantly, eating his way around America for a company that makes up guidebooks. A non-custodial parent, he now has his son, Martin, with him for three weeks, in an attempt for them to get to know each other. An encounter at a (bad) roadside ( Read more... )