Excerpt… Prólogos Summer, 55 BC Ithaca It was a beautiful morning, a sky no bluer than the sea, a soft breeze keeping the biting flies off as she laid another bunch of dark, red grapes gently in the basket at her feet. She picked one and ate it and felt the small, sweet…
1469, China. Little Tan Yunxian has just had her feet bound and is receiving instruction from her mother on how to be the perfect wife and mother when she leaves her Milk Days and enters her Hair-Pinning Days, and never, ever to bring shame upon her husband or her family. And then her mother dies…
Read more Conspiring behind the men’s backs to foil the patriarchy and survive.
Steve Berry knows how to write a thriller–short chapters, efficient prose, lots of characters who don’t know who they are really working for, a very capable hired killer who certainly does and has all the rest of them looking over their shoulders, bad actors on a global scale, and a missing WWII treasure trove appropriated…
Excerpt… Woman should gather roses ere Time’s ceaseless foot o’ertaketh her, For if too long she make delay, Her chance of love may pass away. A FEW LADIES looked askance but Johanna proved she knew her audience well when the opening verse was greeted with a roar of male approval. Well, and wasn’t it a…
In her January 26th newsletter, the Poisoned Pen Bookstore’s Barbara Peters wrote, “For 2024, eschewing politics and agendas, our focus is on books and experiences that are entertaining and informative — stories that will be a respite and a refuge from cultural and political wars.” To that agenda may I add a hearty “Hear, hear!”…
Alert readers will recall from the March Roadhouse Report that Marc Cameron and I are the designated performing seals for this year’s Beyond the Stacks fundraiser in Anchorage on April 13th. And looky here! Their online auction is live! Nice way to score cool stuff like airline tickets and Alaska vacation packages and art and…
Excerpt… England, winter, 1326-1327 Jaufre, Johanna, and Shasha settled in to plan an English extension of the Road, and Jaufre began his study of how to be a lord under the tutelage of Tregloyne. “Not a lord,” Tregloyne told him. “God’s teeth, save me from that, I’d be taxed to death and have to take…
I just saw a list of “the six best mysteries to read this month” or some such, none of which sounded the least bit interesting to me, so I retaliate here with a three-book series I know to be marvelous. Of the first two Sarah Tolerance novels: Miss Sarah Tolerance elopes with her brother’s fencing…
Excerpt… England, autumn, 1326 Close up, the king was seen to be tall and spare, with blue eyes and thinning fair hair, and looked oddly familiar to Jaufre, although he couldn’t think why. His gaze was a little vague, and Jaufre wondered if he were shortsighted. He had deep pouches beneath those eyes, due to…
Read more Well, he was about to lose his throne, or so it seemed. Reason enough to drink.
Excerpt… The wharves of Cyrene extended out in graceful curves to the left and to the right. Up the hills in back of the harbor a jumble of tile roofs jostled for place with acacia and tamarisk trees, full-blown canopies providing a defense from the heat and glare of the noonday sun. Here…