When I look at my family tree, I sometimes wonder about the stories my ancestors could tell me. The dates and places for my great-great-great grandparents are interesting to have, but I wish I knew more about their lives. I just finished a wonderful saga that made me think about all my relatives who traveled from Denmark to…
The mention of Mafia often brings to people’s minds memories of The Godfather or The Sopranos. In fact, Naomi Krupitsky the author of The Family: a Novel claims both of these sources, plus Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: the Market for Lemons were inspirations for her writing. This reader picked up Krupitsky’s novel because of the storyline involving the…
Erica’s Pick of the Week is about a messy murder, and the unconventional sleuth determined to clear it up.
Spy thriller fans, take note: Box 88 should be on your reading list! Lachlan Kite is part of Box 88, a spy organization so secret that not even MI6 and the CIA know it exists. (Why the odd name for a spy agency? That gets explained in the book.) When Kite is abducted and interrogated…
In Juhea Kim’s sweeping new novel Beasts of a Little Land, a courtesan’s apprentice, an orphaned hustler, and a high-ranking Japanese officer weave in and out of each other’s lives during the tumultuous decades of the Japanese occupation of Korea. Loyalties, friendships, familial bonds, and first loves are tested amidst the backdrop of Korea’s fight for independence.
Shelf Life 