Matthew Shardlake has been summoned by Archbishop Cranmer to assist with some law work as King Henry makes a royal progress through the rebellious north. He must also try to keep a prisoner alive for later questioning. But conspiracies still abound in the area and Shardlake’s life is endangered when he stumbles onto something. Reading […]
Talmadge is in town selling the fruit from his orchard one day when he notices two girls watching him. They’re very young and very pregnant. He dozes off for a few minutes and wakes as the girls run away with some fruit they’ve stolen. He decides not to chase them because they look hungry. A […]
Title: SaltAuthor: Isabel ZuberGenres: Historical Fiction, Southern LiteratureFormat: Paperback Synopsis: John Bayley meets Anna Stockton when she’s in her late teens. He decides right away that he’s going to marry her. She looks to be a strong woman who knows how to work. After burying two wives, that combination appeals to John. The rest of […]
During the siege of Leningrad in World War II, Lev and Kolya find themselves in jail at the same time. After a sleepless night in which they expect to be executed the next morning, they instead find themselves facing a Colonel in the Red Army. He will let them go free if they agree to […]
Matthew Shardlake has been asked to defend a young woman accused of the terrible murder of a child. The problem is that the girl refuses to speak in her own defense and time is running out. Luckily, Thomas Cromwell intervenes and gains Shardlake two more weeks to prepare a defense. In exchange, Matthew must find […]
Two young men, children of parents that the Communist government in China deems enemies of the state, are basically exiled to a remote mountain for “re-education.” Their parents’ “crimes” don’t even warrant the word; they’re basically just too educated for the government’s comfort. The teens find a harsh life waiting for them on the mountain. […]
In a dual narrative, author Sena Jeter Naslund explores the lives of a modern-day fictional author, Kathryn Callaghan–a “woman of a certain age,”–and artist Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, famous for painting portraits of Marie Antoinette. Both women are looking back over their lives, evaluating their choices and reflecting on their losses. I am not the […]
Synopsis from GoodReads: Steel Magnolias meets The Help in Beth Hoffman’s New York Times bestselling Southern debut novel, Saving CeeCee Honeycutt Twelve-year-old CeeCee Honeycutt is in trouble. For years, she has been the caretaker of her mother, Camille, the town’s tiara-wearing, lipstick-smeared laughingstock, a woman who is trapped in her long-ago moment of glory as […]
Molly Ayer has messed up one too many times. She’s caught up in the foster system and her latest mistake has left her with a choice of either fifty hours of community service or going to juvie. Her boyfriend searches around and finds out that his mom’s employer, 91-year-old widow Vivian Daly, needs help cleaning […]
When Charlotte Brontë died, she left 20 pages of a novel behind. Clare Boylan decided to finish it. A little girl is enrolled in a private girls’ academy. She is shy and reclusive, but the headmistresses make much of her because it’s obvious that her benefactor has money. Trouble arises when her benefactor can’t be […]
Eleanora Cohen’s birth is full of omens. The town where she was born was under siege, her mother died in childbirth, and a flock of exotic hoopoes come to roost at the house and just stay. Otherwise, her very early years were fairly normal. Her father married his dead wife’s sister, who did her duty […]