Harlem Shuffle
Colson
Whitehead
2021
From two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead, a gloriously entertaining novel of heists, shakedowns, and rip-offs set in Harlem in the 1960s.
Historical Fiction
Migration ID
121
An attainable goddess?
A review of Aphrodite and the Duke
by
J. J.
McAvoy
Aphrodite Du Bell hates her name. The eponymous heroine of J. J. McAvoy’s romance Aphrodite and the Duke certainly has the beauty and bearing reminiscent of the Greek goddess, but ever since she was jilted by Evander Eagleman, Duke of Everely, she’s been reluctant to reenter society. An ultimatum from her formidable mama means she must find a husband this year, but the discovery that the now-widowed Evander will be present this season gives Aphrodite a sliver of hope she might be able to rekindle the love she knows Evander genuinely held for her.
There's a price to be paid
A review of The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi
by
S. A.
Chakraborty
Shannon Chakraborty is back with a new magical adventure (after her Daevabad trilogy) set on the Indian Ocean and introducing a bold, smart, and notorious female pirate, Amina al-Sirafi. Let the sea voyages and the hunt for a kidnapped girl commence.
Behind the gates
A review of Lavender House
by
Lev
Rosen
In 1952 San Francisco, police detective Evander "Andy" Mills has been able to keep his sexual orientation, as a gay man, under wraps, until now. A raid on a gay nightclub has caught him in its web and he's lost his job and every "friend" he thought he had on the force. At a loss as to what comes next, he's contemplating a very bad decision while half-tanked in a bar, when he's approached by a glamorous woman named Pearl. She offers a deal he can't pass up. Pearl tells him that her wife, soap magnate, Irene Lamontaine has died and Pearl thinks her death was murder.
The Lincoln Highway
Amor
Towles
2021
In June, 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the juvenile work farm where he has just served fifteen months for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett's intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother, Billy, and head to California where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden's car.
Murder in the (not so) wild west
A review of A Dangerous Business
by
Jane
Smiley
"Everyone knows this is a dangerous business, but between you and me, being a woman is a dangerous business, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
V.E.
Schwab
2020
Making a Faustian bargain to live forever but never be remembered, a woman from early eighteenth-century France endures unacknowledged centuries before meeting a man who remembers her name.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins
Reid
2017
An unforgettable and sweeping novel about one classic film actress's relentless rise to the top, the risks she took, the loves she lost, and the long-held secrets the public could never imagine.
Lessons in Chemistry
Bonnie
Garmus
2022
Set in 1960s California, this blockbuster debut is the hilarious, idiosyncratic and uplifting story of a female scientist whose career is constantly derailed by the idea that a woman's place is in the home, only to find herself starring as the host of America's most beloved TV cooking show.
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony
Doerr
2021
Narratives from the past, present, and future intertwine in this soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope, and a book.