Lady Caroline Morton, who prefers just Caroline, has been fortunate to work for Mrs. Frogerton since her father lost both her dowry and the family fortune. Mrs. Frogerton’s money comes from trade, but she’s a kind employer, treating Caroline like a daughter and relishing the murders they’ve helped solve together. Mrs. Frogerton’s doctor suggests a […]
After teacher Vasant Dashpande published a “revolutionary newsletter that railed against the injustices of the British occupiers,” he was nearly beaten to death by soldiers in British India. He heads to Bellingham, Washington, to escape the authorities and earn money working in a lumber mill. Upon arrival, he and his younger sister, Vinita (who joined […]
“This was the first photograph I ever saw of Susie. It hung in the bedroom of her little flat in Maida Vale in London, and I fell in love with it. Of course, I also fell in love with Susie herself, and thirty years later we are still as devoted to each other as two […]
The author, a writer based in San Francisco, didn’t get off to a strong start when it came to familial stability: Her biological father, Juan, left when her 18-year-old mother got pregnant in 1975. Heartbroken, her mother married a harsh man named Kurt, who moved their small family from suburban Oregon to an Army base […]
These animals include Monster, a neurologically impaired squirrel who liked to have his best friend, a rabbit, sit on him, to a “militant chicken” named Stephanie who demanded and received obeisance from a German shepherd and a male cat; they also include dogs ranging upward of 75 pounds each who packed into a Toyota Corolla […]
The novel’s protagonist is named Sergio (a moniker given to him by his Mexican American father); he’s known as Serge. When still a child in 1968, he and his older sister, Angela, are brought by their mother to Central California in search of “the Big Sur experience” (Big Sur being a place where, supposedly, “people […]
The struggle for belonging and self-acceptance drives this Midwestern family’s mini-dramas in the 2010s. The humorously upbeat narrative alternates between the third-person perspectives of three generations of Jewish women: Mona Grossman, her teenage daughter Grace, and Mona’s grandmother, Esther “Bubby” Rosenfeld. Mona, a full-time homemaker, struggles to reconnect with Grace, and to save her marriage […]
In today’s political landscape, individual politicians, rather than institutions and organizations, garner the lion’s share of public attention and trust. Sonnevend, author of Stories Without Borders, argues that this development has transformed politics into “a site of performance.” As a result, personal charm—“personal magnetism that rests on proximity to political ‘tribes’”—has become an increasingly important […]
Rockler presents an overview that’s separated into chapters on anxiety, social media, body image, cyberbullying, and getting and providing help. While many stressors have long been around, social media and isolation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic are new. The author summarizes important findings showing how the pandemic has adversely affected how teens socialize and negotiate […]
Months after the events of The Claiming (2023), Summer faerie princess Lady Dew Drop, nicknamed “Dewy,” remains a captive of the Winter Fae. They’re confining her to their Winter Court until Spense Ferrous, an apprentice mage in the human kingdom Telridge, tracks down a missing Heir—the child of exiled Princess Snow. It’s a seemingly impossible task […]