“Good food held little importance at the tables of my childhood,” writes historian Cleves, who has since overcome those overlooked meal presentations to produce a rousing study of gastronomy and carnal appetite. The author has spent a decade making impressive use of historical archival information, scientific research experiments, blogs, films, books, ancient Chinese poetry, and […]
Glimmering with foreboding, Bamford’s debut is an eerie consideration of family secrets in a sun-dappled setting. The action is confined to a late-1980s summer day in the life of a group of relatives, accompanied by their partners and children, but the novel also reaches to the backstory as everyone gathers in Frankie’s house to celebrate […]
Kohnstamm’s second novel opens with a setup that at first seems too thin to carry even a short story: In 2014, Sami Hasegawa-Stalworth has volunteered to run her children’s elementary school PTA in hopes of renaming the school after her grandmother, Masako Hasegawa, a victim of Japanese American internment and a longtime music teacher there. […]
After she’s caught in a compromising situation, California teacher Jane is unceremoniously fired. She then applies for the “types of jobs that [won’t] check a record.” Fortunately, she finds one—a couple (including a popular writer of airport novels) takes her on as nanny to their 10-month-olds Franny and Zooey. Then, Jane gets a reply to […]
Forty-year-old Jaycee Grayson, fresh from a stint in the Betty Ford rehab center after having been fired from her job at a big-name Hollywood studio, is about to embark on a new adventure. Her older sister Meredith Grayson-O’Cochlain, a high-powered attorney, has negotiated a contract for Jaycee to be the new executive producer and vice […]
This timely book delves into a host of issues connected to nuclear weapons, with conclusions that are, to say the least, disturbing. Panda, who has extensive experience as a writer and government adviser specializing in military geopolitics, brings a great deal of research material to the task, combining historical information with novel insights. He notes […]
After Sir Julian Marston-Lang’s shady family did their level best to see that he didn’t inherit Marston Hall, his stately ancestral home outside of London, in Heley’s last book, False Witness (2024), some of the locals are determined that his efforts to rehabilitate the neglected property come to naught. Egged on by Sir Julian’s own […]
D.’s parents migrated to the United States when he was six months old, so for the next 13 years of his life, he grows up in the care of his grandmother, whom he calls Tía, and his uncle Felipe. After his uncle and his grandmother both die tragically, in quick succession, the author and his […]
Ella Summer writes for an occult publication called Mars, covering urban legends, reptilian conspiracy theories, and other stories for which there is no proof. (As her editor likes to tell his reporters, “To have proof is called science, not the occult!”) When one of Ella’s former university professors dies mysteriously of apparent starvation, she drops […]
Gwendolyn Richards bickers with her mother on a regular morning as the family is preparing to begin another day. With roosters crowing in the yard and Gwen’s dad getting ready for a humdrum shift at the nearby sugar factory, mother and daughter share local news until Gwen’s best friend, Sharon, arrives to walk with Gwen […]