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Book Club Picks

  • Book of the Month: Jane Austen’s unfinished works

    Technically, Lady Susan is complete. LADY SUSAN THE WATSONS SANDITION Comprising one finished novel, Lady Susan, which was published posthumously, and two unfinished fragments, Sanditon and The Watsons, this collection – full of melodrama and burlesque, and exploring a range of literary styles and social classes – spans the entirety of Jane Austen’s writing life.…

  • Book Highlight: A Time for Mercy

    Clanton, Mississippi. 1990. Jake Brigance finds himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial when the court appoints him attorney for Drew Gamble, a timid sixteen-year-old boy accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance digs in and discovers that there is more to the…

  • Book of the Month: The Yellow Wall-Paper

    The story is written as a collection of journal entries narrated in the first person. The journal was written by a woman whose physician husband has rented an old mansion for the summer. Forgoing other rooms in the house, the husband confines the woman to an upstairs nursery. As a form of treatment, the husband forbids the…

  • Valentine’s Day: Harlequin Romance Edition

    It’s that time of year again, so in honor of the month of love, I finished my Harlequin romance reading. Plus a few others. Silks, Swords and Surrender by Jeannie Lin (Tang Dynasty) From USA TODAY bestselling author Jeannie Lin comes a tantalizing new five-story volume. Take a journey to Tang Dynasty China and join…

  • Book of the Month: When Cicadas Cry

    A high-profile murder case— A white woman has been bludgeoned to death with an altar cross in a rural church on Cicada Road in Walterboro, South Carolina. Sam Jenkins, a Black man, is found covered in blood, kneeling over the body. In a state already roiling with racial tenson, this is not only a murder…

  • Author Highlight: Helen Dickinson

    Now we’re throwing it back to the. . . well, before the 20th century again. Dickinson has a fondness for three vastly different eras: The Georgian (named after King George, yes the King George from Hamilton and 1776, the one the US broke away from); the English Civil War, and Victorian. So let’s get to…

  • Author Highlight: Lauri Robinson

    Harlequin, and the historical romance genre in general may be known for its Regency balls and Western shoot-outs, but Lauri Robinson may be the only introducing exciting new eras that make for interesting twists to classic historical romance tropes. From early America to the sock-hops, Lauri Robinson has something almost for every era. Saving Marina…

  • Book of the Month: History of the World in 50 Dogs

    Most dog lovers know Fido and Laika, but how about Martha, Paul McCartney’s Old English Sheepdog? Or Peritas, Alexander the Great’s trusted canine companion? As long as there have been humans, those humans have had beloved companions—their dogs. From the ancient Egyptians mummifying their pups, to the Indian legend of the king who refused to…

  • YA books

    The Assignment by Liza Wiemer SENIOR YEAR. When an assignment given by a favorite teacher instructs a group of students to argue for the Final Solution, a euphemism used to describe the Nazi plan for the genocide of the Jewish people, Logan March and Cade Crawford are horrified. Their teacher cannot seriously expect anyone to…

  • Author Highlight: Jenni Fletcher

    Still on the Harlequin train, and progressing past the ancient world to the 1200s or 1600s, admittedly my history in this era is a bit dim. But I’m pretty sure this is the 1600s because King Henry is mentioned here. Yeah, that King Henry with his six wives.