2book

Children's & YAPicture Book

Big hearts in little tales: Picture books of kindness

Feature by Alice Cary

As Aesop said, no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Two picture books contain memorable messages for kids learning to be kind in ways both big and small. Both feature a diverse cast of characters, showing young readers how to reach out to the vast world around them.

KIND ACTS MULTIPLYING
A simple incident of classroom embarrassment becomes occasion for an exquisite treatise on the subject of kindheartedness in Be Kind (ages 3 to 6). Tanisha, a young black girl, spills grape juice all over her new dress, causing her multiracial class to burst into laughter. The white narrator tries to help by announcing, “Purple is my favorite color.” The plan backfires, however, as Tanisha runs into the hallway, seemingly in tears.

While painting a picture for Tanisha in art class, the narrator ponders, “What does it mean to be kind anyway?” Many things, this student muses, such as making cookies for a lonely old neighbor, asking a new girl to be a partner, or saying hi to Omar or Rabbi Mandelbaum in the park. Pat Zietlow Miller―author of the marvelous Sophie’s Squash books―allows the narrator’s thoughts to meander from local (“Maybe I can only do small things.”) to global, as small acts “spill out of our school” and ”go all the way around the world.”

Jen Hill’s lively illustrations soulfully portray Tanisha’s mortification amid classroom giggles as the narrator looks on with concern. Subsequent pages reveal an array of characters whose kindnesses reach around the world to Africa, Asia and the Middle East. On its final pages, Be Kind returns to Tanisha’s dilemma, reaching a subtle, satisfying conclusion.

COME ONE, COME ALL
Open your heart and umbrella wide―that’s the message of this seemingly simple tale for preschoolers, The Big Umbrella (ages 4 to 8). A raincoat-clad child of indeterminate sex grabs an umbrella and heads out into the city streets. This anthropomorphized “big, friendly umbrella” that “likes to help” wears a big grin as it stretches wider and wider to shelter an increasingly diverse group: a runner, a ballerina, a huge duck, a hairy (but friendly) monster, a dog, and more. The final spread (“There is always room”) reveals a bustling, sun-filled street chockfull of diversity, including a woman in a hijab, a young man in a wheelchair and a dad sporting a Mohawk.

Author-illustrator Amy June Bates’ watercolor, gouache and pencil scenes provide the perfect backdrop for this heartwarming tale, co-written with her seventh-grade daughter, Juniper. Minimal text drives their message home, allowing the illustrations to become the focal point of this celebration of inclusion and generosity.

As Aesop said, no act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. Two picture books contain memorable messages for kids learning to be kind in ways both big and small. Both feature a diverse cast of characters, showing young readers how to reach out to the vast world around them.

Science Fiction & FantasyFiction

Never say die: Two tales of immortality

Feature by Savanna Walker

Cheating death is most frequently a quest for conquistadors or comic book villains. And most characters that have attained immortality, or something close to it, are already fantastical beings of some sort. Two new works of literary fiction, however, investigate what a drastically elongated lifespan can do to a soul and mind intended for mortality.

A good portion of Eternal Life by Dara Horn takes place in the present day, as the approximately 2,000-year-old Rachel wishes for some way to break the cycle of marriage, motherhood and faking her death to ensure that no one discovers her immortality. When she gave up her death in order to save her young son’s life, she didn’t truly believe she would live forever. It wasn’t until the biblical Temple of Jerusalem burned down with the elderly Rachel inside and she woke up outside the city, young once more, that she realized what she had done.

Rachel loves her children and descendants deeply, but time has taken its toll on motherhood. Horn uses flashes of memory to show how, to Rachel, each child is reminiscent of another one, and at times another before that. Rachel’s living family will always remind her of those who are dead, dooming her to continually acknowledge her own separation from the rest of humanity. Horn never answers whether Rachel’s embrace of perpetual motherhood, despite the pain, is true conviction, self-punishment or both. Her heroine does not stop to consider it, unless forced to by the one person who understands her plight—the father of the child she gave up her death to save.

Her lover, Elazar, made the same bargain she did and has been following Rachel ever since, convinced that their immortality is a gift from God and a sign that they were meant to spend eternity together. In expertly executed flashbacks, Horn methodically uncovers a connection between two souls that never quite fit in with their surroundings. Rachel’s guilt and persistent love for Elazar are among the many parts of herself she has attempted to bury via unceasing motherhood, causing damage to herself and her children. In unflinching emotional detail, Horn explores how Rachel has allowed herself to calcify into a cycle, and by the end of Eternal Life, she faces a choice between jettisoning it altogether or embracing it fully, pain and all.

Rachel may refuse to contemplate the enormity of her lifespan, but Tom Hazard is drowning in it. The protagonist of Matt Haig’s How to Stop Time is only 439 years old in comparison to Rachel’s millennia, but the majority of those years have been spent alone. Haig’s greatest accomplishment in this book is his at-times unbearably poignant exploration of how such a life could warp a mind.

Tom is haunted by the impermanence of the world around him and paralyzed by the knowledge that everyone he encounters will one day be dead. Having come of age in the 16th century, he knows all too well the horrors that can await those like him, and refuses to believe that humanity has changed in the ensuing centuries. Yet the memories of his relationship with his wife, and the few close friendships he has enjoyed, have not faded with time, which leads to a sense of jumbled memories that Haig skillfully communicates by skipping backward and forward between Tom’s early life, his experiences in the present day and other moments throughout his centuries. Haig structures these moments like a slow-motion epiphany, following Tom as he attempts to process his worst experiences and possibly seize a chance at community and love in the present.

Haig begins with the losses so devastating that they cast a shadow over Tom’s psyche for centuries, reverberating louder than any of his other memories. But then Haig pulls back, showing the happiness and friendships that have also marked his protagonist’s life, disrupting the isolationist narrative that Tom and others like him have forced themselves to adhere to in order to survive. Along the way, Haig allows for plenty of wistful and witty commentary on eras past, pit stops in the Wild West and 1920s Paris, and perhaps the best fictional depiction of Shakespeare in recent memory.

Like Rachel in Eternal Life, Tom arrives at a point in which he must break or solidify the rhythm of his life, and the final chapters of How to Stop Time arrive with breathtaking catharsis. For all his skill at evoking the passage of centuries, Haig also lavishes his attention on singular moments, mere minutes in the enormity of time that gently nudge his protagonist towards enlightenment.

 

ALSO IN BOOKPAGE: Read a Q&A with Matt Haig for How to Stop Time.

Cheating death is most frequently a quest for conquistadors or comic book villains. And most characters that have attained immortality, or something close to it, are already fantastical beings of some sort. Two new works of literary fiction, however, investigate what a drastically elongated lifespan can do to a soul and mind intended for mortality.

FictionDebut Fiction

Stories from the homefront and beyond

Feature by Julie Hale

Is there anything better than the tension and tremendous heart of a rousing wartime tale, especially when it recounts the experiences of courageous heroes? Through globetrotting stories of loyalty and love, three new historical novels deliver an unforgettable look at the sacrifices of women during World War II.

In her fast-paced blend of fact and fiction, The Atomic City Girls, Janet Beard uses the viewpoints of a diffuse group of characters to create an impressively realized portrait of life in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the makeshift city where uranium for the atomic bomb was secretly generated during the war. Eighteen-year-old June Walker is excited and nervous about working at Oak Ridge, but she doesn’t know what to make of Cici Roberts, her gorgeous, flirtatious dormitory roommate. Between tedious shifts monitoring big machines and evening dances where they blow off steam, the two girls form a friendship. Like nearly everyone else in the city, they’re kept in the dark about the purpose of their work. Joe Brewer, an African-American man who’s part of a labor gang at Oak Ridge, adds another layer to the novel, as he works to send money home to his family. Providing an outsider’s perspective is Sam Cantor, a Jewish scientist from the Bronx. June—hoping to learn the secrets behind Oak Ridge—begins a romance with Sam, who has the shocking answers she needs.

A native of East Tennessee, Beard brings a sure grasp of the region’s past to the narrative and infuses her central characters with a Southern sensibility that’s pronounced but never parody. In this compelling novel, she distills the essence of an era.

A TALE OF TWO SISTERS
White Chrysanthemum, Mary Lynn Bracht’s assured, atmospheric debut, takes place in 1940s Korea during the Japanese occupation. Hana is a haenyeo, or sea woman—a female diver who catches fish in the ocean. Hana learned the trade from her mother, and she uses her earnings to help her family make ends meet. One day, during a dive, a Japanese soldier appears on the shore. When she tries to protect her younger sister, Emi, from the man, Hana is captured and taken to Manchuria, where she’s made to work as a comfort woman for the Japanese.

Decades later, Emi comes to Seoul to try to locate Hana and to join in the protests near the Japanese embassy in memory of women enslaved as prostitutes during the war. Emi has long been haunted by Hana’s disappearance and hopes to finally discover the rest of her sister’s story.

Bracht, an author of Korean descent, has produced a psychologically acute, emotionally resonant novel. She skillfully develops separate plots for the sisters and, with remarkable depth, portrays both the oppression of daily life during the occupation and the haunting aftereffects of the experience.

Rich with historical detail, White Chrysanthemum is a compelling and important account of civilian women’s lives during wartime.

RIDING THE TIDES OF WAR
Sara Ackerman delivers a dramatic saga of motherhood, loss and the possibility of renewal in Island of Sweet Pies and Soldiers. In Hawaii, as the war effort ramps up, Violet Iverson struggles to make sense of her husband’s disappearance. Rumors about his fate are on the rise, and some locals believe he is working for the Japanese. The one person who might have answers is Violet’s daughter, Ella, but no amount of coaxing will make her talk about what she has seen. It seems she’s been scared into silence.

Joining forces with her female friends, Violet starts a pie stand near Camp Tarawa—an undertaking that gives the enlisted men a taste of home. When the women are accused of spying, Sergeant Stone, a bold marine, lends a helping hand. Violet soon finds herself in the grip of a strong attraction, but she faces the possibility of another loss when Stone leaves for Iwo Jima.

With a sensitive touch and an instinct for authenticity, Ackerman depicts the fraught nature of wartime relationships. The letters Violet receives from Stone are filled with a sense of yearning, and her devotion to him as he risks his life is palpable. Born and raised in Hawaii, Ackerman mixes romance, suspense and history into a bittersweet story of cinematic proportions.

 

This article was originally published in the February 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Is there anything better than the tension and tremendous heart of a rousing wartime tale, especially when it recounts the experiences of courageous heroes? Through globetrotting stories of loyalty and love, three new historical novels deliver an unforgettable look at the sacrifices of women during World War II.

Romance

Rising stars of romance

Feature by Lois Dyer

It’s February—time for chocolates, hearts, flowers and romances! Our Valentine’s Day gift to you is a trio of books by rising stars.

WOUNDED HEARTS HEALED
If you love the popular television series “Victoria,” you’re certain to enjoy Never Dare A Wicked Earl. Twice a finalist for the coveted Golden Heart Award from Romance Writers of America, Renee Ann Miller makes her historical romance debut with the first in her Infamous Lords series.

Widower Hayden Milton, Earl of Westfield, has an infamous reputation. When an ex-mistress shoots him, medical student Sophia Camden is assigned to tend him as he recuperates. Hayden finds her annoying—and enticing. Sophia finds him exasperating—and handsome. He’s determined to shock her into resigning, while she’s equally determined to ignore his teasing. Their sickbed-set battle of wills forces them into near constant proximity, and both begin to open up to the other.

Both the hero and heroine have pasts darkened with loss, regret and guilt that hamper their ability to fall in love. These difficult beginnings lead to lots of engaging emotional conflict. Miller lightens the stressful moments with a delightful child, a hilarious dog, a harried sister and other equally charming secondary characters in Never Dare a Wicked Earl’s engrossing pages. This first novel will surely have readers looking forward to the second in the series.

ROMANCING THE CHEF
Everyone loves fabulous food. The terrific characters of More to Love, the latest romantic comedy from Alison Bliss, certainly do. The residents of Granite, Texas, flock to plus-size heroine Jessa Gibson’s food truck. Unfortunately, local electrician Max Hager discovers that Jessa’s mouthwatering food is about to put his favorite restaurant owner out of business. Outraged and determined to save the restaurant, Max comes up with what is arguably the worst scheme ever conceived. Posing as the local health inspector, he introduces himself to Jessa and begins listing violations of local rules. Jessa is taken aback at his odd, finicky comments but is also distracted by how cute the “inspector” is. Max is equally distracted by Jessa’s lush curves.

Although there are moments when a reader may wish Max would just man up and lay his cards on the table, Bliss gives him good reasons to hesitate. Max knows he should confess his charade, but before he can do so, things between him and the very sexy chef are careening out of control. The attraction between these two is off the charts. He’s in love and afraid to lose her; she’s in love and confused by his reticence. When the inevitable revelation occurs, will Max be able to keep both their hearts from breaking? The only things missing from this story are recipes for the wonderful dishes. Be warned—this one should be read with a snack close at hand.

SNARK AND SPARKS
Maggie Wells explores the wage gap and the world of college sports in her terrific new novel, Love Game.

Kate Snyder is a former Olympic gold medalist, WNBA all-star and current coach of the Wolcott University Warrior Women, a team she’s led to four national basketball championships. When the university hires famous but disgraced Danny McMillan to take the reins of the school’s low-ranked football team, Kate knows her contract negotiations are under threat. She expects to dislike the sports legend, but as she spends time with Danny, neither can deny the powerful connection that draws them together. Kate and Danny’s sexual chemistry is never in doubt, and Wells’ devotion to showing how much the pair enjoys and respects each other make the eventual payoff even sweeter.

Wells’ kickass heroine and confident hero trade witty banter and have some sigh-worthy sex scenes. Wells earns an A-plus, however, for creating a power couple that fully embodies being grown-up, intelligent adults who fall madly in love.

 

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington.

It’s February—time for chocolates, hearts, flowers and romances! Our Valentine’s Day gift to you is a trio of books by rising stars.

RomanceFiction

Faith always finds a way

Feature by Lonna Upton

God’s plan is often difficult to see, especially in our darkest moments. By examining their hearts, the characters in these inspirational novels discover that life is so much better when they renew their spiritual beliefs and follow God’s plan rather than their own crooked paths.

In the same thought-provoking style that propels his previous novels, James L. Rubart takes readers on a journey of self-discovery and renewal through the story of husband, father and rejected NFL player Toren Daniels in The Man He Never Was. Upon waking in a strange hotel with no memory of his nine-month disappearance, Toren finds himself in a vulnerable position, yet for some reason, he is at peace.

Since Toren disappeared, his wife has moved on to a new man, and his children don’t miss his angry tirades. Toren slowly begins to remember the days of his absence, a life-changing experience that holds important lessons he must continue to follow in order to find the love and joy that God intends for his life. He faces a daunting task: prove to himself that his spiritual renewal can last and prove to his family that he is indeed a new man, one worthy of their love and respect.

With parallels to Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and its exploration of the good and bad in all of us, The Man He Never Was challenges readers to examine themselves. How do we change the worst parts of ourselves into something of which God would approve? Toren’s struggle reminds us that the trials may not be easy, but with honest self-examination, we can experience the good life that God plans for us all.

SECRETS AND HEALING
With help from her helicopter-flying heroine, bestselling author Colleen Coble pilots readers through The View from Rainshadow Bay, the first book in her new Lavender Tides series. Filled with the suspense for which Coble is known, the novel is rich in detail with a healthy dose of romance, allowing readers to bask in the beauty of Washington state’s lavender fields, lush forests and jagged coastline.

Pilot Shauna McDade, who has been a single mother since her husband was killed in a climbing accident a year earlier, finds herself engulfed by grief once again when her mentor and his wife are both found dead. Suspicious about their deaths, Shauna turns to Zach, her husband’s best friend and the man she blames for his death. It appears that Shauna may be the killer’s next target, so she and Zach begin their sleuthing, fitting together pieces of a puzzle that implicate townspeople they know and love, including Shauna’s father, a less-than-forthcoming alcoholic whose secrets about Shauna’s childhood could have devastating implications.

As they search for clues and try to prevent further loss of life in their tightknit community, Shauna and Zach also seek an answer to why bad things happen to good people—and along the way, they work together to mend their fragile hearts.

PATIENT SPIRIT
A Passionate Hope by Jill Eileen Smith retells the biblical story of Hannah’s faithfulness, offering readers inspiration and encouragement to never stop singing praises to God. Fourth in Smith’s Daughters of the Promised Land series, the novel takes readers deep into the suffering Hannah endured and the patience she practiced while waiting for her prayers to be answered.

The love shared by Hannah and her husband, Elkanah, is not enough to sustain them when the two discover she is barren. Pressured to produce an heir, Elkanah marries Peninnah, a jealous woman who makes Hannah’s life miserable. Although the polygamous marriages depicted in Scripture were often practical and acceptable, Hannah’s situation is almost untenable, with a sister-wife in constant competition for Elkanah’s attention.

The larger canvas of the book depicts the faithful followers of God, who are concerned about corruption among the priests and pray that someone will clean up the tabernacle, returning it to its purpose as the House of the Lord. Could Hannah be part of God’s plan to restore the tabernacle?

Hannah’s heartfelt prayers come from a place of honesty and true surrender to God’s will, and she never gives up on her family or her faith. Her story will inspire readers to keep their own faith in the midst of despair and trust that God will find a way.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

God’s plan is often difficult to see, especially in our darkest moments. By examining their hearts, the characters in these inspirational novels discover that life is so much better when they renew their spiritual beliefs and follow God’s plan rather than their own crooked paths.

NonfictionMemoir

Walking with the past

Feature by Catherine Hollis

Two recent memoirs by Irish writers explore the haunting presence of the past in Irish lives and communities. Although James Joyce’s literary avatar Stephen Dedalus declared history “a nightmare from which I am trying to awake,” the Irish are known for their infatuation with the past.

In My Father’s Wake, journalist Kevin Toolis travels home to a remote island off the coast of Ireland to lay his father (and his personal demons) to rest. The subtitle of Toolis’ memoir—“How the Irish Teach Us to Live, Love and Die”—is a bit of a red herring, as this is not exactly a guide to coping with death. Instead, Toolis has written an exceptionally personal and moving story of his own encounters with death, from his brush with tuberculosis as a child to his beloved older brother Bernard’s untimely passing from leukemia. Despite donating bone marrow, Toolis is unable to save his brother, and Bernard’s death in a hospital is hygienically swift.

Traumatized by the experience, Toolis subsequently becomes a “death hunter” journalist, interviewing bereaved family members in global war zones. Toolis explores the ways in which the “Western Death Machine” has alienated us from our ancestral rituals of death and dying, rituals that persist in rural West Ireland. When Toolis’ own father, Sonny, dies in the tiny island village of Dookinella, the old rituals of keening and waking the dead prove the balm that he has been searching for. Sonny dies at home, seen over by a bean chabrach, or death midwife, and keened over by bean chaointe, or wailing woman. The entire village gathers at Sonny’s wake, watching over his passage from life to death. “A wake is the best guide to life you’ll ever have,” Toolis writes, encouraging his readers to learn how to live by accepting the inevitability of death.

Like Toolis, who finds solace in the rituals of the past, Booker Prize-winning author John Banville is similarly preoccupied with the weight of the past on the present in his new memoir, Time Pieces. But while Toolis returns to the ancient rituals of rural Ireland, Banville explores the great Irish city of Dublin, using it as a site for excavating and contemplating history and its movement. “When does the past become the past?” septuagenarian Banville asks while wandering the city, reflecting on his life.

Personal and national history intermingle in Banville’s genial ramblings around Dublin as he considers his youth and coming-of-age in Dublin’s Baggotonia neighborhood or discovers granite fragments of Nelson’s Pillar (blown up by the IRA in 1966) in the Pearse Street Public Library. Accentuated by Paul Joyce’s moody black-and-white photographs, Time Pieces has the feel of a valediction and farewell by a writer looking back on his passage through a particularly Irish time and place.

 

This article was originally published in the March 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Two recent memoirs by Irish writers explore the haunting presence of the past in Irish lives and communities. Although James Joyce’s literary avatar Stephen Dedalus declared history “a nightmare from which I am trying to awake,” the Irish are known for their infatuation with the past.

YA FictionYA

The highs and lows of young love

Feature by Hilli Levin

Stressing over school crushes and candy grams around Valentine’s Day are (unfortunately) just normal teen rites of passage, but wouldn’t getting lost in a book be a whole lot more fun? Check out two of our favorite new young adult romances that capture the spark of first love and explore the all-too-real challenges of growing up.

FALLING FOR YOUR NEMESIS
Laurie Devore (How to Break a Boy) has crafted yet another winning young adult romance with Winner Take All. Nell Becker is determined to graduate as the class valedictorian at Cedar Woods Prep. She’s feeling pretty salty about being the only solidly middle-class kid at a prep school filled to the brim with old money Southerners, but as she freely admits, she’s not here to be liked. She’s here to be the best at all times, and she would be if it wasn’t for the annoyingly handsome and effortlessly perfect Jackson Hart. For a while, it seems like all they can do is spit venom at one another, but I’m sure you can guess that an attraction slowly creeps up on the both of them.

Fans of 10 Things I Hate About You will find plenty of common ground here with the conflict between fiercely independent and outspoken feminist Nell and terminally chill Jackson, but Devore’s story has much sharper edges than the beloved ’90s confection. Never shying away from tough subjects like mental illness, parental pressure, difficult family life, the maddening gender disparities in schools, sexuality and class issues, Winner Take All nicely balances the thrill of young love with two difficult but believable protagonists.

BREAKING BARRIERS
Alvie just wants to live a normal life. But first, she’ll have to convince a judge and a few other people that she’s capable of living a normal life on her own. Alvie is a 17-year-old orphan who also happens to be autistic, but she’s determined to live on her own terms. She’s not a big fan of surprises or anything that goes against the routines that make her feel safe and secure, but that’s exactly what Stanley is—a surprise. When she meets this quirky college boy, Alvie is puzzled by his uncommon condition known as osteogenesis imperfecta. Stanley’s bones are unbelievably brittle, and he’s forced to use a cane for support, but Alvie finds comfort in his no-nonsense approach to living with a disability. 

Readers looking for a straightforward, sweet love story will want to pick up When My Heart Joins the Thousand, and although these two teens may be atypical, their slowly blossoming relationship will be instantly recognizable to any reader. 

Stressing over school crushes and candy grams around Valentine’s Day are (unfortunately) just normal teen rites of passage, but wouldn’t getting lost in a book be a whole lot better? Check out two of our favorite new young adult romances that capture the spark of first love along with the all-too-real challenges of growing up.
Romance

I have a head for business and a body for sin

Feature by Lois Dyer

We love the inherent escapism of billionaires and wealthy nobles who don’t have to work for a living as much as the next reader. But there’s also something to be said for romances where the leading lady has an extremely cool job. We might not want to be a daring professional gambler or an aspiring supersoldier in real life, but it’s thrilling and fascinating to experience their world for a couple hundred pages or so—with, of course, the requisite happily ever after. (We do, however, fantasize about being a librarian. Because every book-loving soul does.)

AN INFAMOUS WAGER
Regency romances often delight readers by featuring a passionate connection between a dangerous rake and a very proper lady. In My Once and Future Duke, Caroline Linden flips this classic setup when she pairs a female card shark with an uptight duke. Linden is a Harvard-educated mathematician and makes good use of her background to create her gifted heroine. The brilliant Sophie Campbell is an orphan with no prospects. Her goal is to save 10,000 pounds to ensure her independence. But if she is to ever have a chance at marriage, she must also maintain a pristine reputation and keep a low profile. She manages to do that as a member of the Vega Club, deftly fending off potential male advances while counting cards and calculating odds. Her careful balancing act between respectability and notoriety is threatened when Jack Lindeville, Duke of Ware, arrives at the club and finds her playing cards with his reckless brother. Jack never gambles and is incensed to find his brother incurring further debts even though he promised to stop spending time at the tables.

Since luring the lady gambler away would clearly irritate and remove temptation from his brother, Jack offers Sophie a wager she can’t refuse. Beat him at a game, and he’ll give her 5,000 pounds. Lose, and she has to stay at his country house for a week. The duke is a terrible gambler, so Sophie accepts the tempting wager, certain she cannot lose. But then she does.

In normal circumstances, it’s unlikely Jack and Sophie would ever cross paths. However, when these two wary, thoroughly engaging characters spend a week together, they discover that appearances can be deceiving. Beneath the trappings of their assigned places in society, they have far more in common than they ever expected, which surprises and delights them both. Their conversation is witty, sensitive and sometimes blunt, slicing deeper than the light comments normally deemed proper between a man and a woman in polite society. Unexpected revelations and confidences allow insights that result in an emotional connection even more powerful than the sexual tension that simmers between them.

WARRIOR WOMAN
There’s a great romance in Linda Howard’s latest novel, The Woman Left Behind, as well as a fascinating evolution as the heroine—sassy, gutsy Jina Modell—finds the strength to transform from office tech geek to elite soldier.

Jina loves her work in communications for a secretive D.C. paramilitary organization. So when she’s tapped to become part of a field team and use her skills to operate a drone on-site, she’s reluctant. Everyone, including the battle-weary, physically hardened team members and their leader, Levi, expects her to fail. Jina hates to sweat, she’s OK with having soft muscles, and she loves sitting in front of the TV. What Jina hates even more, however, is quitting. Much to everyone’s surprise, she not only survives the insanely rigorous physical training but also thrives. Six months later, she’s out in the field with the guys and getting shot at by enemies in riveting, realistic action scenes.

Gaining acceptance by the team takes effort but isn’t nearly as hard as hiding her attraction to Levi. It’s forbidden to fraternize within the team, but Levi feels the same irresistible pull. Both characters are stubborn, brave and scrupulously avoiding any acknowledgment of their feelings. With dialogue that’s often bluntly hilarious, each conversation they share is fraught with underlying sexual tension and rich with growing affection.

SWIPE RIGHT
The heroine in Stefanie London’s Bad Bachelor is the fabulously nonconformist Brooklynite librarian Darcy Greer. She’s obviously passionate about books, but is equally passionate about her tattoos and comfortable Doc Martens. She knows she’s the complete opposite of the glamorous women eligible Manhattan bachelor Reed McMahon dates. Nevertheless, she finds herself equal parts annoyed and drawn to him, even though a notorious dating app has labeled him the worst bachelor in New York City. But each time Darcy starts believing he’s nothing but a coldhearted womanizer, she catches glimpses of a good man beneath his smooth, cynical exterior. Unfortunately for her peace of mind, she can’t avoid Reed because his pro-bono project for the year is her beloved library. She tells herself she has to suck it up and endure his company because the library needs his PR expertise.

Reed finds Darcy’s prickly attitude an unexpected turn-on and thinks her blunt, snarky comments are endlessly amusing. It’s a treat to watch Darcy zap Reed’s man-about-town persona with dry barbs and equally fun to see Reed blast away Darcy’s emotional shields with unabashed flirtation and humor.

 

Lois Dyer writes from her home in Port Orchard, Washington.

We love the inherent escapism of billionaires and wealthy nobles who don’t have to work for a living as much as the next reader. But there’s also something to be said for romances where the leading lady has an extremely cool job.

Children's & YAPicture Book

New picture books celebrate female firsts

Feature by Julie Hale

March is a time for paying tribute to the pioneering heroines who paved the way for the generations of women after them. Three new biographies for young readers will introduce three extraordinary ladies who made lasting contributions in science and math.

SNAKE CHARMER
With a title that’s hard to top, Joan Procter, Dragon Doctor: The Woman Who Loved Reptiles, by Patricia Valdez, is sure to intrigue little readers. As a girl in London during the early 1900s, Procter entertained an unorthodox fondness for snakes, lizards and turtles, which she studied with keen enthusiasm. Well-suited for a career in science, she eventually became curator of the Reptile House at the London Zoo—the first woman to hold the position. Asked to redesign the Reptile House, Procter created a cutting-edge enclosure with light and heat, along with plants similar to those found in the creatures’ native environments. Her career took off when two Komodo dragons—seven-foot-long lizards, one of whom Procter befriended—are brought to the zoo, attracting worldwide attention. Felicita Sala’s soft, colorful illustrations bring the story of Procter and her cherished reptiles to vivid life. There’s plenty to love about this playful biography of a trailblazing zoologist.

A KNACK FOR NUMBERS
Tanya Lee Stone chronicles the remarkable career of a 19th-century math whiz in Who Says Women Can’t Be Computer Programmers? The Story of Ada Lovelace. The daughter of poet Lord Byron, who deserted the family early on, young Ada was raised in Kent, England, by the strict Lady Byron. In an effort to curb any capriciousness her daughter might have inherited from her flighty father, Lady Byron made sure Ada received a first-rate education with an emphasis on mathematics. But there was no denying Ada’s creative side—she longed to design a pair of wings or a horse-shaped flying machine. When Ada met inventor Charles Babbage and assisted him with his calculating device, the Analytical Engine, she wrote what’s considered to be the first computer program. Stone’s story of how she comes into her own as a mathematician features whimsical illustrations by the incomparable Marjorie Priceman. Inspiring from start to finish.

MAKING HISTORY IN THE LAB
Demi provides a fact-filled yet accessible biography of a groundbreaking female physicist in Marie Curie. Born in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, Marie—called Manya by her family—was an eager student who was captivated by her physics-teacher father’s scientific instruments. But she experienced her share of hardships and made the best of it after the deaths of her mother and sister. Given the opportunity to study in Paris, Marie attended the Sorbonne and graduated at the top of her class with degrees in physics and math. While in Paris, she also met and married like-minded scientist Pierre Curie. In the midst of raising children and keeping house, she conducted important research with Pierre involving radiation. The hard work paid off when the pair received the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. The first woman to receive the award, Marie had a history-making career. Demi’s luminous, finely detailed illustrations enliven this fascinating tale of a rare genius.

March is a time for paying tribute to the pioneering heroines who paved the way for the generations of women after them. Three new biographies for young readers will introduce three extraordinary ladies who made lasting contributions in science and math.

FictionFamily Drama

Neighborhood drama: Suburban lives at stake

Feature by Carla Jean Whitley

Neighborhoods can become cities within cities, providing their residents with the sort of community that human beings crave. But proximity combined with intimacy can mean vulnerability. In new novels by Anna Quindlen and Abbi Waxman, two women are shaken to their core by the real-life dramas that play out on their streets. Each book is set in one of the nation’s largest cities but centers on a single neighborhood block. The lives that intersect in those spaces become a microcosm of interpersonal complications.

In Quindlen’s Alternate Side, Nora Nolan is frustrated by her husband’s obsession with his newly acquired parking spot. It’s a hot commodity on their New York City dead-end street, and it means a break from the alternate-side parking that is the bane of so many New Yorkers’ existence. But it also means Charlie is now tight with some of the street’s most grating characters, especially busybody George. The way he patrols the parking lot and the neighbors’ business, you would think George owned the place, rather than a mere unit. Then there’s Jack, the man who doesn’t offer any kindness when talking to the neighborhood handyman. They seem like mere annoyances until an incident forces everyone to re-examine what they know about truth and their neighbors.

Waxman’s Other People’s Houses is set on the opposite coast, but her characters have much in common with those in Quindlen’s novel. Four families in Los Angeles’ Larchmont neighborhood are tied together by carpool, if not friendship. Frances Bloom volunteers to run the neighbors’ children to school along with her own three. She’s a stay-at-home mom, after all, so why shouldn’t she take the responsibility off the other parents’ shoulders? The neighborhood learns the answer the hard way when Frances walks in on a neighbor in the throes of an affair.

In both novels, surprising incidents begin the unraveling process of friendships and other relationships. It doesn’t matter whether an individual was involved in the incident; each person begins to examine his or her own place on the block and relationship to the people in their own households.

Quindlen is well established as a documenter of life’s personal moments, with several bestselling novels and a Pulitzer Prize for commentary to her credit. Waxman’s effort, on the other hand, is her sophomore release and a strong follow-up to her debut, The Garden of Small Beginnings. Both Quindlen and Waxman show they are adept at fleshing out the fine details that comprise a life, and leave readers reflecting on the intimacy and risk of finding your community within a larger land.

Neighborhoods can become cities within cities, providing their residents with the sort of community that human beings crave. But proximity combined with intimacy can mean vulnerability. In new novels by Anna Quindlen and Abbi Waxman, two women are shaken to their core by the real-life dramas that play out on their streets. Each book is set in one of the nation’s largest cities but centers on a single neighborhood block. The lives that intersect in those spaces become a microcosm of interpersonal complications.

Science Fiction & FantasyFiction

The play’s the thing

Feature by Gerry Paige Smith

Two new adaptations of King Lear and Macbeth revisit the Bard’s vision of power and its corruptibility, drawing deeply from the well of his obsession with greed and ambition.

Tessa Gratton’s The Queens of Innis Lear mines a magical landscape tortured by madness, while Macbeth by Jo Nesbø casts its namesake character in a 1970s Scottish noir.

The Queens of Innis Lear turns Shakespeare’s tragedy into a sweeping fantasy that pulls back the curtain on a family soaked in bloody conflict. When the king of Innis Lear turns away from the island’s traditional earth magic and forces his kingdom to rely on star prophecy, the splintering of his family begins. But it is the king’s descent into dementia that creates a climate ripe for betrayal and sows the seeds of discord between his three daughters.

Elia, the youngest and most devoted daughter, is shunned and exiled by her father when she refuses to proclaim her love for him. When Lear’s warrior daughter Gaela joins forces with her cunning sister Regan to claim the throne, the stage is set for war. Moving among them is Elia’s childhood friend, the scorned bastard Ban, whose loyalty shifts between the players with deadly precision.

Gratton’s literary landscape is lush and full of unique magical elements. The trees, winds and waters of Innis Lear whisper to the inhabitants of the island, especially those who refuse to respect the prophecies of the stars. This beautiful retelling of King Lear probes the nature of madness and power within a stunning new fantasy world.

Set in the gritty industrial wasteland of the Scottish coast, Nesbø’s Macbeth turns “the Scottish play”—Shakespeare’s definitive exposition on the thirst for power—into a violent police procedural. Duncan is a visionary chief of police poised to bring down both a notorious biker gang and the mysterious drug lord Hecate. Aided by SWAT team leader Macbeth and Narcotic Unit leader Duff, Duncan plans to eradicate the drug trade. But Macbeth falls under the spell of his paramour, Lady, as she whispers of his potential for advancement. Lady’s stratagems play into Hecate’s plans to gain a puppet within law enforcement. As Macbeth’s star ascends through murder and mayhem, he descends further into madness.

The latest in the Hogarth Shakespeare series, in which acclaimed authors put their own spin on Shakespeare’s works, Macbeth perfectly pairs a modern master of crime fiction with Shakespeare’s bloody tragedy. While retaining most of the original character names from Macbeth, Nesbø masterfully crafts fully fleshed players from each original role to present a visceral, contemporary exploration of ambition and corruption.

From the mists of a mystical isle to the grime of a decaying city, Gratton and Nesbø retell two of the Bard’s best-known plays with refreshing vision and respect for the original tales. The Queens of Innis Lear and Macbeth are wonderful returns to the works of Shakespeare.

 

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Two new adaptations of King Lear and Macbeth revisit the Bard’s vision of power and its corruptibility, drawing deeply from the well of his obsession with greed and ambition.

NonfictionMemoirBiography

The men behind the curtain

Feature by Priscilla Kipp

In the 1946 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun, Ethel Merman famously belted out, “There’s no business like show business.” Music theater legends Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber would no doubt agree.

Rodgers and Hammerstein transformed the world of sound and stage, lighting up Broadway with one legendary success after another—think Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific and The Sound of Music—and doing their lyrical, tuneful best to revolutionize musicals in the 1940s and 1950s. Villainy, tragedy and romance colored their productions, creating a new mix of sentiment and gravitas, studded with catchy, memorable tunes and innovative melodies.

Come backstage in Todd S. Purdum’s Something Wonderful as he introduces the musical stars and up-and-comers of the day—Mary Martin, Yul Brynner, Julie Andrews and Gene Kelly, to name a few. Become part of the Big Black Giant (show business’s apt moniker for the audience) and live the drama of opening nights, when anything could happen—and often did, from train wrecks to triumphant debuts. Discover the complexities of the duo’s very different personalities and their decades-long partnership, all tied into the entangling business of Broadway. It’s all here in Purdum’s book. From describing the real-life moment that inspired “Some Enchanted Evening” to detailing the drafts for “Edelweiss,” Purdum has produced Something Wonderful indeed.

The iconic composer Andrew Lloyd Webber celebrates his 70th birthday with the publication of his memoir, Unmasked. Filled with wit, self-deprecating humor and dollops of gossip, Lloyd Webber chronicles his decades of work in musical theater. The prolific composer (Evita, Cats, Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard, among others) claims Richard Rodgers as his hero, and like him, Lloyd Webber has become rich, famous, controversial and revered. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1992, he has earned seven Tonys, three Grammys, a Golden Globe and an Oscar.

Lloyd Weber goes behind the scenes during a time when the Beatles were changing 1960s London and the song “MacArthur Park” by Richard Harris first fused rock with orchestral music. Lloyd Webber ran with the idea of applying this new sound to a musical, while friend and lyricist Tim Rice took his story material from the Bible. Together they created Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. While some critics were agog at such seeming irreverence, audiences loved the sound and lined up for the shows.

“Even if I haven’t got near to writing ‘Some Enchanted Evening,’” Lloyd Webber modestly concludes, “I hope I’ve given a few people some reasonably OK ones. I’d like to give them some more.” Wouldn’t that be something wonderful?

 

This article was originally published in the April 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In the 1946 Broadway production of Annie Get Your Gun, Ethel Merman famously belted out, “There’s no business like show business.” Music theater legends Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers and Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber would no doubt agree.

RomanceWestern Romance

Two cowboys, with a twist

Feature by Elizabeth Mazer

There’s nothing quite like a cowboy—all strength and competence, dedication and honor wrapped up a long, lean package and topped with a Stetson. These two new stories feature cowboy heroes who check every box, then throw in something a little extra.

Lori Wilde’s How the Cowboy Was Won returns to her well-loved town of Cupid, Texas, where Ranger Lockhart, a cowboy of good fortune, is very obviously in need of a wife. At least, this much is obvious to his lifelong best friend, the delightful and spirited Ember Alzate, who takes pride in her reputation as a local matchmaker. When Ranger comes home to chase a job opportunity, Ember’s resolved to do whatever it takes to make sure he stays in Cupid for good. If that means finding him the perfect wife, then Ember’s up to the task. Little does she know that Ranger has already decided exactly who he wants by his side, and he’ll do whatever it takes to convince his stubborn best friend that she’s the only woman who belongs in his arms.

If you think this premise sounds Austen-esque, you’re right—it’s a Western homage to Jane Austen’s Emma. Wilde turns that mannered Regency romance into a story bursting with energy and vitality that loses none of the charm of the original. Ember and Ranger are bolder, sexier and worldlier than Emma and Mr. Knightly, with Ember especially having experienced more love, loss and failure than Austen’s sheltered heroine, which adds to the richness of the story. Ember and Ranger are flawed, awkward and thoroughly engaging characters on a hilarious journey to their happily ever after. How the Cowboy Was Won is as light and effervescent as a glass of champagne, sweet and sparkling with humor and warmth.

By contrast, Hero’s Return by B.J. Daniels is a tumbler of scotch—layered, smoky and complex. Tucker Cahill fled his Montana home 19 years ago with no explanation to his friends and family. After hearing the news that an unidentified woman’s body has been found, Tucker decides to finally return to the town and face his past. The secret of Tucker's connection to the crime scene is a twisted web that only gets more tangled as the story progresses. He teams up with Kate Rothschild, a well-bred beauty who fought against her family’s expectations to come to the same small town and get closure on her own personal tragedy.

Despite the darkness of the premise, Tucker is every bit the hero that the title promises—principled and honorable, with a determination to find answers that’s balanced by empathy and compassion. The bullheaded Kate, who takes no prisoners in her fierce drive to get to the truth, brings out his protective side. Their deepening connection and slow slide into love play out beautifully against the twisted backdrop of an investigation that reveals new, deadly angles at every turn. Hero’s Return is a page-turner that will have you fighting the urge to flip ahead and see how it all ends. And while the conclusion is very satisfying, it also carries hints that will leave you waiting eagerly for Daniels’ upcoming return to the Cahill Ranch for this family’s next adventure.

There’s nothing quite like a cowboy—all strength and competence, dedication and honor—wrapped up a long, lean package and topped with a Stetson. These two new stories feature cowboy heroes who check every box, then throw in something a little extra.

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