If you have read Tony Hillerman you know the legends and folktales about immortal beings living in the Sacred Mountains that surround the Dine'tah (Navajo reservation). Those same mountains protected the parched desert that is now the Dine'tah when the apocalypse drowned most of the world with the “Big Water.” And, after the Energy Wars there wasn't enough fuel to maintain the lifestyle we enjoy now. The world lay fallow and empty without an apology from anyone. These are dystopian tales.
“A kid in the newsroom” is the subtitle of Carl Bernstein's new book, a memoir of his start in journalism. Chasing History (Thorndike Press, ISBN- 13: 978-4328-9865-6) is Bernstein's account of his own history during a most interesting time in our country's historically turbulent 1950s and early ‘60s.
This past June, I was sponsored to attend a government camp called Buckeye Girls State. As nerdy as it may sound, my experience at Buckeye Girls State was very fun and exciting. I made wonderful friends, and I learned many things about state and local government. I believe this knowledge is important.
I have read and reviewed more of Chris Bohjalian's books than any other author. Midwives, The Flight Attendant, The Plot, The Night Strangers, The Guest Room, and Hour of the Witch, just to name a few. Why? Because he's an excellent writer.
And he doesn't disappoint with his latest work, The Lioness (Doubleday, ISBN: 978-03855-4482-5).
What hasn't been written about Nikola Tesla in the past century? Books and documentaries abound around the genius of the inventor, and even Marc J. Seifer, the writer of this non-fiction tome had published a previous book in 1999, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. But this book, Wizard at War (Kensington Publishing Corp. ISBN 978-8065-4096-2) to be released at the end of August 2022, takes on a narrower subject, as it chronicles the inventions that interested the military of more than one country.
Occasionally a book comes along that captures and holds my interest until it's finished. Whether it is story or plot or writing skill, I'm pulled in and all other activities I'm doing fade away because I'm hooked into the book.
Booth (Random House, ISBN 978-0-593-55649-8) is Karen Joy Fowler's 2022 release, and her second novel. (Her first novel is We are All Completely Besides Ourselves). The well-written story is a meticulous glimpse into the past before Abraham Lincoln was killed in cold blood by John Wilkes Booth.
