More than four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare is still as relevant today as is Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yet, we still don’t know much about his personal and family life except that at age 18 he married 26 year old Anne (AKA Agnes) Hathaway and that their first daughter Susannah was born six months…
Sometimes I hear people remark that they wish they were living in a simpler, kinder time, like the 1950s. Connie Schultz’s debut novel, The Daughters of Erietown, reminds readers that those days weren’t always so happy and innocent. This family saga centers on the McGinty family and how their lives evolve while living in Erietown,…
As the national conversation begins to address longstanding issues of systemic racism, it has become clear that for some, inequality and injustice are a daily reality, while others are only beginning to learn about these issues. This troubled period, however, is also a time of possibility – it provides a spark for real and lasting…
I often talk about literary catnip — those elements of a story’s plot, premise, or setting that I just can’t resist, like Sherlock Holmes retellings, librarian protagonists, or quirky cafes. Another favorite: Chicago private detectives. Give me a gritty, down-on-their-luck, good-hearted detective who works in the city I love, and I am SOLD. That being…
Elisabeth Thomas’s Catherine House follows Ines through her years at the illustrious and mysterious Catherine House, an elite college tucked away in the woods of Pennsylvania where students are unable to bring any of their personal belongings or leave during their 3-year stay. Despite the acclaim and impressive alumni list, due to these unusual practices,…
“You can escape a town, but you cannot escape blood. Somehow, the Vignes twins believed themselves capable of both.” The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett The 16 year-old Vignes twins disappeared from their small Louisiana town in the night after the Founders Day Dance in 1954, and Brit Bennet’s brilliant new book The Vanishing Half…
During times of national crisis, we often look to our leaders for guidance and reassurance. Perhaps that is why, during these uncertain times, I was compelled to read two recently-published books about wartime leaders who, though very different in personality and upbringing, were both cognizant of their responsibility to the people they represented, and extremely…
Casey Peabody did not expect adulthood to be like this: she did not expect to be drowning in student debt or waiting tables at a pretentious Boston-area restaurant at the age of thirty-one. She did not expect to be living in a moldering garden shed -- and paying rent for the privilege. She did not…
On a February day in West Texas in 1976, 14 year old Gloria Ramirez is brutally raped and left for dead in an oil patch. Dazed and shoeless, she bravely makes her way to the nearest ranch house, where Mary Rose Whitehead and her young daughter Aimee come to Gloria's aid. When oil rigger Dale…
“After the final no there comes a yes, and on that yes the future world depends.” Walter Stevens Recently retired Antonia Vega had loved her life as an English professor and was looking forward to enjoying some rest and travel until her beloved husband died unexpectedly in a car accident not far from their…
