Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang
by Kate Wilhelm
Gateway/Hachette
This is brilliantly written and thus terrifying. The ecological disaster is too close for comfort and you need only substitute AI for cloning to be genuinely frightened. Still, the characters are very well drawn and it does end with hope. It was written in 1976!
If you would like to know more about, or own any of these books, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Edwidge Danticat
Knopf/PRH
A Haitian mother living in Miami is in a mall when a mass shooting occurs. It takes her several days to be able to tell anyone that she experienced this. In Haiti, her parents have a sudden medical emergency and come to her home as soon as they can travel. The wounded family comes together to find strength but the reality of never returning to Haiti is very hard to accept. This is beautifully written and so sad.
It is very hard to read without thinking of the fear, pain and confusion of the Haitians that the U.S. President is forcing to return to a very dangerous place.
If you would like to know more about, or own these books, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Katherine Rundell
Knopf Books for Young Readers
If you haven't read the first two in this series, do go back to Impossible Creatures and The Poisoned King. Every part of this series is amazing, but it does help to start at the beginning. Glimouria is a world not like our own - peopled with amazing, strange and sometimes deadly creatures - but with many of the same needs - friendships, family, trust and bravery.
This is listed for ages 10 and up but it is a great place for us "up"s to avoid our world and imagine how it could be.
If you would like to know more about, or own these books, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Tim Sullivan
Atlantic Crime/IPG
Sullivan's George Cross series keeps getting better. This one does make you realize that most people don't think what the lives of our religious people might've been before they took the cloth. In Brother Dominic's case, his past was unfortunate, to say the least.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
by Ben Macintyre
Crown/PRH
This is a fast-paced true tale of spies and the world they live in. The people become very real and the danger is palpable. For anyone who enjoys espionage and/or Slough Horses.
If you would like to know more about, or own this book, please check with your local independent bookstore or this great place: bookshop.org.
