Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
Will’s Race for Home: A Western by Jewell Parker Rhodes (Little, Brown and Company for Young Readers, 2025) captures the excitement of the Kansas land rush in 1889 from the perspective of a young Black boy and his father. Sharecropping in Texas doesn’t feel any different from slavery for the family, so now Will and
Our titular hero in Sylvester (Or, The Wicked Uncle) by Georgette Heyer (published 1957) has only one flaw: his monstrously large and memorable eyebrows. So although he’s a wealthy and kind gentleman and a caring uncle to his deceased twin’s son, it’s unfortunate that Phoebe Marlow used his most distinctive feature as the defining characteristic
If The Nonesuch in Georgette Heyer’s novel (reviewed here) introduced the perfect Regency era love interest, than the scandalous Lord Damerel in Venetia (published 1958) represents the least virtuous. Venetia Lanyon is the 25-year-old beauty who has always lived in Yorkshire, and her sensibility means she will never marry the boring suitors from her neighborhood:
The Undaunted by Gerald Lund (published 2009) was a fun historical novel to read. It ostensibly was about the Mormon pioneers in 1879, when they migrated from one part of Southern Utah to another. They went to the Four Corners are of Utah (San Juan) that is mostly rock, such as the rocky terrain at
Between the Testaments: From Malachi to Matthew by Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Kent S. Brown (published 2002) is an overview of the changing Jewish traditions and events from 600 B.C. to the life of Jesus Christ. It detailed the history of Jews returning to the homeland from Babylon after the exile and the varying degrees of
The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer (published in 1962) features a “nearly perfect” gentleman as the main romantic catch. That title, “Nonesuch,” refers to someone who is athletically successful (also called a Corinthian), good at a variety of things, comports himself admiringly, and is generally the best one, the guy everyone looks up to. The female
What if Elizabeth Bennett accepted Mr. Darcy’s first proposal? This is what author Lara S. Ormiston asks in Unequal Affections: A Pride and Prejudice Retelling (published 2013). The story of this Elizabeth Bennett begins immediately after Mr. Darcy finishes saying his proposal, which, as any readers of Pride and Prejudice know, had offended the original
Washington: The Indispensable Man by James Flexner (published 1974) is a one-volume abridgement to Flexner’s comprehensive four-volume biography about our first president. I did not find this volume wanting in anyway, and I found both the writing and the content to be straight-forward and relevant as I learned about Washington’s life. The stories in Flexner’s
The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See (Scribner, 2019) is the story of questioning fate tied into friendship, war, survival, betrayal, and ultimately forgiveness. Two girls from different backgrounds, Mi-ja and Young-sook, become friends in the 1930s, and their friendship story alternates between their growing-up years and 2008 “modern-day” Young-sook, who is a bitter
The titular character in Vaino: A Boy of New Finland by Julia Davis Adams (published 1929) faces war as his country declares independence from Russia, which is in the midst of a revolution itself. With his cleverness, Vaino is helpful to both his mother and his older siblings as they join the rebels (“Whites”) from
Because of inheritance law, Major Hugh Darracott is now the heir of the Darracott home in The Unknown Ajax by Georgette Heyer (published 1959), even though his domineering grandfather Lord Darracott has never met him. After the recent death of his oldest son and oldest grandson, now Lord Darracott must invite this unknown grandson into
Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman (Simon & Schuster for Young Readers, 2018) is futuristic dystopian young adult novel, but it portrays what could be real life in the Western United States. Water becomes a scarce commodity in California when neighboring states turn off access to their water reserves. When the “Tap-Out” begins, the whole
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