THE LIGHT THROUGH THE LEAVES BY GLENDY VANDERAH, Lake Union Publishing, 2021 – Here’s a story about one of the more chilling parental nightmares – a baby abduction. Ellis has just seen her husband with another woman. She takes her children to a forested park area where her twins begin fighting and she’s so distraught …
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Operation Angus by Terry Fallis, McClelland & Stewart, 2021 – Although this is my first foray into the Fallis’ opus, Operation Angus is the third story involving an unlikely set of characters. Angus McLintock is the Member of Parliament for Cumberland-Prescott, Minister of State for International Relations and a former professor of mechanical engineering. The …
The White Ship by Charles Spencer, William Collins Publishing, 2020 – Even if you slumbered through your English history lessons, you might vaguely remember 1066 as the momentous year when the Normans under William the Conqueror squashed the Anglo-Saxons at the battle of Hastings and took control of the country. The next date to jog …
All Systems Red by Martha Wells – Doherty Assoc. publishing 2017 - Take a standard old school sci-fi setting and add robots that have human components. If you remember the Asimov ‘rules’ about robots, you’ll be expecting something in the circuitry that prevents them from running amok and killing all the ‘lesser’ beings that cross …
Hounded by Kevin Nearne (The Iron Druid Chronicles), Del Ray, 2011 - I am now nearing the end of my Christmas gift reading and have drifted back into the third of my DDD’s fantasy book gifts. It’s interesting to compare older fantasy to the contemporary scene. Older fantasy classics often had ‘normal’ people encountering magical …
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot, Random House 2010 - It’s odd how the differences between one’s children manifest themselves. Each Christmas, for instance, I receive books from my DDD (dearest darling daughter) and my NOS (number one son). My DDD is attracted to fiction, especially fantasy, while my NOS is clearly …
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – Bloomsbury publishing, 2020 - Piranesi is the second in my Dearest Darling Daughter’s (DDD) choices, and by far the oddest and most interesting of the Christmas gift books this year. CBS says it’s ‘Destined to become a work of classic fantasy’ and it was given glowing praise by sources as …
The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee – Scribners, 2010 - For those who prefer non-fiction, this book is a winner. Described as a ‘biography of cancer’ it is, indeed, a history of the disease and a chronicle of those who have worked to cure the world of this scourge. References to the disease …
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri, Ballantine Books, 2020 - Ms. Lefteri is currently a lecturer in creative writing at Brunel University in the UK. Her parents fled Cyprus during the 1974 Turkish invasion of the island and, during a period in 2016, she became a volunteer worker at a UNICEF-supported refugee center in …
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, Orbit books, 2015 (Winner of the 2016 Hugo Award) Yes, I’m now at the point where I have actually started to read the books given to me for Christmas by my DDD (Dearest Darling Daughter). DDD is an admirer of fantasy fiction and I’ve had many enjoyable hours reading …
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