(This week I want to welcome some new subscribers. Some of you signed on during one of my online list-building events. Others I have met personally. I mostly review books on this site, but I also use it for news involving my own works. I hope you enjoy these emails.…

Today I'd like to introduce Amy Vansant, author and businesswoman. Amy is the owner of AuthorsXP, an inexpensive and reliable service that helps authors connect with readers. Amy’s service is endorsed by the Alliance of Independent Authors. I have used her options several times in my own book publishing. Amy…

NOTE: Beginning today I have added my Mailchimp subscribers to my weekly blog list. I usually post book reviews on this site every Friday. If you're surprised to be getting this email, that's the reason. I hope to be adding other features to this site as time goes by. I…

Many books describe the problems of people with disabilities. Many others tell other people how to cope with them. Mark Haddon’s novel suggests what it’s like to be such a person. In The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Christopher Francis Boone compensates for his autism by solving…

One of the pleasures of reading is the surprise of discovering a new author. New to yourself, that is. Melanie Dobson was writing books long before I discovered The Winter Rose, a novel I chose randomly from a used bookstore. Hopping back and forth between the past and present, The…

Erik Larson has taken a risk in writing a book about Winston Churchill, already the subject of many biographies. In drawing on the diaries and correspondence of family members, personal aides and ministers, he sketches a gripping chronology of the Prime Minister’s first year in office, when Germany seemed poised…

Though I am not a fan of historical fiction, I cannot help admiring a novelist who backs up her narration with painstaking research. In Her Hidden Genius, Marie Benedict pays tribute to a forgotten scientist whose work laid the foundations of DNA research in post-War England. From the mid-1940s to the…

Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook contains all the ingredients of a good spy novel: dark secrets, furtive meetings, shadowy characters, perils and betrayals. But author Celia Rees blends in extras: coded messages hidden in food recipes, plus a haunting portrait of post-war Germany with its starving survivors, homeless refugees, and…

If Alice Feeney were an architect instead of a novelist, her buildings would be admirable for their craftsmanship. In Rock Paper Scissors, she has designed a three-story tale of a crumbling marriage. It combines suspense, a tangled love story, and philosophical musings that keep the reader involved all the way. Adam…

Daniel Alarcón’s novel is reminiscent of the movies Capote and Citizen Kane. In each case, the narrator is part of the story.  In a tantalizing extra twist, Alarcón conceals the narrator’s identity until late in the novel, as he pieces together witness accounts of this mournful saga of three actors…