Category: Book Review

James J. Johnston’s Mountain Feds: Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Society

If you’re a Civil War buff like me, you probably already know that the war itself in Arkansas is largely overlooked in the conflict’s historiography. The Trans-Mississippi Theater is usually overshadowed by what was going on in the east, and even within that realm, Missouri has always gotten far more attention than Arkansas. In this book, Arkansas historian and Searcy County native James J. Johnston covers a facet of Ozarks Arkansas Civil War history that’s typically ignored even more than the state already is–Arkansas Unionists and the Peace Societies they established. I’ve been meaning to read this book since it was first released in 2019. Thanks so much to Julie for ordering it and adding it to our Arkansas collection!

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Book Buzz: Contemporary Gothic Suspense, Historical Fiction, Northwoods Fiction, Nature Reads, Canning, and Audiobook Office Suspense

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For May, we’re looking at a gothic tale complete with atmospheric mansion and family secrets, historical fiction with settings that range from the construction of the Panama Canal to WWII, contemporary fiction set in rural Wisconsin, nonfiction about trees and the animal kingdom, a guide to canning, and an audiobook about an office cleaner.

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Vanessa Chan’s The Storm We Made

In Malaysia in 1945, near the end of World War II, the Alcantara family is barely hanging on. Matriarch Cecily’s husband Gordon is a shell of his former self, while their beloved teen-aged son Abel has disappeared. Their daughter Jujube tries to maintain some semblance of normality as she works serving occupying Japanese soldiers in a teahouse, while the baby of the family, Jasmin, spends her days hiding in the basement. Cecily herself harbors a secret she desperately hopes her family never discovers–she helped usher in this invasion by working as a spy for Japanese General Fujiwara a decade earlier. Cecily had been lulled in by his pan-Asian message and the hope of overthrowing the colonizing British, but that’s not quite how things panned out.

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Book Buzz: Literary Classics Reimagined, Historical Legal Wrangling, Collaborative Fiction, Space Operas, Van Living, and Audiobook Suspense

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For April, we’re looking at an acclaimed new take on the story of Huckleberry Finn, historical fiction about a famous 19th century British trial, a collaborative effort between some of today’s most famous writers, a new series that melds the genres of science fiction and espionage thriller, a guide to living the van life, and two very different suspense novels on audiobook, one with a historical setting while the other is extremely contemporary.

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Book Buzz: Literary Puzzles, Westerns, Espionage Thrillers, Morbid Memoirs, and Suspenseful Audiobooks

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For March, we’re looking at a fiendishly difficult book puzzle, two Westerns based on real-life events, a spy novel, a memoir about being a death investigator for Manhattan’s Medical Examiner office, and a literary suspense audiobook.

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Book Buzz: Literary Historical Fiction, Magical Realism Family Sagas, Montana Romance, Cozy Mysteries, French Cuisine, and Naval Adventure

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For February, we’re looking at historical fiction set in World War I, two very different magical realism stories about cross-generational family sagas, a new romance series set in Montana, a new cozy series starring an amateur detective maid at a hotel, a classic cookbook, and an audiobook that blends contemporary naval action and romance.

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Paulette Jiles’s Chenneville

When John Chenneville comes to in a hospital bed in Virginia a few months after the end of the Civil War, his memories are shadowy and half-formed. Everything from his service in the Union Army to his happy childhood in an old French family outside of St. Louis comes back to him in pieces. Upon returning home to Missouri, he learns that his beloved younger sister and her family were murdered, which triggers a quest for vengeance that takes him from St. Louis to modern-day Oklahoma and then Texas in this excellent, haunting historical novel/literary Western.

I’ve been an avid Paulette Jiles reader ever since a stranger came up to me at Books in Bloom and highly recommended Enemy Women to me. I’ve been hooked on Jiles’s work ever since and keep an eye out for her newer releases. (A special thank you to Julie for ordering this book and adding it to the collection!) A Missouri Ozarks native who spent years in Canada and now lives in Texas and was an accomplished poet and memoirist before becoming a novelist, Jiles has a keen ear for language and an equally astute eye for observation. She excels at writing complex but likable and engaging characters, evocative historical settings, and elegantly lyrical but readable prose.

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Book Buzz: Fiction Extravaganza

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For January, we’re looking at historical fiction set in 18th century colonial India and 1950s North Carolina, Viking fantasy, lots of horror, suspense about a party gone very wrong, and audiobooks galore. Since last month was all nonfiction, this month it is all fiction!

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Book Buzz: Nonfiction Extravaganza

Every month, we’re profiling new-ish releases that are getting critical and commercial buzz. For December, we’re looking at travel-themed memoirs, new cookbooks, history (both American and ancient), heartwarming pet stories, and adventure gone wrong. We have lots of holiday-themed books and movies too, but if you’re looking for a change of pace from that, well, this post is for you!

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Max Miller’s Tasting History

Max Miller rocketed to fame in the early days of the pandemic because his relatively new YouTube channel Tasting History about food and history was well-made and interesting. And since he had been furloughed from his job, he didn’t have anything else to do but make videos about things like how to make your own Roman-style garum at a time when a lot of other people had plenty of free time to watch videos on how to make garum. It took off so much that he ended up quitting his job and getting a cookbook published from Simon and Schuster. Not bad for someone who started making YouTube videos as a hobby at the urging of his friends, whom he jokingly suspects of doing so just because they wanted him to offload his food history trivia on strangers rather than them.

I’ve been a Tasting History fan for a couple of years now and eagerly awaited the release of the book. I was not disappointed. Thanks so much to Julie for purchasing a copy for the library and my brother for buying me a personal copy for my birthday! 🙂

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