And don't miss the conclusion to Gabrielle Mathieu’s wonderful Falcon Trilogy, The Falcon Soars, released just this month! After causing the death of her lover and bringing the wrath of the IRA down on her family, Peppa Mueller is determined to redeem herself, even if it means suppressing her falcon totem. But past enemies are looking for her. ​ Her promising neurosurgery career is interrupted by an assassination attempt. Then the one friend she’s always counted on is called

Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me (Spiegel & Grau, 2015) In these times of racial strife, when our divided nation sees Kanye West draw widespread condemnation for his controversial views, Kendrick Lamar win the Pulitzer Prize for music, and Trayvon Martin become a household name, this book is a must-read. Much as Hillbilly Elegy by J. D. Vance tore open the curtain on a “culture in crisis” and clarified to me and educated me on the concerns and values of a group of p

Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove (Washington Square Press, 2015) A totally lovable book is A Man Called Ove—deceptive in its simplicity, complex in the emotions it explores, and masterfully written. We have all met an Ove, a person unwavering in his values, wedded to his view of the world and his profound disappointment in the human race. An entire neighborhood of oddball characters constantly interfere with Ove’s many determined suicide attempts following the loss of his gr

In addition to these great reads, don’t miss our own Claudia H. Long’s Chains of Silver, released just last week. You can find out more about that novel here. Damian Dibben, Tomorrow (Hanover Square Press, 2018) In 1688, a devoted hound receives from his master the command to stay at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice until he returns. And the dog does—for 127 years. His master, an alchemist who has discovered the secret of immortality, has applied it not only to himself and his

Nadia Hashimi, A House without Windows (William Morrow, 2016) This is an exquisite tale of a despicable crime and the women who committed it. But such bitter irony! To read about the clash in Afghanistan between traditional justice built on rumor, blame, sorcery, opinion, and bribery, forever stacked against women, as it meets a rewritten justice system based on law, reason, fairness, objectivity, facts, and information—while in America, traditional justice and the rules of l

You can see how we members of Five Directions Press spent our holidays: reading! Lots of heavy-hitters on this month’s list, and yes, it’s a complete coincidence that two Five Directions Press authors picked books by Jennifer Egan. It happens sometimes. But don’t ignore the last entry, which is also lovely and by an independent author. And take a look at our own recent release, C. P. Lesley’s The Vermilion Bird. You can hear or read an excerpt of the last book here. Bernard C

Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, Last Christmas in Paris (William Morrow, 2017) We first meet Thomas Harding in 1968. He’s nearing the end of his life, facing what he believes will be his last Christmas and mourning the loss of an unnamed woman who clearly meant a great deal to him. He carries with him bundles of letters, which he plans to reread during his trip to Paris. The letters sweep us back to the very beginning of World War I, then trace the entire course of the conflic

Eve Chase, The Wildling Sisters (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2017) Applecote Manor is an English country house with a history. In 1954 the twelve-year-old daughter of Applecote’s owners went missing and was never found. Five years later, her cousins—the Wildling sisters—are sent there to stay with their aunt and uncle while their mother travels to Africa. What follows is a story that echoes Daphne du Maurier as the sisters explore the house while avoiding their overbearing uncle and

Charlene Ball, Dark Lady (She Writes Press, 2017) It’s not easy to find a new take on the Tudors, especially Elizabeth I. But Charlene Ball manages to find a different angle in this story about the life of Emilia Bassano Lanyer, who may have been the inspiration for the “Dark Lady” of Shakespeare’s sonnets. In real life a gifted musician and a poet in her own right, Emilia acquired her education in the house of the Countess of Kent, who raised her as a lady despite Emilia’s r

Jessie Burton, The Miniaturist (Ecco, 2015) The Miniaturist is an emotionally rich and marvelous novel. In seventeenth-century Holland, young and naive Nella marries a trader with the Dutch East India Tea Company. She moves into his house on the famous Golden Bend, located on the Herrengracht, one of Amsterdam’s many canals. The household that awaits Nella is definitely odd. Husband Johannes, who has an inspired dialogue about food and what it teaches him about himself, has a

Sofia Grant, The Dress in the Window (William Morrow, 2017) World War II has just ended, and the survivors are ready to abandon the austerity of the war years, despite lingering financial struggles and the long emotional shadows cast by the husbands, brothers, sons, friends, and others lost in the fighting. Christian Dior’s New Look, with its lavish use of fabric and emphasis on the feminine silhouette, offers women weary of hardship a means of self-expression. In this climat

Thelma Adams, The Last Woman Standing (Lake Union, 2016) As a teenager, Josephine (Josie) Marcus, the daughter of a Jewish baker in San Francisco, scandalizes her parents by running off to Tombstone, Arizona, to marry Johnny Behan, a local politician. When Johnny fails to produce the promised ring, Josie’s waning infatuation causes her to turn her attention elsewhere, and she tumbles into a passionate affair with the legendary Wyatt Earp, stoking Johnny’s jealousy and sowing

A little late this month, because June 15, when we would normally have posted about the Books We Loved, marked the release date for our newest Five Directions Press title, Rewind—which, if we hadn’t issued it ourselves, would certainly have topped several of our lists for the book we loved most in June! A hilarious story that follows a pair of Scots teenagers from the 1970s into middle age, Rewind has already accumulated thousands of likes on Facebook. You can find out more a

For the first time, two of our members chose the same novel as their monthly pick, so this is definitely one to look for! But check out the other choices, too. Emily Bitto, The Strays (Twelve, 2017) The setting is Melbourne, Australia, in the mid-1930s. In the first chapter Lily, an only child from a lackluster working-class family, befriends Eva, who has two fascinating sisters, an unconventional artist father, an exotic bohemian mother, and a house that is always filled wit

Aliette de Bodard, The House of Binding Thorns (Ace, 2017) This novel, set in a turn-of-the-century Paris devastated by a magical war, is the follow-up to The House of Shattered Wings. The books are set in an alternate universe, where dragons and other sea creatures drawn from Vietnamese mythology control the river Seine and the Fallen, ruthless angels expelled from heaven, control everything else. The reader is enveloped in gossamer threads of dread as she reads about the st

M. R. Carey, The Girl with All the Gifts (Orbit, 2015) The unofficial queen of our book group is a tiny Californian with a loud voice and a taste for musicals. Her friend is a quiet wine connoisseur who appreciates thoughtful novels. Neither of them likes science fiction, much less dystopian fiction. Neither one of them would ever binge-watch Orphan Black. However, they’re with me on this novel. That’s because The Girl with All the Gifts is inspired. It lays aside the tired o

Where did you get the idea for Precious Pawn? At Mount Holyoke one of my best friends taught in the French Department and used the unpublished memoir of the Comtesse de L... in her translation and stylistics course. From time to time I would check the accuracy of her students’ translations (my colleague was French, and handling English was some difficulty) for her, and it was in this way that I came to know the story of this eighteenth-century provincial aristocrat. I found i

Tana French, The Trespasser (Penguin, 2016) Tana French is Irish, and all her books take place in or outside Dublin. To say that they are all murder mysteries is accurate but doesn’t even get close to a real description of her body of work. While some of her plots are better than others, it’s not wanting to know "who done it” that drives most readers to madly turn the pages. It’s her characters, male and female, that are so wonderful—many of them fast-talking, sometimes vulga

Kate Braithwaite, Charlatan (Fireship Press, 2016) Think of Louis XIV, and we think of Versailles. But the City of Light also played host to the Affair of the Poisons, a widening scandal that reached its tendrils into the heart of the royal court, implicating even Madame de Montespan, the king’s long-time mistress. In gritty, unflinching prose, Braithwaite paints a vivid picture of 17th-century Paris from the throne to the meanest hovel, with characters alternately sympatheti

Courtney J. Hall takes a detour from sixteenth-century Europe in A Holiday Wish, the first book in the Silver Bells series. In what is sure to be an entertaining journey, Hall brings readers to contemporary small-town America, where secrets, betrayals, and lies combine to create a perfect storm of mystery and romance set against the glittering backdrop of the Christmas season. When wedding planner Noelle Silver's fiancé ditches her for another woman, she can't think of anythi