Literary Journeys along Paths Less Traveled
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C. P. Lesley
- Nov 15, 2019
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Nov. 2019
Here are three novels we particularly enjoyed this month. But don’t stop there. We also published two new books of our own this fall, so in addition to Joan Schweighardt’s Gifts for the Dead (Rivers 2) and these three wonderful novels, do make time in your schedule for our latest new release, Gabrielle Mathieu's Girl of Fire, hot off the presses as of November 3, 2019. You can find out more by clicking on their book titles, which will take you to their individual book pages
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C. P. Lesley
- Sep 14, 2019
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Sep. 2019
Angie Cruz, Dominicana (Flatiron Books, 2019) Police raids on a factory to round up undocumented immigrants; a brown-skinned immigrant arrested after being the victim of a street assault; a young woman on her way to the grocery store keeping her eyes down and speaking to no one in case they know that she is not a legal resident; a fifteen-year-old farm girl married against her will to a much older and unappealing man as part of a land deal; that girl hiding her meager earning
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C. P. Lesley
- Jul 15, 2019
- 3 min
Books We Loved, Jul. 2019
Kate Braithwaite, The Girl Puzzle (Crooked Cat Books, 2019) In 1887 Elizabeth Cochrane—a young reporter from Pittsburgh desperate to land a job at New York City’s The World, owned by Joseph Pulitzer—agrees to impersonate a madwoman and investigate conditions at Blackwell’s Island Lunatic Asylum from the inside. Twenty-three years old, Elizabeth spends ten agonizing days among women branded insane and treated as inhuman, who may be no more than burdens their families are all t
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C. P. Lesley
- Jun 14, 2019
- 5 min
Books We Loved, Jun. 2019
Ana Johns, The Woman in the White Kimono (Park Row Books, 2019) Naoko Nakamura is only seventeen when she falls madly in love with an American navy man. It’s 1957, and the US occupation of Japan has ended just a few years before, leaving bitter memories in the local population. Even though Naoko’s beloved Hajime wants to marry her, her family will have nothing to do with him—in part because they have another husband picked out for her, but also because marriage to an American
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C. P. Lesley
- Apr 14, 2019
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Apr. 2019
Yangsze Choo, The Night Tiger (Flatiron Books, 2019) The Night Tiger is much more than just a fantasy novel—it’s also a mystery, a historical novel, and a love story. Yangsze Choo accomplishes all this in one deft package. Set in Malaysia in the 1930s, in the state of Perak, The Night Tiger closely follows three narrators, mysteriously interlinked by their names. There is a clever orphan named Ren who works as a houseboy; a spunky and funny young beauty, Ji Lin; and a British
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C. P. Lesley
- Mar 14, 2019
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Mar. 2019
C, J. Box, The Disappeared (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018) Even fantasy can become mundane if one reads too much of it. The Disappeared by crime writer C.J. Box offered a welcome break. I’ve been a fan of his for years. The series follows Joe Pickett, a regular Wyoming game warden who finds himself in a number of challenging situations. Joe is neither exceptionally smart nor emotionally complex. He’s a good man trying to do the right thing, devoted to his job, still in love with
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Joan Schweighardt
- Feb 27, 2019
- 5 min
Five Directions Press Authors Dish: Saying Goodbye to Characters (1)
Never can say goodbye, no, no, no, no, now
Never can say goodbye Today 5DP Authors are standing around the proverbial water cooler singing The Jackson 5’s Never Can Say Goodbye while they reminisce about favorite characters (not of their own making),* whom they never quite managed to let go. Our chitchat takes us from Heathcliff (twice venerated!) to a sexy Viking dude to the cast of the Netflix series Six Feet Under … and more. *Watch for next month’s Dish to get 5DP author
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C. P. Lesley
- Feb 14, 2019
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Feb. 2019
Terry Gamble, The Eulogist (William Morrow, 2019) When Olivia Givens and her family leave Ireland in 1819, the crops are failing and the aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars has led to the loss of their family property. Soon fifteen-year-old Olivia is standing on the shores of the Ohio River with the rest of her Ulster Protestant family. The city of Cincinnati has just come into being, and that, combined with the illness of the family’s youngest child, convince the Givens to end
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C. P. Lesley
- Jan 15, 2019
- 3 min
Books We Loved, Jan. 2019
P. K. Adams, The Greenest Branch (Iron Knight Press, 2018) Hildegard of Bingen was long one of the forgotten women of history. Consigned from birth to the Catholic Church, she overcame her mentor’s extreme asceticism and defied traditional views of what women could do to emerge as a respected physician and mystic, only to be forgotten until feminist historians rediscovered her in the late twentieth century. In this well-written debut novel, we meet Hildegard as an inquisitive
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C. P. Lesley
- Dec 14, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Dec. 2018
Just in time for holiday shopping and reading, we have a bunch of Christmas and winter books to recommend. Treat yourself, treat your friends and family, and don't forget to check out our own selections for literary journeys on our Books page. They also make great gifts! Sam Hooker, The Winter Riddle (Black Spot Books, 2018) If you are a moody young woman who likes to wear black, you might well be a witch. Or aspire to be a witch. If you need a tongue-in-cheek guide on how to
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C. P. Lesley
- Nov 16, 2018
- 3 min
Books We Loved, Nov. 2018
Kate Morton, The Clockmaker’s Daughter (Atria Books, 2018) It’s not often that I encounter a novel so densely and intricately plotted that it’s almost impossible to describe without giving away major elements of the story, but The Clockmaker’s Daughter is such a novel. It opens at a mid-nineteenth-century house party, held at the sprawling rural home of an upcoming and innovative artist, that ends in tragedy. More than 150 years later, an archivist in London uncovers an old s
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C. P. Lesley
- Oct 14, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Oct. 2018
John Bude, The Cornish Coast Murder (British Library Edition, 2014 [1935]) Ernest Carpenter Elmore (1901–1957), writing as John Bude, was a lesser-known contemporary of Dorothy L. Sayers and Agatha Christie and debuted his thirty crime novels with this endearing first. Two amateurs, a vicar and a doctor, compete with a professional detective to solve a murder. Naturally, I sided with the amateurs, and though I was unable to guess “who did it,” the process was engaging to the
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C. P. Lesley
- Sep 14, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Sep. 2018
In addition to our own Joan Schweighardt’s Before We Died (Rivers, Book 1), due out any day, here are a few suggestions for those soon-to-arrive autumn days, as well as one for those of us not yet prepared to let go of summer! Fredrik Backman, Beartown (Washington Square Press, 2016) Beartown, by the Swedish novelist Frederik Backman, differs in scope from the more intimate A Man Called Ove (my Books We Loved pick for April 2018), yet central to both novels is the relationshi
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C. P. Lesley
- Aug 15, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Aug. 2018
Amy Mason Doan, The Summer List (Graydon House, 2018) Everyone’s always trying to find the perfect summer read. The summer after I graduated high school I read Summer Sisters by Judy Blume, and every year since I’ve eagerly scoured bookstore shelves for something that would match it. I always came up short—until now. The Summer List by Amy Mason Doan is exactly the book I’ve been trying to find. I’m not the first to compare it to Summer Sisters, and indeed it gives off that v
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C. P. Lesley
- Jul 21, 2018
- 5 min
Books We Loved, Jul. 2018
Lots of activity this month, especially in reference to C. P. Lesley’s Legends of the Five Directions series, now officially drawing to a close. In addition to a revised edition of the first book, The Golden Lynx, and the appearance of the last—The Shattered Drum—Lesley has made minor changes to the three other novels and combined them in box sets. Alas, the economics of small-press publishing mean that we can release the box sets only for Kindle, but if you have an e-reader
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C. P. Lesley
- Jun 15, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Jun. 2018
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
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C. P. Lesley
- May 16, 2018
- 3 min
Books We Loved, May 2018
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
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C. P. Lesley
- Apr 17, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Apr. 2018
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
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C. P. Lesley
- Mar 18, 2018
- 4 min
Books We Loved, Mar. 2018
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
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