Any new book by Barbara Kingsolver is an event to be noted. Shes only published eight novels in a career of three decades about as many as James Patterson in a single year. Best known is perhaps The Poisonwood Bible, a huge bestseller which was also a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. So take notice: Kingsolver has a new novel, Unsheltered. Half of the dual narrative is set in the present, with a former magazine editor and her former college professor husband both facing ruin due to the closing of their employers. They live in a house which is falling apart, which may be a metaphor for how they view the time they live in. The other half is set in the same locale in the 1870s and involves a teacher and a scientist. The common thread, other than the setting, is the dismay of the characters in both time periods at the path politics is taking, particularly politicians with a disregard for science. Unsheltered is currently number four on the best seller list.
Jude Deveraux moves into new territory with her new book A Willing Murder. Having won lasting devotion from many readers for her romances, she now offers a highly reviewed mystery featuring as its main character a yes bestselling romance author. Sara Medlar retires to her Florida hometown. She takes in two long-term house guests: Jack, hired to remodel the big house she lives in, and her niece Kate, who recently took a job in the same town. Kate and Jack dont get along at all. However, when human remains are found on the property all three work together to solve a 20-year-old mystery, one in which the locals dont seem too anxious to have the truth come to light.
Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen by Sarah Bird is a novel based on the real-life but little-known Cathy Williams, the first African American woman to serve in the U.S. Army. Born a slave in Missouri, she works for General Sheridan after her liberation in 1864. After the war, refusing to slip into any role society designed for her, she dresses as a man and enlists in the Army as William Cathay. She serves in the West as a Buffalo Soldier.
