It all began with John Sutter, “a failed clothier who’d abandoned his wife and five children in Switzerland and sailed to America.” Sutter sought out a remote area of Mexican California to found “a private kingdom in the wilderness,” worked by enslaved Indigenous peoples, captives seized by vigilante raids on nearby villages, and Sutter, who trafficked women and children. Enslavement and violence were common in California in the years preceding the Civil War and beyond. White

“Hollow Bones,” by Jodi Picoult, is a contemporary mother-daughter story that centers around the horrifying reality of postpartum psychosis. (think Lindsay Clancy) The book also touches on emotional and social issues such as COVID, 9/11 and mental illness. The well-developed characters provide multiple points of view that move between the past and present. The book opens in 2026 with Molly Fitzgerald, Chief of the Center for Emergency Preparedness and Response at the Rhode

Does wilderness exist? What is wilderness? Cal Flyn seeks answers to these probing questions as she travels worldwide “to some of the world’s wildest and most invigorating landscapes.” She also draws on anthropology, history, philosophy, and psychology to answer these questions. With exceptional skill, Flyn takes the reader on an extensive journey of discovery. From the desert to the mountaintop, from volcanic eruptions to the deep sea, from the rainforest of the Amazon to t

In 1895 Irish author and playwright Oscar Wilde sued the father of his London lover for publicly condemning his homosexual behavior. In the course of the investigations into the charges, evidence developed that implicated Wilde in a number of sexual encounters that were, under British law at the time, illegal. Wilde was convicted and served two years at hard labor in a British prison. Upon his release he immediately self-deported to Paris, where he died, penniless, in 1900,

John Grisham’s newest book “The French Illusion” is haunting. This is not because it’s about ghosts or is a horror story. It’s haunting because it brings back so much to remember and learn from the Iraq War (2003-2011) and also leads the reader to think about the safety of current travel abroad. Kudos to Grisham for writing a historical fiction novel that includes foreign kidnappings, the experiences of detainees in Guantanamo Bay, and the inner workings of the CIA

The year is 2031 in post-civil war Los Angeles. The former United States has been subdivided into competing republics and city-states. Foreign peacekeeping troops have been recently withdrawn from the city. A well-known Angelino raconteur is hosting a party to celebrate the lifting of the city-wide curfew. Attendees begin to notice unusual occurrences; guests in the lavish apartment see other attendees appear and reappear in markedly different modes of dress. As the evening

“The Secret Dinner,” by Brazilian crime writer Raphael Montes, is a chilling thriller exposing the human condition at its least appealing. Some moments of compassion and love are woven into, what one hopes is a very unlikely scenario. Dante narrates the story of him and his three boyhood friends who leave their tiny town in southern Brazil for Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro in 2018. With the help of Dante’s mother, the young adults rent a large, beautiful apartment that

Dorothy Roberts, a sociology and civil rights professor, has written an in-depth and poignant memoir of her father’s life and work. Mr. Roberts received his PhD from the University of Chicago. He became a long-time anthropology professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago. Robert E. T. Roberts’ doctoral dissertation was based on nearly 500 interviews with interracial couples in Chicago between the 1930s and the 1960s. Roberts, a white man, married Iris, a Jamaican-born Black

American author Daniel Mason is a psychiatrist on the staff of Stanford Hospital and a professor of writing at Stanford University. His most recent novel, “Country People,” is set in southern Vermont. Kate and Miles, she a Ph.D. professor of English Literature, he a frustrated academic struggling to complete a doctoral thesis on Russian folklore, have moved to Vermont, where Kate has accepted a 1-year visiting professorship at a prestigious liberal arts college. They, with t

“The Truth About Ruby Cooper,” by Liz Nugent, is a story told in alternative voices and chapters between two sisters, Ruby and Erin Cooper. Each gives their viewpoint of a criminal incident occurring in 1999 when they were teens. Occasionally, a short chapter is narrated by their mother Maureen in which her perspective is given. In 1999, Erin is a senior in high school. She is beautiful, a talented writer, and kind. She also is in love with Milo, a year older tha

The second sentence of the Declaration of Independence declares, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” On the 250th anniversary of its adoption, Walter Isaacson has written an 80-page book that examines and appreciates each word and vision of the Declaration. Isaacson maintains that the second sentence i

American journalist Pamela Colloff is a reporter for ProPublica and a staff writer for The New York Times Magazine. A former editor at Texas Monthly, she published several long-form articles describing the tortuous road leading to the release of two prisoners whose convictions were overturned after extensive investigations showed the evidence against them was fabricated. In her first book, “Catch the Devil,” Colloff describes a similar scenario, but one that does not, at the

“The Lowe Job,” by Grave Alexander, is a sexy, contemporary book rife with scandal and humor that pulls readers right in. Think of it as a blending together of Monica Lewinsky’s story and “Keeping Up with the Kardashians.” The story begins with Lili Lowe, the oldest of four sisters, becoming the center of a media storm when she is photographed giving Teddy Landen, a married member of Parliament, oral sex in his car. As the scandal erupts, threatening to ruin Lili’s career a

Jill Biden stepped into the role of First Lady of the United States in a turbulent time defined by the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the January 6th Capitol insurrection. She recounts her White House experience of helping to reassure and steady a stressed and frightened nation, while maintaining her own identity. Dr. Biden led a multifaceted life, balancing her career as an English professor at Northern Virginia Community College with serving as a major representati

“Sunlight Finds You” is a historical fiction novel that explores the ramifications of teen pregnancy in the late 1940s. Being a pregnant teen back then meant shame, isolation and scandal that affected not only the pregnant girl, but the entire family. Families went to great lengths to hide pregnancies for which the young women ultimately suffered. “Sunlight Finds You” also is a love story broken into three parts. In the first, Eleanor meets Leonard in her new high

Mexican-American novelist and essayist Valeria Luiselli holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Columbia University and teaches creative writing at Bard College. Her earlier writing emphases on Latin American culture and life, as well as the challenges of immigrant children. Her most recent novel, “Beginning Middle End,” her second to be written in English, details a mother-daughter road trip around the mother’s ancestral island of Sicily. The novel proceeds in three pa

The New York Times journalists Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan interviewed more than 1,000 people for their new book, which depicts an unrestrained president remaking the United States government and its foreign relations in sweeping and alarming ways. The authors’ interview with the president reveals that he has become fixated on becoming “a great man of history.” Trump showed them a document that compared him to Mao, Hitler, Attila the Hun, and Genghis Khan. “The list [h

"The Traveler: One Man’s Quest to Discover Our Shared Humanity" recounts the life of naturalist and anthropologist George Forster, who was born in 1754 in a hamlet outside Danzig, Poland (modern-day Gdansk). George was the shy but curious son of a strict and cantankerous father. At the age of 17, the young man joined Captain Cook's second voyage on the HMS Resolution that had orders to find the "southern continent." The search for Antarctica required the expedition to stop a

Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead’s most recent novel, “Cool Machine,” concludes the Harlem Trilogy. The first two novels, “Harlem Shuffle” (2021) and “Crook Manifesto” (2023), tell the story of Ray Clancy, a Harlem native who has grown a successful furniture store through the 60s and 70s, into the 1980s, where the new novel is set. Clancy, the son of a long-dead small time Harlem crook, augmented the early days of his business by selling the occasional stolen item of f

Fans of crime fiction that take place in a wide array of settings will find Don Winslow’s latest collection of action-packed stories smart, rowdy, and poignant. In “Final Score,” best-selling author Winslow has included six short novels in a single volume, each featuring strong characters and compelling plot lines. The author uses his firsthand experiences as a former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer, and trial consultant to write some of the most eloquent crime fiction