I’m an avid reader. Most people are surprised how many books I read in a month (Check it out on my Instagram). Mostly I read historical novels,...
Blog

The Henna Artist by Alka Joshi
Set in 1955, right after India gained its independence, The Henna Artist is a story full of compelling setting and cultural details. The wealthy...
The Sky Worshipers – Three Women Writing from the Mongol Court
Years ago, my book club read Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World, by Jack Weatherford. The main thing that I remember about the book is...
Starlight in the Dawn: the Poetic Priestess Who Chose to Fight
After teaching Mesopotamian history to sixth graders for many years, I wanted to love this book. It's not a time period that is overrun with...
The Book of Lost Names by Kristin Harmel
This novel opens in the present, with Eva, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, sees a picture in a newspaper of a book she knows well but hasn’t...
The Lost History of Dreams by Kris Waldherr
It’s London, 1850, and Robert Highstead is still in mourning for his wife, working as a post-mortem photographer. From the very beginning, I was...
Novel Takes: The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz
Although The Fruit of Her Hands: The Story of Shira of Ashkenaz was released in 2009, and I read it last year, it resonates with me. It is a...
A Splendid Ruin by Megan Chance
I confess to a love of novels about the San Francisco earthquake of 1906. I’ve read several, and A Splendid Ruin doesn’t disappoint. May Kimble is...
The Woman Before Wallis
"BRIMMING WITH SCANDAL AND AN EQUAL AMOUNT OF HEART..." - CHANEL CLEETON, NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR My husband and I recently binged...
The Lines Between Us
The Lines Between Us In 1661 Madrid, Ana is still grieving the loss of her husband when her niece, sixteen-year-old Juliana, suddenly vanishes. Ana...
New Hawaiian Novel
While writing my own historical novel about Hawaii, I read a lot of fiction and nonfiction about the islands. Today I’m going to share with you one...
Novel Takes: Circe by Madeline Miller
My house, my lions, my magical housekeepers. You don’t like it, I’ll turn you into pigs. And I’m not a vegetarian. I last read The Odyssey...
Novel Takes
Welcome to July First Friday and a new era in PLW blogging! We'll still have our Writer Q&A on the third (and fifth) Friday, but we'll also have...
Categories
Topics