Even though August has become a back-to-school month, for me it’s always been about long hot days by the pool, ocean, or lake. I always lay in the...

Can you believe it’s November? The nights are colder, and we’ve even had some rain in California. In other parts of the country, leaves are turning...

In Louise Erdrich’s most recent novel, the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Night Watchman, she again bases her story within a Native American context....

Happy October, the month of pumpkins, scary costumes, and lots of new historical fiction! October brings us Regency Romance, World War II, 20th...

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,...

Set in 1955, right after India gained its independence, The Henna Artist is a story full of compelling setting and cultural details. The wealthy...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

"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 In 1661 Madrid, Ana is still grieving the loss of her husband when her niece, sixteen-year-old Juliana, suddenly vanishes. Ana...

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...

  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...

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...