Category: America

September 30, 2022

The Last Slave Ship by Ben Raines *** (of 4)

On the face of it, the story of 100 enslaved Africans smuggled into Mobile, Alabama does not feel that significant among the 12.5 million Africans...

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September 16, 2022

How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith *** (of 4)

Clint Smith educates white Americans who likely never learned the true extent and depth of slavery in the foundation and enduring legacy of the country....

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September 4, 2022

Black Cloud Rising by David Wright Falade *** (of 4)

As the Civil War dragged on and Union troops made advances across the south, formerly enslaved people fled bondage to take up refuge behind northern...

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August 19, 2022

The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke *** (of 4)

Dave Robicheaux is a Cajun detective, poet, and philosopher with no patience for corruption or injustice. When a young Black woman floats to the surface,...

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August 19, 2022

Squeeze Me by Carl Hiassen *** (of 4)

Escapist fiction about an outbreak of Burmese pythons from their confines in the Everglades to the poshest of all Florida communities, Palm Beach. The book...

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July 12, 2022

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw *** (of 4)

A series of loosely connected short stories about the inner thoughts and external actions of younger Black women whose wants and desires are not so...

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June 20, 2022

Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan *** (of 4)

As the 19th century was drawing to a close, the photographer Edward Curtis took it upon himself to photo-document and record ethnographic information on every...

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June 20, 2022

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny *** (of 4)

As the book opens a new President of the United States has just taken office, displacing a hulking, bombastic, ignorant, self-aggrandizing, bloviating, possibly crooked predecessor,...

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May 31, 2022

The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles **** (of 4)

Steinbeckian in scope and style, The Lincoln Highway is equal parts coming-of-age story, travelogue, American history, rumination on the inalienable properties of heroism, and inevitable...

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May 10, 2022

The Queen by Josh Levin ** (of 4)

In principle, the story of Linda Taylor, the woman stuck with the appellation of America’s Welfare Queen, upon whom so much political scorn has been...

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