Category: America

December 7, 2022

The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian *** (of 4)

A somewhat predictable, but well-told story about a motherless, white daughter with an abusive father living in a 1920s Mississippi swamp. Once Dad disappears from...

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November 18, 2022

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich **** (of 4)

A fictionalized account of Louise Erdrich’s grandfather, who worked as a night watchman in a factory on the Chippewa nation in North Dakota. He battled...

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October 24, 2022

Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar **** (of 4)

The title says the book is a novel, but the voice is the author’s and the story is about his life. News events, timelines, and...

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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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