Gas looming through the fog in divers places in the streets, much as the sun may, from the spongey fields, be seen to loom by husbandman and ploughboy. Most of the shops lighted two hours before their time — as the gas seems to know, for it has a haggard and unwilling look. ~ Charles Dickens, Bleak House
The Guineveres by Sarah Domet*
Four young girls, all named Guinevere, are abandoned at the same orphanage and convent. The book follows their lives as they grow from silly schoolgirl into reflective women. Domet’s debut novel was praised by the New York Times.
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250086612
ISBN-13: 978-1250086617
Product Dimensions: 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.6 inches
Knives, Forks, Scissors, Flames by Stefan Kiesbye
Kiesbye here does what he does best. He draws on the unsettling undercurrent of commonly shared fairy tales to a novel that enjoys being slightly askew.
Anyone who enjoys the retelling or recasting of myths should read Kiesbye. And it’s always great to support small presses.
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Panhandler Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 099164042X
ISBN-13: 978-0991640423
Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.6 x 9 inches
The Inheritance by Charles Finch
Finch revisits his tried and true Charles Lenox and friends to crack the case of a mysterious benefactor (think Abel Magwitch). Lenox wasn’t able to solve it in his boyhood and is determined to complete it this time.
Series: Charles Lenox Mysteries (Book 10)
Hardcover: 304 pages
Publisher: Minotaur Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250070422
ISBN-13: 978-1250070425
How the Post Office Created America by Winifred Gallagher
Dry, but with interesting information, Gallagher makes a compelling case for the importance of the postal service during early America.
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Penguin Press
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1594205000
ISBN-13: 978-1594205002
Bellevue by David Oshinsky
Pulitzer Prize winning Oshinsky centers his survey of American medicine in perhaps the country’s most notorious hospital. He tracks the rise and advancement of treatment from 1783 to the present.
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Doubleday
Language: English
ISBN-10: 038552336X
ISBN-13: 978-0385523363
Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.3 x 9.5 inches
*Sarah Domet is a good friend. We met a few years ago at a writer’s conference. But if her book stunk, I simply wouldn’t mention it at all.