Posts

The Sicilian Inheritance (2024) by Jo Piazza transports you to past and present-day Sicily as a woman tries to solve the mystery of her great-grandmother's murder, inspired by the author’s own family lore.

What happens when an idealistic trio takes their innovations too far? In The Startup Wife (2021), Tahmima Anam shows the dark side of technology while satirizing startup culture. Asha is the brilliant coder behind a new social media platform developed with her new husband and his friend.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is about magical books, and those who can write magical books. Filled with minute twists and turns, this page turner leaves the reader on the edge of their seat. However, the romantic subplots in this story are forced and mechanical, this is definitely not a book to read for the romance or character development.

When their son, Ewan, tragically dies, Richard and Juliette Willoughby fall into desperate grief and cannot let him go.  While Richard digs into the dirt of their field in an attempt to connect to Ewan, Juliette brings a team of mystics into the house to attempt to contact the child's spirit.  Their bucolic farm becomes dark, menacing and eerie as an evil folklore bogeyman dominates their daily lives.

“A Gentleman in Moscow '' by Amor Towles is set in 1922 Soviet Russia and follows Count Alexander Rostov as he has to adapt to the changing world while trapped in a hotel. After being convicted of treason, he gets sentenced to house arrest inside a luxury hotel.

“A Conjuring of Light” is the final book in V.E. Schwab’s fantasy trilogy. It takes place immediately after the last book ended and goes back to the normal fantasy plot with a strong and compelling villain. This book puts more focus on Holland than the other books did, but Schwab still keeps all the great characters and their histories.

“A Gathering of Shadows'' is the second book in V.E. Schwab’s fantasy trilogy. It takes place a short time after the first book ends and focuses on the upcoming Elemental Games. It is a spectacular view into the thorough world that Schwab set up in the first part without all the action that would distract the reader from the finer details.

Spinning Silver (2018) is a fairy tale-like fantasy version of Rumpelstiltskin. Miryem, daughter of a softhearted moneylender, takes over the money collecting duties to try and turn around the fate of her family. Her success and boasting that she can turn silver into gold captures the attention of the Staryk king, a fey creature from a wintery land.

The Peasants (2024) is a visually stunning film that transports the viewer to a 19th-century Polish village as events unfold over four seasons. Using the same technique from their previous film, Loving Vincent, the filmmakers use a blend of real-life actors and oil paintings to create the effect of paintings brought to life in a unique animation style.

The Book of Thorns (2024) by Hester Fox is an historical fiction tale of two sisters, separated as children, who are linked through the magic of language of flowers and a locket that they both wear. Set in 19th-century New England, Cornelia was raised by a cruel uncle who wants to marry her off and Lisbeth was raised as a servant.

Jessamine Chan's debut novel, The School for Good Mothers (2022), was recommended as one of the best novels of 2022, by many top reviewers and news outlets. It's a challenging and provocative read, as Chan herself acknowledges in author interviews. Her hope was that the book would leave readers thinking about the systematic pressures and demands imposed upon mothers, rooted in historical ideals, but ever-increasing due to the influences of technology and social media.

Forgotten Sisters (2024) by Cynthia Pelayo is an eerie, otherworldly ghost story that takes place in present-day Chicago. Sisters Jennie and Anna live in a historic bungalow in the Ravenswood neighborhood, with the north branch of the Chicago River right in their backyard.