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Nonfiction The sun looked like the moon PRAIRIE FIRES: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder By Caroline Fraser 515 pp. Metropolitan Books Reviewed by Diane Diekman Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder recently won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Biography. And deservedly so. Caroline Fraser did a masterful job of researching and describing both the life and the times of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Fraser writes in the introduction that Wilder’s life was “a story that needs to be fully told, in its historical context, as she lived it.” That is exactly what Prairie Fires does. Wilder became world famous through her Little House books, written in the 1930s about her childhood as a pioneer girl and a teacher in one-room schools on the South Dakota prairie. With the editorial assistance of her daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, she produced an eight-volume series of children’s fiction based on fact. Wilder died at age ninety, in 1957, at the time I was beginning t...

Fiction Music had become a political instrument A SYMPHONY OF RIVALS By Roma Calatayud-Stocks 414 pp. Calumet Editions Reviewed by Alan Goodman A Symphony Of Rivals is the second book in a planned trilogy by Calatayud-Stocks. In this story the protagonist, Alejandra Morrison, a young lady possessing an exceptional musical gift as a concert pianist, seeks an opportunity to make a name as a major orchestral conductor in what is traditionally a man’s domain. The story moves between Minneapolis, the home town of Ms. Morrison, and her medical doctor husband, Richard, to 1933 Berlin, a city experiencing the ominous political currents inspired by the rise of the Nazi party. The story begins in Berlin with Alejandra and Richard riding through the streets of Berlin, and then in their hotel, the famed Adelon in Pariser Platz. The Nazi presence, crude, ruse and unsettling, makes itself known almost immediately with an encounter in the hotel bar. A loud disturbance drew her attention....

Fiction If Prince Charming were a vampire THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS By Brian Rouff 324 pp. Huntington Press Reviewed by Eric Petersen Las Vegas based writer Brian Rouff is back with his latest novel, a delightful Carl Hiaasen-esque tale set in Sin City, which becomes a character itself. The story begins in small-town Michigan, with spunky young reporter Anna Christiansen hoping for a better assignment than writing obituaries and covering county fairs. She gets more than she bargained for when her boss Mr. Knudsen assigns her to cover a local concert by a band called the Dickweeds, whom she describes as “a retro alt country blues band with a small horn section,” and interview their lead singer, Rob Lazarus. Anna arrives for the show and finds that the paper hasn’t even bought her a ticket. The only ones left are in the Standing Room Only section. She can’t even see the band from there. To make matters worse, after the concert, Rob Lazarus, in no mood for the press, rudely gives ...

Today we offer something special: Reviewer Sala Wyman reviews the book and interviews the author. Nonfiction Make your poor husband an egg ALL THE WOMEN IN MY FAMILY SING : Women Write the World  –  Essays On Equality, Justice, and Freedom 366 pp. Nothing But The Truth Publishing Edited by Deborah Santana Reviewed by Sala Wyman As I looked through the list of luminaries who have praised  this book – such figures as Alfre Woodard, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Isabel Allende – my first thought was, “I have absolutely  nothing  more to say.” But as I relaxed into the pages, I was met with a rich tapestry of experiences from 69 women of all diverse races, backgrounds, and cultures. Every story is told with such vulnerability, ease, and raw emotion that I felt as if I were sitting with each writer, sharing tea while listening deeply to her words. There is brilliance in how this community of women captivates while revealing the struggles, unique for each one, to achi...