Need For reads

Fiction Ancient memoirs, ancient mysteries THE FORTUNE TELLER By Gwendolyn Womack 368 pp. Picador Reviewed by Madison Bush If you still get upset thinking about the Library of Alexandria, then read this book.   With the Fortune Teller , Gwendolyn Womack delivers a fast-paced, action-packed story following an ancient manuscript from mystical roots in Egypt to a modern-day estate sale. This will be a big hit with her fans.   Much like her previous work ( The Memory Painter ) this novel effortlessly blends history, romance, and high-stakes adventure.   The style and pacing are similar, but The Fortune Teller breathes new life into the historical fiction adventure novel. The story opens with the death of Marcel Bossard, a prestigious collector who dedicated his life to building an incomparable collection. The protagonist, Semele Cavnow, is the star manuscript appraiser for a well-renowned auction house based in New York. She comes by her talent naturally, having grown ...

Fiction The mussel quotes Kerouac ONLY THE ANIMALS: Stories By Ceridwen Dovey 248 pp. Picador Reviewed by Madison Bush The premise: what can we learn about the nature of human conflict looking through the eyes of animals whose fates are intertwined with writers of the past century?   Ten posthumous animal reflections interspersed with obscure cameos by lesser-known writers give us the answer: human conflict is a tragic, foolish waste that causes animal misery via domestication, subjugation, and carelessness.   Did we need ten stories to realize that? Probably not, but after a trip through time, beginning at the end of the nineteenth century in Australia, continuing to World War I in France and Germany, World War II in Poland and Hawaii, through the Cold War, and ending with the conflicts of the past twenty years in Mozambique, Bosnia, Iraq, and Lebanon, you will walk away certain of one thing: in the end, the world would be better left to the beasts.   Anyone who thinks t...

Nonfiction Dreaming of home THE TRAIN TO CRYSTAL CITY:  FDR's Secret Prisoner Exchange Program and America's 
Only Family Internment Camp During World War II By Jan Jarboe Russell  393 pp. Scribner  Reviewed by Madison Bush Life may be like a box of chocolates, but to some American political figures, immigration is like a bowl of skittles; if three of the skittles in the bowl are poisonous, rather than risk taking a handful, we should throw the whole bowl away. Or deport them. Or detain them.   The Train to Crystal City is a non-fiction account of the last time the United States’ policy followed that mindset. During World War II, the U.S. government approved the arrest, incarceration, and internment of Japanese, German, and Italian “enemy aliens,” and their families. This book is a timely read, a reminder that fear and ignorance, even during wartime, should not excuse denying people equal protection under the law.  Not everyone will have heard of Crystal City, ...