I received a review copy of the book from Andrew McMeel Publishing via Edelweiss for which my thanks. Bloody Mary (2025) is a graphic novel telling of the story of Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII and Katherine of Aragon, and Queen of England from 1553 until her death in 1558, with both text and…
Book Review: Directionality of Humankind’s Development (2024) by Victor Torvich
I was kindly sent a review copy of this book by the author, Victor Torvich, for which my thanks. In the many thousands of years human beings (homo sapiens) have inhabited this planet, we have come a long way from cave-dwelling and hunter-gatherer societies to agriculture, industry, technology and now information technology and AI, to…
Book Review: The Library Mule of Cordoba (2021/2024) by Wilfrid Lupano and Leonard Chemineau (trans. Lynn Eskow and Rudolpho Muraguchi)
I received a review copy of this book from Ablaze via Edelweiss for which my thanks. A story of a library, of the love for books and knowledge as also an adventure to protect and save those very books, The Library Mule of Cordoba is a graphic novel set in tenth-century Cordoba, against the historical…
Book Review: Death of the Red Rider (2017/2023) by Yulia Yakovleva and translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp
I received a review copy of this book from Pushkin Press via Edelweiss for which my thanks. In Death of the Red Rider, we’re back in 1930s Leningrad as Vasily Zaitsev of the CID continues to carry on his duties after the not-so-pleasant encounter with the state in the previous book. The story opens with…
Blog Tour and Book Review: The Stolen Daughter (2024) by Florence Ọlájídé
Fast-paced and absorbing, The Stolen Daughter (2024) by Florence Ọlájídé is a piece of historical fiction which tells the story of a young girl Ṣìkẹ́mi who works her way from a captive of slave traders to formidable warrior but with one objective always in the forefront—to find and be reunited with the family she was…
Book Review: Vincent: A Graphic Biography (2024) by Simon Elliott
I received a review copy of this book from Francis Lincoln books via Edelweiss for which my thanks. Vincent: A Graphic Biography (2024) by Simon Elliott tells us the story of Vincent van Gogh using a voice and perspective which became very important to van Gogh’s fame and art and someone I confess I wasn’t…
Book Review: Land of Snow and Ashes (2022) by Petra Rautiainen and translated by David Hackston
My thanks to Pushkin Press for a review copy of this book via Edelweiss. A harrowing tale of the Second World War, of a time when Finland was allied with Nazi Germany but one that covers issues of identity, nationhood, and belonging which remain tenuous, unresolved and relevant even unto the present, Land of Snow…
Book Review: One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1962) by Alexander Solzhenitsyn #1962Club
That’s just what they said—“home”. You didn’t have any other home to think about when you are out there, working. When Karen and Simon announced the #1962Club earlier this year and I was looking up possibilities, this was the first book I was sure would be among my ultimate picks. One Day in the Life…
Book Review: Al Capone by Swann Meralli and art work by Pierre-Francois Radice
My thanks to Black Panel Press/Diamond Books for a review copy of this book. While I knew Al Capone as an American gangster, one whose name perhaps comes up first in one’s mind when anyone mentions gangsters, and that he was eventually arrested not for those crimes but tax fraud, that was literally all I…
Book Review: Coromandel: A Personal History of South India (2017) by Charles Allen
Published in 2017, Coromandel is Indian-born British popular-history writer Charles Allen’s exploration of the history of South India, one that focuses on lesser known or at least lesser explored aspects of the region, explanations from legend and fact, aspects that are interesting and those that are ugly, personages known and unknown, but all in all…
Literary Potpourri 