Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
by Zayd Ayers Dohrn
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young by Zayd Ayers Dohrn (4/4/2026)
The late sixties and early seventies were a turbulent time in which the Vietnam war raged as protesters marched demanding "No More War" as well as equal rights for blacks and women. The strict decorum of the post war era was being challenged by tenants of "Free Love", rock music and psychedelic drugs. Parents, police and governments attempted to quell this rebellion with water hoses, rubber bullets and curfews. The youth of America were not having it.
Author Zayd Ayers Dohrn is the son of Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers, founders and leaders of the Weather Underground Organization during the late 60's and 70's. Vehemently opposed to war, racism and injustice, the Weathermen were adamant about overthrowing the United States Government, using whatever means possible, which usually meant violence. As someone who grew up during this time, Dohrn's account of being born into the Weather Underground and growing up while his mother was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list is riveting. He has put faces behind the names that were in the news and details around the destruction wrought by his parents and their friends.
Not only a page turner, Dangerous, Dirty, Violent and Young is also a testament to the actions of the young idealist in the face of injustice and their consequences. The black and white of what is right and wrong may become gray with age and experience but this book shows that violence didn't/doesn't work. Injustice still lives.
Highly recommended for the detailed history of the period and as a cautionary tale for those who may be wondering how to combat today's injustices.
An Infinite Love Story
by Chanel Cleeton
The reality behind the magic… (3/23/2026)
The 1960's were tumultuous. I grew into a teenager during those years. I vaguely remember the Kennedy/Nixon debates on TV. But the race riots, Kent State murders, JFK, MLK and RFK assassinations as well as the Vietnam war body count on national news nightly are forever etched into my memory.
The Space Race however was a magical story amid all the drama. The astronauts were handsome and daring and all of their wives were beautiful and dutiful. However, Cleeton prefaces her novel, An Infinite Love Story, with this statistic: "There were thirty-nine astronauts in the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs. Twenty of those marriages ultimately ended in divorce."
The novel begins as, Vivian, an astronaut's wife faces the unimaginable. Joe's spaceship has lost contact, can't be found and is not expected to return. Vivian is a young woman who has married the love of her life. When Joe disappears, she is determined to find out why, by whatever means. Through flashbacks we are introduced to the human side of the space race magic. Lonely wives, philandering husbands and unpredictable futures all take a back seat to the mission of winning the race to the moon.
As an adult, the story and characters felt a little obvious and predictable. Yet Cleeton inserts a little space magic into Vivian's search that is enjoyable and almost believable. An Infinite Love Story is an easy read, somewhat predictable but recommended for those who wish to remember the reality and the magic of space travel in the sixties.
Evelyn in Transit: A Novel
by David Guterson
How to be good… (12/4/2025)
Evelyn in Transit by David Guterson is neither a spell-binding page turner nor a literary masterpiece. Instead, the author has given us a special story of one girl and her journey to "live the right way." Rejecting her Catholic and public/alternative school upbringing Evelyn travels around the country doing odd jobs and meeting odd people. She is determined to find what she feels is missing in her life and the lives of those around her. Inevitably, she becomes pregnant and returns to her family home. Guterson also follows the life of Tsering, a Tibetan boy as he becomes an important Lama. The two never meet but their lives will come together in a unique way.
In the foreword, Guterson writes that he was befriended by a Tibetan family with familial ties to a line of high lamas when he was young. The idea for this book came from that relationship and his own experience as a father of five. Neither page turner nor masterpiece, Evelyn in Transit is poignant and funny, yet a study of everyday people in extraordinary circumstances. This book is recommended for those who try to be "good," are humbled by the weight of raising children to be "good" and are looking for a great story about others seeking the same thing.
Next Time Will Be Our Turn
by Jesse Q. Sutanto
Grandma has a story to tell... (8/27/2025)
Izzy Chen's grandmother is a bad ass. Nai Nai has just walked into their annual, Indo, large family gathering and shocked everyone without saying a word. Izzy wants to be so bold. Turns out her grandmother wants Izzy to grab life and "…shake it until it gives you what you want..." too.
Thus begins Nai Nai's narrative of her life as a young girl navigating the patriarchal world of Indonesian wealth and status. From being told your future is dictated by gender to becoming aware that you are capable of so much more, Nai Nai's journey is fraught with obstacles, choices and things that can't be controlled but can be managed.
Suntanto's book is fast paced, easily read although slightly predictable. Recommended for those who want a story about strong women and the ways in which they survive and thrive.
This Here Is Love: A Novel
by Princess Joy L. Perry
This Here is Love (7/28/2025)
This Here is Love is a beautifully written and, at times, difficult to digest story of the slave trade during the late 1600's to early 1700 Virginia. Princess Joy L. Perry has created memorable characters whose experiences, as slaves and slave traders, more clearly defines the time and place.
Bless and David are owned by Jack Crewe. Their separate journeys to Crewe's Way Station are brutal. As long as they do Jack's bidding on the 'innovative' slave trader's way station and work the farm, Bless and David's existence could be a reprieve from their previous lives. Yet their real value to Jack is an invisible noose around their necks.
Jack Crewe arrived in Virginia from Ireland in the hold of The Venture. His father and pregnant mother were seeking a way out of poverty. Jack witnessed cruelty and heartbreak that would shape his future similar to Bless and David. But his skin color provided a different path.
"Men understood things that boys did not: Being the "richest nigger traders," or even a middling slave jailer, had to cost somebody something. Greatness had to cost somebody something. …Jack, would have to learn that prosperity came at the expense of those Negro boys and not his own."
Perry's telling of this time period is both gritty and elegant. This Here is Love is highly recommended for those who seek to understand the past with a wide view and use that understanding to make the present better for everyone.
Angelica: For Love and Country in a Time of Revolution
by Molly Beer
Angelica by Molly Beer (6/24/2025)
Engeltje Schuyler was born into a prestigious, wealthy New York Dutch family in 1756. Angelica, her "American" name, was to become one of the most prominent socialites of the time, eventually memorialized by having a New York village named after her. She frequently wrote to Alexander Hamilton, a relationship that is lavishly recreated in the Lin-Manuel Miranda musical.
Molly Beer's biography details Angelica's life as well as the events that led to the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War. Unlike Miranda's Hamilton, Beer's telling is not lavish. She uses the rich trove of letters written by Angelica as well as those of the major players of the time to tell the story. Her biographical writing style is informational and well-documented. It is also superficial. Beer moves through Angelica's life quickly, sharing tidbits and stories that fail to give life to her subject. Biographies must be factual and thus the academic feel of this book. Yet wealth, unrequited love, jealousy, duels, and eloping with someone your parents don't want you to marry seem to be fodder for a racier read.
Recommended for those who crave a detailed history of a Revolutionary woman amid the creation of what will become the United States of America, sans melodrama.
Serial Killer Games
by Kate Posey
Not your grandmother's romance... (1/4/2025)
Serial Killer Games is fast paced while confusing, funny, dark, vain and possibly apocryphal. Recommended for those who enjoy romantic murder fantasies while dismembering dolls.
Songs of Summer
by Jane L. Rosen
Songs of Summer by Jane Rosen (12/28/2024)
Yes, Maggie May Wheeler is named after Rod Stewart's hit song. No wonder: her hippy parents were proprietors of a record store in Chagrin Falls, Ohio. Maggie, practically 30 years old, has had a classic upbringing. Her now deceased parents were eccentric yet loving and supportive. However, at thirteen Maggie was told she was adopted.
And Jason, her lifelong best friend turned possible fiancé, is pressing her to make their unofficial engagement official. Instead, Maggie decides she wants to find out where she came from before she can commit to where she may be headed. A little sleuthing leads Maggie to Fire Island where (hopefully) her biological mother will be attending the wedding of a friend.
Songs of Summer is at times funny and romantic and full of "oldies but goodies' musical references. Friend and family relationships are quirky and mostly believable. The issue of the consequences of adoption on not only the child but the biological parents is explored with some candor.
At its best this novel is a good summer read for those wanting to escape into a world that is fairly predictable yet wacky enough to keep turning the page for what's next.
One Death at a Time
by Abbi Waxman
One Death at a Time (11/20/2024)
Natalie Mason is described as "an unusually pretty woman of twenty-five with extremely short hair and striking features that might have been overwhelming had they been paired with a more elaborate hairstyle…" In Hollywood everyone is judged first by their looks and second by their issues. Mason's issue is alcohol, which she is being forced to address by attending daily AA meetings while working as an Uber driver and delivery person. A child of Hollywood, Mason has been oblivious to its' glitz, glamour and underbelly. But that changes when Julia enters the room.
Julia Mann is a former Hollywood star turned convicted murderer, turned parolee, turned lawyer for the underdog, with a drinking problem. Her attendance at AA is mandated because after waking up from an alcohol induced black out, she found a body floating in her pool. She can't recall why or how it got there.
One Death at a Time is the story of Julia, Mason and friends trying to solve two murders. While Waxman's storyline may be long with extraneous details, the fast, irreverent, smart, sassy dialog moves the plot at lightening speed. Her characters are well defined and memorable. One Death at a Time is recommended for those who seek a fast read about glamourous people who aren't above a little self-deprecation and laugh out loud humor.
The Bog Wife
by Kay Chronister
Dysfunction and more (8/7/2024)
Weena has been summoned to come home because her father is dying. Not an unusual circumstance for most people, yet consequential for the Haddesley family and their ancestral cranberry bog.
The impending death means an ancient ritual must be performed that will insure survival for her siblings and the family compound. Weena is the only one of four children who has "gone over the property line" to experience life away from the bog and she is not coming back willingly.
The Bog Wife could easily have been a family drama about children denied access to 'real world' experiences with the consequent denial, rebellion and retribution. Chronister mixes in a supernatural element of an ancient compact that if unheeded (or disbelieved) could result in desolation of both family and land. Weena and her siblings navigate through their family history both real and imagined, striving to find their individual ways with varied results. Recommended for fans of dysfunctional family sagas exacerbated by supernatural forces.
This Strange Eventful History: A Novel
by Claire Messud
More strange than eventful (4/17/2024)
Messud's novel follows the Cassars, a family of Pied-Noir, from 1940 to the 2000's. Wikipedia describes Pied-Noirs as "…an ethno-cultural group of people of French and other European descent who were born in Algeria during the period of French rule from 1830 to 1962." Most Pied-Noirs were aligned with the French. Consequently, when Algeria won independence from France, many migrated away from their birthplace permanently. Messud states the work is fiction yet follows her family's experience.
All of the above sets the stage for wonderful historical fiction. Yet Messud treats the history as secondary to the family drama, resulting in numerous trips to Wikipedia. Constantly searching for timelines of events, explanations of literary references and verification of names dropped made reading laborious.
Constantly inside the heads of her characters and their sordid lives, Messud is both pleasantly descriptive yet wordy. She spent a whole page describing one of the many self-absorbed characters, Francois, stealing a forbidden drink while feeding peanuts to his dog. Yet the story did not move forward. Spontaneous announcements of the future fate of her characters felt like plot spoilers. More reality tv than historical fiction.
This novel is recommended for those who have time and resources to study the history of Algeria and its people along with a crash course in family dysfunction before reading the novel. Others may want to spend their valuable reading time with something less strange and more eventful.
The Funeral Cryer: A Novel
by Wenyan Lu
Save your tears... (2/5/2024)
A funeral cryer is paid to cry at funerals, and/or teaches the bereaved to show the proper sorrow regardless of how they feel about the dead. The profession of funeral crying is unique and interesting and the book describes a social emotional culture of China that is not common knowledge. Utilizing a middle age woman who narrates her plight as a funeral cryer, the isolation that the job creates and her suspicion that her husband is seeing another woman Lu has created a quasi soap opera mystery about rural Chinese.
The downside to this novel is the hum drum cadence of the narration, especially in the beginning. While the intent may have been to make the story feel as the narrator might feel, it is reminiscent of reading a first grade chapter book. Coupled with the lack of significant action, continued reading is a chore. Recommended only for those who have time to plod through the pages and enjoy the predictable redemption of the narrator in the end.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
House on Biscayne Bay (1/1/2024)
The House on Biscayne Bay is a mixture of mystery, murder and historic fiction. Marbrisa, an extremely large and elegant estate is the house on Biscayne Bay in South Florida. Built after WWI on a remote site facing the water with the dual intentions of developing luxury living for the newly rich and elevating the status of builder Robert Barnes and his wife Anna in Florida society. Fast forward to 1941 as nineteen year old Carmen Hayes comes to Marbrisa to join her sister, Carolina and grieve their parents who perished in an accident. She immediately becomes enmeshed in the web of intrigue around unsolved murder that has plagued Marbrisa since the estate opened its doors.
Screaming peacocks, large iguanas and alligators stopping cars provide a chilling yet somewhat comical back drop to the fairly predictable plot. Allusions to the gangster element in southern Florida and the negative feelings of locals as outside money begins to change their lives offer some historical background but the main story concerns how Anna Barnes deals with her husbands secrets and how Carmen navigates between her grief for her parents and the contradictions she finds in her sister's household. A fast read yet not captivating.
Leaving: A Novel
by Roxana Robinson
Leaving by Roxana Robinson (11/21/2023)
Sarah, divorced, with grown children, unexpectedly meets a former beau at the opera. "They had been close at one time." Sarah and Warren decide to "continue" their relationship, even though Warren is married. Eventually, Warren decides to leave his wife of thirty-seven years. Leaving is the story of that journey.
A story about divorce must be about marriage and parenting. Robinson writes with uncanny understanding of those emotional roller coasters. She shows how youthful decisions can transform lives. How children can change a relationship. How children become independent of their parents, but also need them. How parents need their children. She even captures the essence of having a pet dog. Leaving touches on all that holds a family together and what happens when that grip is loosened.
Leaving was a satisfying read and is highly recommended for those who want to be reminded that no family is perfect, that selfishness is short sighted, and life doesn't always go as planned.
Devil Makes Three: A Novel
by Ben Fountain
Haitian Lowdown (9/5/2023)
"…Haiti Travel Advisory July 27, 2023 Do not travel to Haiti due to kidnapping, crime, civil unrest, and poor health care infrastructure."
Haiti,1991. American Matt Amaker is finally making a little profit from ScubaRave his diving business. His Haitian partner Alix Variel's family has embraced him to the point of calling him son. Something that could become legitimate should he marry Alix's sister Misha as he hopes. Matt's dreams are dulled however as Haiti's fragile society starts to unravel, yet again. The first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide is ousted after seven months in office. An unfortunate incident during a dive with some military officials puts Matt in the crosshairs of dueling forces; a pawn in the chess game between Haitian military, USAID and whoever else may see value in befriending and/or betraying him, his friends, and his enemies.
Devil Makes Three is an historic saga of Haiti's struggles with governing, outside intervention, both caring and opportunistic, woven with adventure, intrigue, romance, and violence. Though not a quick read it is recommended for those who want to learn about Haiti's storied past and gain some understanding of why the US would issue such an advisory thirty years later.
Mrs. Plansky's Revenge
by Spencer Quinn
Mrs. Plansky's Revenge (4/10/2023)
"…Loretta Plansky, is a seventy-one-year-old widow of solid build and the only member of the whole club with a one-handed backhand." The club being the New Sunshine Golf and Tennis Club close to her new, rather posh apartment in the Sunshine State. Mrs. Plansky is a widow, mother and grandmother whose lot in life is more than comfortable. This due to a successful entrepreneurial partnership with her husband creating and selling an innovative kitchen knife. And fortunately, her marriage to Norm was equally successful, until he passed.
Then, one night she answers a phone call from her grandson who is in desperate need of funds. Thus begins a journey for Mrs. Plansky that tests her stamina more than her husband's death or any tennis game she has ever played.
From Florida to Europe, from tennis games to clandestine meetings in dark dungeons, Loretta is determined to recover her financial security. Quinn uses witty prose and unconventional situations that will amuse everyone, especially the seventy-one-year-old crowd. He also gives a face to the victims and perpetrators of these contemporary heists that may be surprising. Recommended as a light read with more than a few hilarious yet discerning moments.
Moonrise Over New Jessup
by Jamila Minnicks
Moon Over New Jessup by Jamila Minnicks (12/18/2022)
In 1957 in rural Alabama, after a "misunderstanding" with her landlord, Alice Young flees the only home she's known, boarding a bus with a ticket that would only go as far as Birmingham. Chicago and her sister are out of reach. Fate intervenes as she steps off the bus in New Jessup, Alabama to stretch her legs. Finding no "whites only" signs, Alice is confounded about where she is. Surprised by the open community and the kindness of New Jessup citizens she slowly begins to become part of this unique community.
As her story unfolds, so does the history of New Jessup, its founders and those who are to become its next leaders. Set against the backdrop of our nation blundering around trying to deal with the undealt issues post Civil War, New Jessup is a place apart. And there are many who wish to keep it that way, especially as desegregation is becoming the answer to the problem of blacks and whites not being able to live together on equal grounds.
Minnicks adroitly maneuvers her characters as they live their seemingly bucolic New Jessup lives while change is swirling around them. As secrets and innuendo inevitably bring the outside world into New Jessup testing the ideals and relationships so long ago formed and nurtured Minnicks gives readers an in-depth understanding of the complexity of living free and equal in our nation.
Highly recommended for those willing to explore our past to impact the future.
River Sing Me Home
by Eleanor Shearer
Story that needs to be told (8/25/2022)
Rachel has birthed children, many children. Yet she is alone. Some of her children were stillborn, others died as a result of the harsh conditions on the plantations. Those who survived into their teens were stolen from her to do the owners bidding or sold to do the bidding of others in places far away. But now it is 1834 and the British Empire has abolished slavery in most of the British colonies. At Providence, Rachel's plantation, the slaves are informed, while they are free, they are now apprentices with a six-year indenture. Rachel interprets freedom literally, successfully escapes from the apprenticeship and begins a journey to find her children.
A journey to find lost children can be a predictable story line but Shearer circumvents predictability using vibrant descriptions of place and developing memorable characters in tenuous situations. Shearer draws on research and family lore to tell the story of the slaves of the Caribbean, a people forced into servitude yet utilizing all means to maintain hope that one day they can reunite with lost family. River Sing Me Home is a story that illuminates the history of slavery, the power of familial ties and the resiliency of human beings in the face of adversity. Highly recommended.
One's Company: A Novel
by Ashley Hutson
No-one's Company (5/9/2022)
Meet Bonnie Lincoln. She has a thing for the 80's TV sitcom Three's Company. To say she is obsessed is an understatement. The only bedroom in her tiny trailer is reserved for multiples of 3C DVD collections and all the bling she can afford on her warehouse stockperson salary. She binges season after season abed on the living room sofa. And then she wins the lottery, literally. Her good fortune allows her to make the obsession a reality, one she is adamant will not be shared with anyone. Ever. No Bonnie didn't have a "normal" childhood and yes, she experienced a particularly heinous incident that helps to foster this submissive fascination with the squeaky-clean life of a TV sitcom.
One's Company is readable yet spice less. A woman living a dated sitcom in her head is allowed to physically recreate it because she won the lottery? Issues of abandonment, violence and mental health are woven into the plot but Bonnie and her circumstances never really reach palatable much less tasty. Only recommended for those familiar with Three's Company and still care.
Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History
by Lea Ypi
Search for Utopia (11/18/2021)
Some time ago, during an extended stay on a remote beach, a few friends and I tried to imagine the perfect society. We were different ages, and came from opposite ends of the earth. After a few drinks and multiple attempts at creating this ideal nation, ultimately someone would say: "But for that to work some people would have to die!" Then with a resigned sigh of agreement we would go back to the drawing board.
In Free: A Child and a Country at the End of History, the author Lea Ypi recounts her experience as a young child in Marxist-Leninist Albania, and as a teen during the messy transition to a Socialist democracy just as the Soviet Union began to collapse. She pointedly recalls advocates of both systems regaling how free she and her friends and family would be once their goals were reached. Yet, as my friends surmised and Ypi remembers, freedom can have many interpretations, limits and degrees.
Born into a family with a "biography" of "liberals and liberalism" Ypi continually wondered why her parents didn't have pictures of the Party leaders prominently displayed in their home. The author's early teacher was Nora, a strict Party representative, who succinctly answered questions with sanctioned responses assuring the receptive students of the freedom that the Party promised. While her family didn't directly dispute Nora they did not readily agree. During her early teens she experienced the nuances of her family "biography" as she navigated high school and social activities. Only later upon reflection did she realize that the family had communicated with a kind of code to describe their history and that much of what she thought she knew was actually quite the opposite.
Free is readable and refreshing while providing an in-depth understanding of "foreign" culture and governments as experienced by those being governed. Ypi would have been welcomed as a seasoned voice in those long ago campfire summits. Highly recommended.
