That's Not How It Happened: A Novel
by Craig Thomas
Listen to it! (12/29/2025)
That’s Not How It Happened is a pitch perfect family story about how everyone may live the same life events, but see them so differently. It’s a book with all the feels. Paige is a stay at home mom to two kids, one of whom has Downs Syndrome. Darcey, the “normal” child is the forgotten child in the equation. Her husband was a successful screenwriter but lately has been reduced to being a college professor. When she writes a memoir about her experiences with a neurodivergent child and the challenges involved, a Reese Witherspoon styled actress options the book. And that’s when the fun begins.
The book switches between all four POVs. Mistakes are made by all concerned. I felt for all four MCs, their character flaws were totally realistic. Even when they acted like asses, you understand why. There’s lots of humor, although a lot of it is of the groan, not laugh, variety. The book moves at a brisk pace. There are no down or slow periods. I was continually surprised by the twists Thomas threw in.
Craig Thomas was co-creator and executive producer of How I Met Your Mother, so he knows a thing or two about Hollywood and creating shows. His son has Jacobsen Syndrome, so he also knows a thing or two about raising a child with developmental issues. This would make a great book club selection, especially when you want something meaningful but not dark.
I listened to this and that is definitely the way to partake. There is a full cast, which includes Cobie Smulders and Josh Radnor from HIMYM, and each narrator is perfect. Kevin Iannucci, who voices Emmett, deserves special praise.
A Good Animal: A Novel
by Sara Maurer
Ode to young love (12/27/2025)
A Good Animal is an ode to young love, to growing up, to the farming life. It’s a quiet, evenly paced story about what it means to find your way over the course of a year. It covers all the emotions. Everett is seventeen. Farming is all he’s ever known or wanted. Then Mary arrives. She’s always been adrift and she’s got big plans for where she wants life to take her. They fall in love despite their vastly different visions for the future.
Maurer paints a non sentimental look at farm life. I enjoyed watching Everett learn to make decisions for himself, even when it’s obvious they’re not the right ones. Oh, but with my older eyes, I could see the inevitable coming. All the characters felt fully fleshed out. My only regret was I would have loved a glimpse into how their lives turned out. The story is beautifully written and doesn’t come across as a debut novel.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.
This Is Not About Us: Fiction
by Allegra Goodman
Vignettes more than a linear story (12/27/2025)
This Is Not About Us is a family saga about a multi-generational Jewish family. Starting with the death of one of three elderly sisters, it follows the remaining sisters, the children and grandchildren. There were numerous characters here, but I struggled to become invested with any of them. At times, the book felt more like vignettes about them rather than a straightforward storyline. It’s very character, as opposed to plot, driven.
No one is having an easy or a happy life. And that’s part of the problem. The book’s a bit of a downer. And too many of the characters were just petty and unable to see beyond their own narrow focus. The book works best when they manage to move beyond their grievances and find common ground with their siblings/children. My favorite character was Debra, who was so gracious. And then the book just sort of ends.
I adore Allegra Goodman but this one was more of a miss than a hit for me.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
A Guardian and a Thief: A Novel
by Megha Majumdar
Will be thinking about for a while (12/25/2025)
A Guardian and a Thief isn’t meant to be an either/or description. It’s not about one good and one bad character. It’s a story about the moral grey zone, especially what we are willing to do to protect those we love. It’s all well and good to think we have high moral standards. But those trappings fall away when those you love are hungry. It gives flesh and meaning to the idiom, desperate people do desperate things.
The story takes place in the near future, when climate change in India has led to extreme food shortages. Ma has the good fortune to have a husband in America who has procured passports and visas for her, their daughter and her father to immigrate. But her purse, with the documents, is stolen by Boomba. Alternating between their stories, they each pursue their own agendas.
Mujumdar does an excellent job of not playing favorites. It was easy to understand both POVs. This isn’t a long book, but it packs a lot into it. I felt immediately transported into Kolkata and the breakdown of civilization. And oh, that ending…
Given what is currently happening with our government cutting off visas, the story seems even more timely.
Fireflies in Winter
by Eleanor Shearer
Beautiful but too slow (12/22/2025)
I had been impressed by River Song Me Home, so was delighted to be given an advance copy of Shearer’s sophomore effort, Fireflies in Winter. But this book didn’t pull me in the way her debut did. The story takes place in late 18th century Halifax. A young woman, an orphaned Maroon, has recently arrived from Jamaica. I was unaware of the concept of Maroons and found it odd that Shearer only slowly explains the concept (and then just in spatters) and what brought them to Nova Scotia. I had to check Wikipedia to really get a grasp. Did she assume everyone knew the history? The book would be improved by a brief synopsis of their history before the book begins.
During the harsh winter, she meets another young black woman who is hiding out in the woods. She has never felt she belonged within her community and finds herself drawn to this stranger in the woods. This is a slow moving story, going back and forth in its limited timeline. It doesn’t come together until it’s almost ? over. It’s a dark story, focusing on the slippery slope of freedom for anyone not white. The writing is beautiful. Shearer does a great job providing a sense of time and place. I had a real feel for the absolute cold of the winter.
My thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book.
The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
by David Grann
Nonfiction that reads like fiction (12/16/2025)
David Grann has now officially become one of the few nonfiction writers who are now a must read author for me. The Wager was an English warship in 1740 when she was sent as part of a five boat mission to the Pacific to seize silver and gold from a Spanish galleon on its way to the Philippines. Things were rough for The Wager even before its first batch of survivors washed up on shore in Brazil. A delayed start and rough seas meant it entered Drake’s Passage at the wrong time of year. Even before then, many of the men were sick with typhus and scurvy.
After the shipwreck, along the coast of Patagonia, the bonds of civilization quickly fall apart. As Grann points out by bringing in scientific studies, lack of food and starvation trumps all hope of decency. It didn’t help that the captain is unraveling and shoots one of the sailors. Grann’s writing style is totally engrossing. The journals that survived gave him a bird’s eye view onto the trials endured. And finally, when the two competing parties manage to return to England, the reader gets to witness the court martial trials. Kudos to Grann for writing a book that truly brings the events and the people to life. There were numerous times my stomach turned or I would let out a gasp. It’s that realistic.
Dion Graham was one of the best nonfiction narrators I’ve ever listened to. He imparted so much emotion to the tale. Martin Scorsese already has plans to adapt the book into a movie. It will make a fascinating movie.
Culpability: A Novel
by Bruce Holsinger
Perfect for a book club discussion (12/15/2025)
Culpability screams out to be a book club selection, which is probably why Oprah chose it. There is just so much to unpack in this story. The book starts with a car accident. Seventeen year old Charlie is behind the wheel of an AI assisted car. His father is in the passenger seat, but busy working on his laptop. Mom and his two pre-teen sisters are in the back. The accident results in the two people in the other car being killed. To aid in their recovery, the family takes a weeklong vacation along the Chesapeake Bay where they interact with a billionaire tech mogul and his lovely daughter.
The book is aptly named. Who or what has culpability for the death of the two people in the other car? Who is ultimately responsible for what AI does? Are we fooling ourselves to think we have control over this Frankenstein monster we’ve created? It also delves into all aspects of guilt and remorse - of surviving, of keeping secrets or making poor choices.
Holsinger has wisely made the mother, Lorelei, a professor of engineering and philosophy who focuses on AI. This allows the introduction of ideas like situational ethics. Each character felt real. Which means they alternated between being sympathetic and irritating. This was especially true of Noah, the father. The book flips between Noah’s POV and that of the thirteen year old daughter whose “best friend” is an AI generated companion. These sections are interspersed with clips from the mother’s work.
The book took several twists I didn’t see coming and pointed out legal aspects I hadn’t thought of. I’ll admit to being someone who is scared of where AI may lead society. So, parts of this book came across a little like a horror story to me. And throughout the story, I kept seeing the parallels of those working on AI and those creating the atomic bomb. Hoping they’re doing good for humankind without really knowing how their creation could be used.
I listened to this and there was a full cast that did a great job of projecting the story.
Women of a Promiscuous Nature
by Donna Everhart
Everhart does it again (12/15/2025)
It always seems to be the way. Society really has trouble with women who don’t conform to the normal ideas of what women are meant to be. It feels like one of those universal truths. Anyone over a certain age who’s not married and a mother is a deviant. Women of a Promiscuous Nature details an actual government program known as the American Plan. Thanks to first the Chamberlin-Kahn Act of 1918 and then The May Act of 1941, women living near army bases could be arrested on suspicion of having venereal diseases. They would then be sent to detention centers where they could be kept for years.
Ruth Foster is one such woman . At age 24, she was still single. She lives alone and holds a job. She’s brought in and examined by a doctor who doesn’t seem to register that she’s a virgin. She’s told she has syphilis and is sent away. Stella has also been sent away. She’s 15 and pregnant. Not that she was a willing participant in how she became pregnant. She’s also sent to the State Industrial Farm Colony. But compared to her home life, she sees this as an improvement. Dorothy Baker, the Superintendent, runs the place like a prison farm. She thinks she’s saving their souls, reforming them so they can be productive members of society. She relies heavily on hard work and punishment to accomplish her goals.
The story is told from the perspectives of all three women. It can be a fine line to write a story with strong emotional ties without becoming too cliched. Stella’s story helps in that regard. And Everhart tries to give the reader an understanding of Baker’s reasoning, warped as it is. In fact, it’s that dichotomy between those who think they’re doing good vs. those that are targeted that makes this such a fascinating story. The lack of due process for those removed to the Colony has eerie parallels to today’s news events and is a reminder that no one is ever safe when a government does away with the rules of law.
I was really wondering how this story could end on a realistic note. Trust me, it does. One question that remained unanswered for me was whether Ruth was actually infected, which seemed unlikely.
My thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for an advance copy of this book.
The Cyclist: DS George Cross Mysteries #2
by Tim Sullivan
A great team (12/8/2025)
The Cyclist is the second in the DI Cross series and I enjoyed it as much as the first. Cross is somewhere on the Aspergers spectrum, but he’s making an effort to learn the social niceties from his partner, DS Ottey. In fact, kudos to Sullivan for not making Cross a caricature. The reader sees how Cross is trying, but it’s not a straight line of told once, mission accomplished.
This time, a dead body is found in a warehouse about to be demolished. The first job is discovering who the victim was. Once that was accomplished, Sullivan throws up multiple red herrings about why and who might have been involved. That said, I thought it was pretty obvious from early on who the murderer was and how it would all play out even down to the final twist. But even with that, I still really enjoyed this.
Cross is a fabulous main character but it’s Ottey that I was most taken with. She’s determined to make the partnership work, but that doesn’t mean he doesn't test her patience. Most of the humor is based on the relationship between the team members.
I recommend this one for fans of police procedurals.
I listened to this and it worked really well. John Heffernan did a good job as the narrator.
The Last of Earth: A Novel
by Deepa Anappara
Better premise than execution (12/7/2025)
I was intrigued by the premise of The Last of Earth because of its unique location in Tibet. In 1869, Europeans were forbidden from entering Tibet as it was feared they would attempt to take over the territory much as the English conquered India. The desolate and inaccessible landscape made it easy to maintain such a rule. However, two individuals look to covertly enter Tibet for different reasons. An English Captain, accompanied by an Indian surveyor and a team of bearers wants to survey a river along the southern part of Tibet. Meanwhile, a mixed race English-Indian woman, denied entry into the Royal Geographical Society, has entered to find her way to Lhasa and become the first European woman to do so.
The story alternates between Balram, the Indian surveyor and Katherine. Balram has an ulterior motive in helping the Captain - he’s looking for his friend Gyan, who went missing on a prior mission and was believed captured. The writing totally captures the place and time. It’s lush, with vivid details of the landscape. Anappara makes it easy to envision each scene. But I can’t say the book totally worked for me. It moves at a snail’s pace and while there are multiple trials - snow leopards, bandits, injuries and illnesses, storms, the loss of animals - it all felt at a remove. And both main characters felt less than fully developed. The most captivating character is Chetak, who travels alone and whose motives are unknown. He interacts with both groups. I give Anappara credit for a very different ending than I would have ever envisioned.
The book explores the themes of freedom or independence, ambition and duty. But no theme is really examined in depth.
My thanks to Netgalley and Random House for an advance copy of this book.
Inside Man: Head Cases #2
by John McMahon
A strong procedural (12/7/2025)
Inside Man is the second in the Head Cases series. The “Head Cases” group of the FBI is actually known as The Patterns and Recognition (PAR) Unit. This time, they’re investigating a militia group in Florida. When their CI is killed, it’s quickly apparent the group was not responsible. This leads to a separate investigation, involving a potential serial killer. I was quickly drawn in and the dual plot lines kept up the pace and tension.
McMahon has written a well crafted procedural with a strong group of characters. McMahon allows the main characters to develop as the story goes along. Despite their intelligence, they still make mistakes. As with any good procedural, the dynamics of the team plays an important role in the story.
There are some good twists here and I did not see how it would all play out. It is not necessary to have read the first book in the series, but it’s equally enjoyable and I also recommend it. I’m looking forward to the next in the series.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book.
Wildwood: A Novel
by Amy Pease
Well done characters (12/7/2025)
Wildwood is the second in the Northwoods series which has now made it onto my list of gotta read series. If anything, I think I liked this book even more than the first. The series involves a mother-son duo of sheriff and deputy sheriff in North Wisconsin. They are called in to investigate when the CI of an undercover DEA agent goes missing, presumed dead. FBI agent Alyssa Mason also shows up again to help with the investigation.
The plot is well thought out and stays mostly in the realm of the possible. (Although a few of the initial plot points about Trinity seemed a little out of place once the ending unfurled.) There’s a steady pace to the story and a good bit of tension that had me finding excuses to keep reading. The book tracks between the current investigation and the months leading up to it as told from the missing victim’s perspective. All the characters, including the victim, are well fleshed out and we get great insight into their issues. There’s even a wonderful dog/wolf who acts as an emotional support dog for Eli.
I definitely recommend reading the two books in order.
My thanks to Netgalley and Atria Books for an advance copy of this book.
The Hounding: A Novel
by Xenobe Purvis
Well done debut (12/7/2025)
I’ll admit to picking The Hounding purely for that beautiful cover. The story is a reminder how too many people hate anything or one that smacks of being different. And how easy it is to blame those that are different when things go awry. How easy for mass hysteria to take root. And how hard it is to stand up against it.
The village of Little Nettlebed is one such place. And they have a particular dislike for the Mansfield granddaughters. Too free, too full of themselves. The town is dealing with a drought, so when weird things start happening, the village is looking for someone to blame. And then one man says he’s seen the girls transform into dogs.
Purvis does a great job of setting the scene in 18th Century English countryside. Two scenes in particular brought home the small mindedness and ugliness - the tradition of forcing pregnant women to carry the coffin of a woman who died in childbirth and men baiting a trapped badger.
The story veers between five perspectives. Ferryman Pete is a specially noxious man, one of those always looking to make himself look more important. Interestingly, none of the storylines are that of the sisters themselves. This isn’t a long book but it packs a lot into it. It’s a thought provoking book. I found the ending especially surprisingly.
I listened to this and Olivia Vinall did a strong job as the narrator.
The Botanist's Assistant
by Peggy Townsend
Loved the main character (12/4/2025)
I was immediately drawn into The Botanist’s Assistant and engaged by its heroine, Margaret. Margaret likes things done to precision, right down to the second. Everything must be orderly, neat as a pin. She has her dream job, working as a research assistant II for Professor Deaver. That is, until Professor Deaver’s dead body is found in his office. And Margaret suspects foul play. Of course, no one else - the campus police, the Dean or the potential replacement for the professor’s job, believe her. Not only do they blow her off, they also threaten her job.
I adored Margaret. She knows the fine line she’s walking. She doesn’t want to lose her job at 54. She struggles in multiple situations with what’s the right thing to do. It was great to see her blossom into a new friendship and pet parenthood. Townsend provided multiple red herrings and the story took several turns I didn’t see coming. The story moved at a nice brisk pace.
I appreciated that Townsend includes enough real info about plants to educate the reader without slowing down the pace of the story. And some of the facts were so interesting. Like who knew that tomato plants secreted a chemical that causes caterpillars to eat each other? She did a lot of research for a cozy mystery. Fans of other neurodivergent FMCs, like The Maid, will enjoy this book.
My thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Publishing for an advance copy of this book.
Holy City
by Henry Wise
Needed a better editor (11/23/2025)
Holy City is the debut novel of Henry Wise; a southern noir mystery about a deputy trying to prevent a miscarriage of justice. I will admit to buying this based on S. A. Cosby’s recommendation.
Will Seems has returned to his small hometown, just south of Richmond, after a ten year hiatus. One night he notices smoke - the house of a friend is on fire. Inside, he pulls out the dead body. But the man didn’t die from the fire. He was murdered and the fire was meant to cover it up. The sheriff quickly makes an arrest, but Will is convinced they have the wrong man despite a preponderance of evidence. The mother of the dead man hires a female PI and she and Will start investigating on their own.
The strength of the story lies in the characters. They are all complex. The weakness of the story lies in the writing. It’s overly wordy which kept taking me out of the story. It was obvious from the first chapters who was the actual murderer. The suspense for me was to see how they would be uncovered. Then the book takes a weird turn. By the 75 mark, most everything has been revealed and I couldn’t figure out how the author intended to fill the remaining 25. And while it probably could have easily been condensed, it did tie up all the loose ends.
It’s obvious that Wise has talent. What he needed was a better editor. I listened to this and Chris Henry Coffey was a great narrator.
All the Colors of the Dark
by Chris Whitaker
Poetic (11/23/2025)
Was a huge fan of We Begin at the End, so I couldn’t wait to read All the Colors of the Dark. I hadn’t realized what an undertaking it would be, clocking in at 608 pages. I can’t say it was a fast read, but it was such an engrossing read that I didn’t mind the length.
At the start of the book, it’s 1975. A man attempts to kidnap a teenage girl and a young teenager intervenes. He ends up being taken instead. It’s a story of the have and the have nots, the obsessed, hope and despair. But mostly, it’s about what we will do for those we love.
The plot is character driven, with each of the three main characters driven by their own hopes and demons. Saint is being raised by her grandmother. Her only friend is Patch, a poor one eyed boy who believes himself a pirate. When Patch saves Misty, the daughter of one of the town’s wealthiest families, Misty becomes obsessed with him and sees him as her savior. All three of them are damaged by the events. I was totally engrossed in their lives and where things would end up for each of them. But I also loved Sammy and Charlotte. His exploits and her language were priceless.
The writing is beautiful, poetic really, and I found myself highlighting multiple passages. It’s a fine line between a book that is philosophical and one that tries to cram philosophy down your throat. This is the former. Every time I put the book down, I found myself still thinking about it. And I loved the ending which brought a few tears to my eyes. Another reviewer (thanks Adrian) mentioned the fairy tale feel of the book and I totally get it. There’s a bit of a magic realism feel to Patch’s early art and his search for Grace.
My thanks to Netgalley and Crown Book for an advance copy of this book.
Beasts of the Sea: A Novel
by Iida Turpeinen
Uneven (11/20/2025)
How funny to start Beasts of the Sea right after a re-read of North Woods, given the comparison of this book to Daniel Mason’s. And in one sense, it’s an apt comparison. Instead of a house, there is the Stellar Sea Cow, a mammal which has the sad distinction of being the first mammal to become extinct because of humans. But unlike North Woods, which was consistently strong across different characters and time periods, this is not.
The story begins in 1741 when Captain Bering, George Steller and two boats head east to find a sea route from Siberia to the Americas. They never reach the Americas, instead becoming stranded on one of what would later be named The Commander Islands. I was intrigued by this section. But the next, in 1859, which involved the governor of the Russian territory of Alaska trying to locate the bones of the now extinct creature was dull. Once found they are sent to Helsinki, where a female illustrator is given the job of producing drawings of the bones.
Finally, in 1952, the Museum of Zoology assigned its restorer to put the bones together. This section delves more into bird egg collecting and its effect on bird populations.
The entire book tends to read more like narrative nonfiction than fiction. There’s a dryness to the writing style. The author does an excellent job of giving a sense of time and place. Her writing is as precise as the illustrations created by Olson. But at times, I would have preferred that she spent more time on the thoughts of the day - the infallibility of God when creating species and how hard it was to acknowledge the idea of extinction, let alone extinction caused by the actions of man, for example. At least in the final section, the debate among ornithologists about protecting birds vs. collecting eggs to study the birds is more fully fleshed out.
My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company or an advance copy of this book
Before I Forget: A Novel
by Tory Henwood Hoen
Rings true (11/20/2025)
“Alzheimer’s is not funny, except when it is, which is often. It has the capacity to be both devastating and hilarious, and those who witness it learn to live in limbo, because there’s nowhere else to live.”
Those of us living with someone with Alzheimer’s recognize the truth of these words. You laugh because if you don’t, you’ll cry. At 26 years old, Cricket finally steps up to being responsible so her older sister can fulfill her dream. Because Cricket’s father has Alzheimer’s. It’s still early stages, he may not know exactly who she is, but he still has “functionality”. For those who haven’t been forced to learn the jargon, that means he can still do things for himself. And he still loves his house and the pond and the wildlife. And he still has his sense of humor. I remember once being told that as the filters go away, people’s natural personality traits come out more. The paranoid become more paranoid, the angry become angrier. Luckily, her dad has a pleasant personality, happy to roll with life.
The book takes an unexpected turn as her dad seems to develop some sort of sixth sense that goes public. I wasn’t initially sure if this twist would work for me. But it did. It was a reminder to accept each new reality. There’s a reason Cricket hasn’t been home for nine years. Something happened when she was a teenager and she’s never reconciled herself to those events. The book flips back and forth between then and now.
The book focuses on being there for someone while still trying to find your own sense of self. It was lovely without being overly sentimental. (But I will admit to shedding a few tears.). It was beautifully written and I highlighted quite a few phrases, especially those dealing with grief, acceptance and the bugaboo that is Alzheimer’s.
My thanks to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for an advance copy of this book
Beasts of the Sea: A Novel
by Iida Turpeinen
Uneven (11/15/2025)
How funny to start Beasts of the Sea right after a re-read of North Woods, given the comparison of this book to Daniel Mason’s. And in one sense, it’s an apt comparison. Instead of a house, there is the Stellar Sea Cow, a mammal which has the sad distinction of being the first mammal to become extinct because of humans. But unlike North Woods, which was consistently strong across different characters and time periods, this is not.
The story begins in 1741 when Captain Bering, George Steller and two boats head east to find a sea route from Siberia to the Americas. They never reach the Americas, instead becoming stranded on one of what would later be named The Commander Islands. I was intrigued by this section. But the next, in 1859, which involved the governor of the Russian territory of Alaska trying to locate the bones of the now extinct creature was dull. Once found they are sent to Helsinki, where a female illustrator is given the job of producing drawings of the bones.
Finally, in 1952, the Museum of Zoology assigned its restorer to put the bones together. This section delves more into bird egg collecting and its effect on bird populations.
The entire book tends to read more like narrative nonfiction than fiction. There’s a dryness to the writing style. The author does an excellent job of giving a sense of time and place. Her writing is as precise as the illustrations created by Olson. But at times, I would have preferred that she spent more time on the thoughts of the day - the infallibility of God when creating species and how hard it was to acknowledge the idea of extinction, let alone extinction caused by the actions of man, for example. At least in the final section, the debate among ornithologists about protecting birds vs. collecting eggs to study the birds is more fully fleshed out.
My thanks to Netgalley and Little, Brown and Company or an advance copy of this book
Family of Spies
by Christine Kuehn
Exactly what I want in nonfiction (11/15/2025)
A Family of Spies is a great family memoir/nonfiction that tracks one family’s involvement as German spies that helped the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. This fulfilled all my expectations for nonfiction. The story begins when Christine Kuehn is contacted by a film screenwriter who is seeking information on her grandfather’s involvement in Pearl Harbor. She quickly realized there’s a reason her father never spoke of his family except in monosyllabic answers that didn’t always line up. Over the next thirty years, she researched her grandparents’ and aunt’s time as spies. An uncle who remained in Germany was a fairly high ranking member of the Nazi party.
I appreciated that Kuehn took the time to walk us through the Nazi’s rise to power in the 1930s. I was unaware of how it all came together. (It reads like Stephen Miller’s how-to book.) In fact, so much of this story was new information to me. Her writing throughout is fluid and easy to follow. It’s a fast paced book with no down periods. It was crazy to realize how much the FBI knew about what was going on but seemed unable to stop it. I was horrified to learn that J. Edgar Hoover blew off intelligence concerning the upcoming attack.
Kuehn does a great job of expressing the shock to her system. I couldn’t begin to imagine discovering your grandfather had a key role in helping the Japanese. And it all came down to greed. Their own daughter was half Jewish, yet not only did the parents continue to work on behalf of the Axis, so did she. What moved me the most was Kuehn’s reason for finally writing the book and not just burying the past. It was finding anti-Semitic literature and swastikas in her Everytown, USA community of Kensington, MD.
I highly recommend this to fans of historical nonfiction, even those that think there’s nothing new to learn about WWII.
My thanks to Netgalley and Celadon Books for an advance copy of this book.
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