A while back—I’m not sure when exactly—a student asked me why Shakespeare was such a […]
The Taste of Empire, by Lizzie Collingham
It’s not unusual for me to have mixed emotions while reading a book. Some books […]
The Catalogue of Shipwrecked Books, by Edward Wilson-Lee
When I was a library school student, I recall learning about faceted classification and the […]
How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England, by Ruth Goodman
I strongly suspect that How to Behave Badly in Elizabethan England: A Guide for Knaves, Fools, Harlots, […]
The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, by Richard Zimler
In The Last Kabbalist of Lisbon, Richard Zimler takes us back to 1506, the year of […]
The Butcher’s Daughter, by Victoria Glendinning
Victoria Glendinning’s The Butcher’s Daughter explores a theme I hadn’t considered before—or even really addressed—in historical […]
Gateway to the Moon, by Mary Morris
There are many factors that contribute to the creation of a person. Three of them […]
A Castle in Romagna, by Igor Štiks
There are some stories we tell over and over because people always think that, this […]
The Witch’s Trinity, by Erika Mailman
The winter of 1507 followed two years of famine for the people of Tierkinddorf. They’re […]
Mr. Eternity, by Aaron Thier
Being a literature major and librarian has given me a more-than-healthy skepticism about what I […]