Under the Black Flag by David Cordingly describes the truth of the pirate way of life. The book covers just about everything you might need or want to know about how pirates actually lived. It covers a wide variety of topics such as what might have led various people to becoming pirates and what became…
Mrs. Lincoln’s Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini is a historical fiction novel about Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley. The story starts in the run up to the 1860 election with Elizabeth working as a dress designer and maker for the wives of the various powerful men in and around Washington D.C. One of her more influential and close…
The Defector by Chris Hadfield returns us to the world of The Apollo Murders with Kaz Zemeckis. About eight months after the rather dangerous events surrounding the Apollo 18 launch, Kaz and Laura are on vacation visiting his extended family in Israel. While on the beach there one day he sees something rather interesting, what…
The Activist is the fourth book in the Theodore Boone series by John Grisham. It continues the story of young Theo as he works on figuring out local politics. The state government wishes to build a bypass around Strattenburg to save time for local shipping. However, to do so they must imminent domain a surprisingly…
Triple by Ken Follett is another one of his rather incredible thrillers. It tells the story of how Nat Dickstein, a rather important member of Mossad, is attempting to find a way to acquire the materials for Israel to build its own atomic bombs, preferably before their neighbor Egypt manages to do so. To do…
Highfire by Eoin Colfer is a story about a boy and a dragon but not in the traditional sense. Squib is a teenager living with his single mom in the Louisiana bayou who seems to be perpetually in trouble, specifically with the local constable. The same constable who has set his cap for his mom…
A talent for Murder by Peter Swanson is the third book in his Henry Kimball/Lily Kintner series. It starts with Martha, a newly married librarian who is starting to become suspicious of her husband. She had married Alan Ratliff after a somewhat whirlwind romance and long solo life where she had thought she would always…
Sword and Pen is the fifth and final book in the Great Library series by Rachel Caine and it finishes the story of Jess and his friends. The previous book ended with their successful overthrow of the Archivist and their subsequent takeover of the library. Now the group must work on stabilizing the library’s power…
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons is a pretty hilarious fantasy by Peter S. Beagle. Robert is the local exterminator who is only called in to help with dragon infestations. While Robert doesn’t actually like the job due to his fondness for the dragons it does allow him to support his mother and siblings after the…
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison is a bit of a weird book but still a good one. It follows an unnamed black man during an unspecified time but it is presumed to be around the same time the book was published so probably the 30’s or 40’s. The man in question claims he is invisible…
The Draconic Bibliophile
