Yes, I will spend the livelong day / With Nature in this month of May; / And sit beneath the trees, and share / My bread with birds whose homes are there ~ W.H. Davies
Fearless and Free
from the publisher: First published in France in 1949, her memoir is finally published in English. At last we can hear Josephine in her own voice: charming, passionate, and brave. Her words are thrilling and intimate, like she’s talking with her friends over after-show drinks in her dressing room. Through her own telling, we come to know a woman who danced to the top of the world and left her unforgettable mark on it.
Josephine Baker is an endlessly fascinating figure. Dancer, singer, icon, spy, resistance fighter, children’s advocate, philosopher. Any one of these things would be enough for a biography about her. Here we get to read about Josephine’s life in her own words. She shares her recollections through a freeform interview. The result is a charming, loose aggregation of anecdotes as she remembers details of her life. It is a total joy.
I used to fight with all the schoolmistresses and all the students. I didn’t like being forced to do this, do that. I always preferred to be free. What’s more, they wouldn’t let me make funny faces. But our faces aren’t made to sleep. ~Loc.415
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Publisher: Tiny Reparations Books (February 4, 2025)
Language: English
Hardcover: 304 pages
ISBN-10: 0593853695
Propaganda Girls
from the publisher: Betty MacDonald was a 28-year-old reporter from Hawaii. Zuzka Lauwers grew up in a tiny Czechoslovakian village and knew five languages by the time she was 21. Jane Smith-Hutton was the wife of a naval attaché living in Tokyo. Marlene Dietrich, the German-American actress and singer, was of course one of the biggest stars of the 20th century. These four women, each fascinating in her own right, together contributed to one of the most covert and successful military campaigns in WWII.
As records become declassified and available to researchers, readers are getting to learn more about the efforts of operatives during WWII. These files contain stories largely unknown, or at least unverifiable, until now. While the topic and idea of this book is a good one, the final project is only average. There are interesting details and anecdotes but the stitching that holds them together is tenuous.
Marlene loved the project and she was well aware there was a real risk in beaming her sonorous alto directly into her war-weary native country. … But many German’s missed her voice; after all, she was the country’s biggest export before the war. For many disgruntled Germans, hearing the sound of Marlene’s voice–even at low volume on a transistor radio pressed against the head and with a blanket tightly tucked in to muffle any residual sounds–was with the risk. ~ Loc. 1471
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Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (March 4, 2025)
Language: English
Hardcover: 240 pages
ISBN-10: 1250275598
Impact of Evidence
from the publisher: Near St. Brynneys in the Welsh border country, isolated by heavy snow and flooding from the thaw, a calamity has occurred. Old Dr. Robinson, a known ‘menace on the roads’, has met his end in a collision with a jeep on a hazardous junction. But when the police arrive at the scene, a burning question hints at something murkier than mere accident: why was there a second body—a man not recognised by any locals—in the back of Robinson’s car?
E.R.C. Lorac, writing as Carol Carnac, constructed a tight, puzzling mystery with this one. Set in the Welsh Borders, it is a novel very much illustrative of its place and time. Carnac/Lorac is one the most prolific of the Golden Age crime writers so it’s surprising this book has been out of print since it was published in 1954. This series of re-releases from the British Library and Poisoned Pen Press is a treasure.
When Thomas took the Colonel’s tea in next morning, he found his master already sitting up in bed, smoking a cigarette. Thomas had been the Colonel’s batman in 1914, and he’d been with him ever since. “Good morning, sir. Still raining–hard as ever.” “Harder–if possible,” said Wynne. “But Iv’e got to get across the river somehow, the sooner the better. If this goes on, the bridges may go.” ~Loc.467
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Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press (April 8, 2025)
Language: English
Paperback: 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1464230528
Season of Death
from the publisher: In late Victorian England, private enquiry agents Cyrus Barker and Thomas Llewelyn find themselves in the middle of the deadly chaos after the sudden collapse of a railway tunnel in the East End of London kills dozens and shuts down services all over the city. Meanwhile, a mysterious beggar calling herself “Dutch” guides Barker and Llewelyn to an attempt by a powerful aristocrat to take over London’s criminal underworld.
The strength of this novel is the ease with which the author sketches Victorian London. The banter and relationship between the lead characters is well-worn and comfortable. The mystery itself felt a bit forced but the setting and characters are what you keep reading for. This my first outing in this series, but I’m intrigued to try more.
We were at the mercy of Mr/ Bell’s telephone service, and I was growing weary of it. We were men of derring-do. Enquiry work by telephone wire offended me. If this were a sign of things to come, Barker would sit about all day, sending and receiving telephone calls until he grew sleek and fat in that large chair of his. ~Loc. 3819
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Publisher: Minotaur Books (April 22, 2025)
Language: English
Hardcover: 352 pages
ISBN-10: 1250343607
Whack Job
from the publisher: Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout history: from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII’s favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture.
In all honesty, I did not finish this book. I enjoy histories that focus on a single item or concert and look at its evolution across time. But too late I realized that this was written by the co-author of The Man From the Train, a poorly-constructed narrative filled with weak or nonexistent suppositions. Sadly, what I read was haphazard and I put it aside when I realized why.
Axes are at their core utterly common, and so they have been as ubiquitous as weapons as they have been as tools. They are everywhere in our story of violence, so much a part of the texture of our conflicts that they become banal, unworthy of note. ~Loc. 54
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Publisher: St. Martin’s Press (May 13, 2025)
Language: English
Hardcover: 272 pages
ISBN-10: 125027673X
Mysteries of the National Parks
from the publisher: Mysteries of the National Parks is the first book to delve into the most enigmatic happenings across the National Park Service. Bezemek’s vivid storytelling brings each mystery to life, immersing readers in the intriguing settings and legendary characters while revealing previously untold details. Meanwhile, readers will learn how to visit these mystifying sites.
As someone who enjoys unexplained mysteries AND national parks this was a fun read. The author mixes up the types of odd stories — sightings, hoaxes, and just odd histories. Some of the chapters are stronger than others, like the recounting of John Muir’s hunt for giant redwoods or the Peary’s Denali summit claim. Others feel like they were included to make sure certain parks made the book. Overall, it’s packed of fun facts both about the weird history and about visiting today.
During the winter of 1915, prospector Joseph Crook brought his wife Cara to a dry lakebed in the mountains near Death Valley t show her something strange: thousands of stones resting on the playa seemed to have previously slid on their own, leaving behind long tracks in the dried mud. ~Loc. 959
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Publisher: Sourcebooks (May 6, 2025)
Language: English
Paperback: 464 pages
ISBN-10: 1464226903