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“The Guns of Navarone” by Alistair MacLean – Men of Iron

September 22, 2023

“The Guns of Navarone” by Alistair MacLean (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Alistair MacLean is perhaps one of the more cinematic authors out there, with his novels always being evocative and, as has been proven on numerous occasions, great for movie adaptations. The Guns of Navarone is arguably one of his better-known works across both literature and cinema, and it tells the story of a small group of saboteurs tasked with the seemingly pointless and impossible mission of destroying an artillery installation preventing the evacuation of 1200 British soldiers.

“The Angel’s Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon – Cutting a Deal with the Devil

August 30, 2023

“The Angel's Game” by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Carlos Ruiz Zafon has single-handedly put his beloved city of Barcelona on the map as the perfect setting for mysteries basking in the eternal lights of art, history, and literature. The Cemetery of Forgotten Books is, without a doubt, the series which best exemplifies the author’s adoration of his hometown as well as his literary prowess. In the second novel, titled The Angel’s Game, he takes us back in time to the 1920s and 1930s to meet a young pulp fiction writer whose life is about to change for both the worst, and the best.

“Steppenwolf” by Herman Hesse – The Inherent Beauty of Meaninglessness

August 10, 2023

“Steppenwolf” by Herman Hesse (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

Herman Hesse is an author whose literature can be best-described, in my opinion, as profoundly introspective, affording each and every person it touches the tools to peer further within themselves. Steppenwolf is one of his most popular and influential novels, telling the story of Harry Haller, a profoundly sad and lonely individual struggling to reconcile the civil and primeval halves of his own identity.

“The Girl in the Sand” by L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain – The Broken Saviour

August 2, 2023

“The Girl in the Sand” by L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Short Summary

L.T. Vargus and Tim McBain have created their own standout series in the mystery genre, following FBI profiler Violet Darger on one deadly manhunt after the next. In the third book of the series, titled The Girl in the Sand, she sees herself summoned to Las Vegas following a grizzly discovery, one which puts her in the crosshairs of a legendary serial killer bearing a personal grudge against her.

“Jaws” by Peter Benchley – Man Versus Nature

July 28, 2023

“Jaws” by Peter Benchley (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Peter Benchley has left his mark on the worlds of literature, cinema, and ocean activism, but few of his works have withstood the test of time in the way Jaws has. The novel takes place on a seaside resort on the south shore of Long Island, where a giant killer shark begins to make minced meat of the swimmers. Despite political and personal conflicts swirling around them, three men decide to undertake the perilous journey to send the shark back to the depths it came from.

“The Half Moon” by Mary Beth Keane – The Surprises of Midlife

July 13, 2023

“The Half Moon” by Mary Beth Keane (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Mary Beth Keane writes the sort of fiction which digs a little deeper than your typical thrillers and mysteries, often exploring some of the greyer areas in our lives. In The Half Moon, she tells us the story of Malcolm and Jess Gephardt, a couple faced with a rather uncertain future, one where their dreams and life aspirations might be extinguished for good.

“The Good Samaritan” by John Marrs – Words of Despair

June 28, 2023

“The Good Samaritan” by John Marrs (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

John Marrs is a name most thriller fans are familiar with, having penned numerous bestsellers which still stand tall to this very day. In The Good Samaritan, one of his better-known works, he tells the story of Laura, a woman who abuses her position as a suicide hotline operator to push people over the edge. However, one man has seen beyond the veil, and is closing in on her sinister nature, unaware that she’ll do just about anything to stay in the shadows.

“The Librarian of Saint-Malo” by Mario Escobar – A Literary Resistance

June 22, 2023

“The Librarian of Saint-Malo” by Mario Escobar (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Mario Escobar has, on many occasions, managed to profoundly penetrate some of the more difficult and gut-wrenching topics in recent history, a feat he repeats once again with The Librarian of Saint-Malo. The story takes place in France, 1939, and follows Jocelyn, the titular librarian, as she tries to save the books and people of her beloved coastal village as it falls prey to Nazi occupation.

“Germinal” by Emile Zola – Seeding the Revolution

June 14, 2023

“Germinal” by Emile Zola (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Emile Zola is a name most people are familiar with, even those who haven’t read his works. Objectively one of the greatest authors in our short history, his novels always had the ability to move people, and have been consistently doing so for over a hundred and fifty years. In Germinal, one of his more famous works, he tells the story of Etienne Lantier, a clever and unemployed machinist who eventually stirs a mining community to a strike unlike any other, threatening to open the first cracks in a rotten and unjust world order.

“King: A life” by Jonathan Eig – A National Martyr’s Path

June 2, 2023

“King: A life” by Jonathan Eig (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Jonathan Eig is primarily known for writing about sports figures, but in his most recent book, titled King: A Life, he veers off the familiar path to explore the life of Martin Luther King Jr. The first major biography of the man written in decades, it explores his personal, political and religious life, the many demons he had to wrestle with, and even includes new information from recently-declassified FBI documents.

“The Bat” by Jo Nesbo – Beginning of the Dark Spiral

May 24, 2023

“The Bat” by Jo Nesbo (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Jo Nesbo made his name overseas with the Harry Hole series, more specifically the ones which take place in Norway, the main character’s home country. It took publishers a fairly long time to translate the first novel of the series, The Bat, which uncharacteristically takes us to Australia, where Harry Hole finds himself working as an observer for the police following the murder of a young Norwegian woman.

“A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan – Excess of Wrath

May 10, 2023

“A Fever in the Heartland” by Timothy Egan (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Short Summary

Timothy Egan has long-ago immersed himself in the racial history of the United States of America, having authored numerous articles and books on the subject over the course of his life. In 2023 he published another important work in his long line of investigations, titled A Fever in the Heartland. In it, he investigates the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920 under the leadership of D.C. Stephenson, its growth as an organization, and downfall at the hands of a deathbed confession.

“The Wager” by David Grann – Her Majesty’s Savages

September 16, 2023April 26, 2023

“The Wager” by David Grann (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 9 minutes

Short Summary

David Grann has a knack for presenting history through an exciting framework, able to make virtually any true account as exciting as any work of fiction. In The Wager, he flexes his literary muscles once again, telling the story of the titular ship, which left England in 1740 on a secret mission and only reappeared on the coast of Brazil two years later. Its members had a hell of a story to tell, but a second group of survivors showed up six months later, with a very different story of their own to tell.

“Galapagos” by Kurt Vonnegut – The Best Course of Evolution

July 7, 2023April 13, 2023

“Galapagos” by Kurt Vonnegut (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Kurt Vonnegut had the invaluable ability of pointing out all the truly ridiculous aspects of our lives hiding right beneath our noses, and few are the works where he does it better than Galapagos. The story follows a group of random people who, through sheer coincidence, are stranded on the titular islands and become the sole progenitors for a new, and somewhat different human race.

“Rock of Ages” by Timothy Hallinan – Geriatric Boogaloo

April 5, 2023

“Rock of Ages” by Timothy Hallinan (Header image)

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Short Summary

Timothy Hallinan has doubtlessly created one of the more unique investigators in Junior Bender, a man who generally serves the other side of the law. In Rock of Ages, Timothy Hallinan sends his protagonist on a weekend-long investigation for an old gangster, Irwin Dressler, who fears someone might be using the rock tour he put together as a front to steal his money.