“Holding” by Graham Norton

I’ve been a fan of Graham Norton as a television personality ever since I first saw his delightfully frenetic performances on “Father Ted” back in the ’90s, so naturally I had to read this book when I found out about it. “Holding” is equally as delightful as Norton’s tv appearances, but different. Instead of urbanity, […]

“Consequence: A Memoir” by Eric Fair

Eric Fair always wanted to protect and serve. He dreamed of being a police officer, or maybe a Presbyterian minister. Instead he ended up running an interrogation booth in Abu Ghraib. “Consequence” tells the story of how, through a series of life choices that often seemed sensible at the time, Fair found himself conducting “enhanced […]

“Eric Olafson: Captain Black Velvet” by Vanessa Ravencroft

Eric Olafson is a captain in the United Stars Navy, running a dangerous undercover mission for the Union into Freespace. Also, Eric is now Erica. This is part of a series, and while I haven’t read any of the earlier installments, I was able to follow along pretty well. Eric/a is a human from a […]

“The Hideout” by Egon Hostovsky

In “The Hideout,” a Czech engineer writes letters to his wife, Hanichka, from his hiding place in occupied France. In them, he describes how he went to Paris in 1939 without her knowledge in order to chase after another woman, only to be trapped there when the Nazis, who have taken Czechoslovakia, declare him a […]

“The Mapmaker’s Daughter” by Katherine Nouri Hughes

How does an illegitimate Venetian girl become the wife of the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire? What was her life like? What kind of power does she wield, and how? “The Mapmaker’s Daughter,” a fictionalized memoir of Cecilia/Nurbanu, the real-life Venetian captive who became wife and then mother to Sultans, seeks to answer those questions. […]

“The Chechen Wars” by Matthew Evangelista

A historical overview of the first Chechen war, and the first couple of years of the second, with comparisons of the Chechen situation with that of other autonomous republics of the RF such as Tatarstan, and discussions of possible outcomes. This is a detailed and informative book on post-Soviet Chechnya. While well-written, it is unquestionably […]

“Now That We’re Adults” by Lynn Almengor

When you’re in college, you think that those people who’ve already graduated and moved on with their lives have everything figured out. But then you graduate and move on yourself, and you discover you’re still the same person who always were, only with more responsibilities and life choices. How you handle that is up to […]

“Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus” by Carlotta Gall and Thomas de Waal

An account of the first Chechen war written by two journalists who were on the ground when it happened, interviewing the leaders and even spending time embedded amongst Chechen units, “Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus” is both a thorough overview and a riveting story of the first war. Although it is distinctly dated by being […]

“A Russian Diary” by Anna Politkovskaya

Reading Politkovskaya is always a draining experience, and this, the last complete book of her writings and released after her death, is particularly challenging. It is organized in the form of a diary, with daily entries compiled of Politkovskaya’s notes, many of which later became articles–it includes, for example, the infamous interview with Ramzan Kadyrov, […]

“When the Future Comes Too Soon” by Selina Siak Chin Yoke

“The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds” followed the life of Chye Hoon, a strong-willed Nyonya girl who becomes the matriarch of her mixed-heritage family in early 20th-century Malaysia. “When the Future Comes Too Soon” picks up shortly after where “The Woman Who Breathed Two Worlds” left off, with the death of Chye Hoon. Now the […]

E. P. Clark: Author, Book Reviewer, and All-Around Literary Handiwoman

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