Did you know it’s South Asian Heritage Month? Well, now you do! South Asian Heritage Month is held annually from July 18 to August 17 to honor, recognize, and appreciate South Asian history and culture. Countries included in this region are Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. This year’s theme is “Stories to Tell,” and what better way to learn about these countries than by reading a good novel? To encourage you in that endeavor, I’ve put together a list of some of the greatest books set in these countries—won’t you join me in traveling remotely through these novels? I’ve only read a couple of […]
Read more...Author Archive: Amy Hammond Hagberg
February 2023 Picks and Pans
This month was surprising. I normally don’t have as many 3-star ratings, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles or the ball bounces. Each of these books was good in its own way, some just weren’t great. Have fun adding to your TBR list! A World of Curiosities by Louise Penny “Happiness as an act of defiance. A revolutionary act.” ― Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities Louise Penny’s latest installment in the bestselling Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series marks a triumphant return for the beloved detective. In this eighteenth book, Three Pines emerges from a harsh winter, setting the stage for a special celebration. However, the return of siblings […]
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Signal Moon
Lily Baines,a young debutante, wearies under the weight of wartime Britain. Swapping her elegant white gloves for a radio, she embarks on a daring journey as part of the Women’s Royal Naval Service in 1943. Assigned to intercept enemy naval communications and forward them to Bletchley Park for decryption, she stumbles upon an unexpected transmission. Matt Jackson is a spirited young American naval officer in 2023. His ship is taking heavy fire in the treacherous North Atlantic when he radios for help. Could he be communicating with a woman in the middle of WWII? Living on opposite sides of an eighty-year chasm, Lily and Matt must find a way to […]
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The New Girl
At an exclusive private school in Switzerland, mystery surrounds the identity of the girl who arrives each morning in a motorcade. She is believed to be the daughter of a wealthy international businessman. Her father is actually Khalid bin Mohammed, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia. Once celebrated for his daring social and religious reforms, Khalid is now reviled for his role in the murder of a dissident journalist. When his 12-year-old daughter is kidnapped, he turns to Gabriel Allon, an art restorer, and the director of Israeli intelligence for help. As always, Silva weaves a complex and multi-layered plot, filled with twists and turns. Fans of his novels will […]
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The Codebreaker’s Secret
This historical novel unfolds across two different time periods, 1943 Honolulu and 1965 Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, blending codebreaking secrets, murder, and romance. It follows two women: Isabel Cooper, a skilled cryptanalyst working to defeat the Japanese Army after her brother’s death during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and Lu Freitas, a rookie journalist for Sunset magazine. Isabel’s concerns heighten when her fellow female codebreaker, Gloria, vanishes from Station Hypo. Meanwhile, in 1965, Lu is assigned to cover the highly anticipated opening of Rockefeller’s Mauna Kea Beach Hotel. When singer Joni Diaz disappears, she teams up with a veteran photograph to investigate. As a fan of books featuring strong […]
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The Last Mona Lisa
On August 21, 1911, Vincent Peruggia, an Italian criminal, stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre Museum. The events that transpired during the two years before its recovery remain a mystery. Luke Perrone, an art history professor who has battled alcoholism, embarks on a quest to uncover the truth about his notorious ancestor, Peruggia. His search leads him to the Laurentian library in Florence, Italy, where he hopes to find his great-grandfather’s journal. He wants to know if a forgery replaced the stolen Mona Lisa prior to its recovery in 1913. Assisted by John Washington Smith, an ambitious analyst from Interpol’s Art Theft Division, and the enigmatic Alexandra Greene, Luke […]
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The Metal Heart
Identical twins Dorothy and Constance are haunted by their parents’ mysterious disappearance near Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. To start anew, they settle on the neighboring island of Selkie Holm in the autumn of 1941. Against the backdrop of World War II, a German U-boat sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak in Scapa Flow. Eight hundred and thirty-four men lost their lives, prompting Winston Churchill to order the construction of defensive barricades between the islands. Italian prisoners of war, captured in North Africa, are transported to Selkie Holm to quarry stone and build the barriers. Many of the islanders are hostile towards the prisoners, but the twenty-three-year-old sisters see […]
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Signal Fires
In the summer of 1985, tragedy strikes when three teenagers, under the influence of alcohol, experience a catastrophic car crash that claims the life of one of them. The collision shatters the lives of those involved, including Ben Wilf, a young doctor who arrives at the scene. Years later, the Shenkmans move into the neighborhood. During a snowstorm, Ben saves their newborn’s life when the mother goes into labor at home during a snowstorm. Waldo, the Shenkmans’ intellectually gifted yet solitary son, forms a strong connection with Dr. Wilf, who is now retired and grappling with his wife’s dementia. Opinions on this book diverge significantly among readers. While some found […]
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A World of Curosities
“Happiness as an act of defiance. A revolutionary act.”― Louise Penny, A World of Curiosities. Louise Penny’s latest installment in the bestselling Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series marks a triumphant return for the beloved detective. In this eighteenth book, Three Pines emerges from a harsh winter, setting the stage for a special celebration. However, the return of siblings Fiona and Sam Arsenault unravels a series of unsettling events. Memories of the bludgeoning murder investigation involving Fiona and Sam’s troubled mother flood Gamache and his colleague Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Having taken Fiona under their wing after her conviction and subsequent imprisonment, Gamache and his wife, Reine-Marie, yet are surprised when both siblings show […]
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Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow
In 1986, Sadie Green, 11, visits a children’s hospital where her sister is being treated for cancer. There, she befriends another patient, a 12-year-old Korean Jewish boy named Sam Masur, who has a badly injured foot, and the two bond over their love for video games. Over 600 hospital visits later, they have a fight and don’t speak again for six years when they reconnect while attending college in Boston. The pair, with help from their friend Marx, form a company designing video games. Before even graduating, they have created their first blockbuster video game, Ichigo. Spanning three decades and various locations, including Cambridge and Venice Beach, Gabrielle Zevin’s Tomorrow, and […]
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