January 2023 Picks and Pans

  I don’t know what I’d do without books. They keep me company when I am lonely, they fill long quiet nights of insomnia, they bring me to locales all over the world, and introduce me to extraordinary people. For those of you who love books, too, here are the ones I read in January. With suspense, thrillers, mysteries, devotionals, historical fiction, classics, and contemporary fiction, there’s something here for every taste. Enjoy!   Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection By Kate Bowler, Jessica Richie “Blessed are you who realize there is simply not enough—time, money, resources. Blessed are you who are tired of pretending that raw effort […]

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Shogun

  “Leave the problems of God to God and karma to karma. Today you’re here and nothing you can do will change that. Today you’re alive and here and honored, and blessed with good fortune. Look at this sunset, it’s beautiful, neh? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity.”—James Clavell, Shōgun. Shōgun by James Clavell is a sweeping historical saga of feudal Japan. A bold English adventurer; an invincible Japanese warlord; a beautiful woman torn between two ways of life, all brought together in an extraordinary saga of a time and a […]

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The Best Historical Fiction of All Time

I have 613 books on my Goodreads “Read” list, and at least a third of them fall into the historical fiction classification. So I guess you say this is my jam. Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the story takes place in the past. Historical novels capture the details of the time period as accurately as possible for authenticity, including social norms, manners, customs, and traditions. Many novels in this genre tell fictional stories that involve actual historical figures or historical events. To help you land on some reads you may not have considered, I’ve put together a list of the best historical novels of all time. Such […]

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