I’m always keeping my eye out for the newest historical thriller. (Wow, that sounded really nerdy….) They are a perfect combination: history + suspense. I love when an author can turn a simple historical fact into a full blown novel, especially when there is intrigue involved. Needless to say, I was quite excited to find “The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane” in my mailbox. Not only is it based on an infamous point in American history, but also includes a little supernatural, making it fiction perfection in my book. (No pun intended.)

“Deliverance Dane” takes place in 1991 and also 1692. For you history buffs, you will recognize 1692 as the year that the infamous Salem witch trials took place, where nineteen men and women were hung for allegedly committing “witchcraft.” The witch trials are regarded as a huge blemish in American colonial history, but with “Deliverance Dane” Katherine Howe uses a new approach: that maybe some of the women did actually practice some witchcraft.

The novel flip flops between two time periods and storylines. In one, set in 1991, Connie Goodwin, a graduate student at Harvard, is stuck repairing her grandmother’s ancient house in the small town of Marblehead, Massuchusetts, near Salem. In another set in 1692, Deliverance Dane (a fictional character) is being put on trial for witchcraft.

One day while cleaning, Connie finds a slip of paper in a Bible with Deliverance Dane’s name on it and begins an adventure to find out who Deliverance was. Along the way, Connie meets Sam, a brilliant man who abandoned his academic career to repair church steeples. Together they venture deeper into Salem’s dark and twisted history, tracing Deliverance’s family all the way up to the present day – and trust me, there is a twist there! When Sam has a horrible accident, Connie must look to the past and confront her own heritage to save his life. Read More »

In the summer, I want to be entertained without thinking. I admit to occasionally cracking a textbook, but the majority of my summer reading tends to be a little mindless and purely entertaining. In the summer, I abandon content and literary merit in favor of laughs and a good story.

So here is a good story for all you readers. “The Alphabetical Hookup List” by Phoebe McPhee is a hilarious roller coaster series of three books. Starring Jodi, Celeste and Ali, three VERY different girls forced to live together in a dorm at Pollard University, the series is literally a laugh-a-minute.

At first, the girls don’t get along at all and try to sabotage each other. Finally, over a bottle of tequlia one night, they bond, and decide to embark on the quest from which the title gets its name. They will compete in a contest to find out who can kiss a boy whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet the fastest. From that plot line alone, you can imagine all the terrific hook-up stories that fill this book.

Besides the laughs that come from the girls attempting to kiss their way through all 26 letters the fastest, there are also attempts to join sororities, pass classes and avoid some pretty interesting characters the girls meet along the way. Well, maybe interesting isn’t the right word…

Summer is the perfect time to turn off the brain and enjoy books for once; The Alphabetical Hookup List is just the way to do it.

So Spring Break is coming. Hellooooo, beach! For those of you out there who won’t be spending all day getting boozed (you can’t imagine anything more horrendous than the mixture of heavy alcohol, sun, and waves), you are going to need some beach entertainment. And soberly watching drunk people bury each other in the sand gets boring after day one.

So, here is a handy list of books to bring with you to your tropical destination this year. They’re not your typical cheesy chick lit for the most part, but they’re pretty addictive in their own rights. Read More »