The Bronze Horseman

I have been on something of a Russian history binge since reading Eva Stachniak's luminous historical novel about Catherine the Great, The Winter Palace. The Bronze Horseman is a novel that kept coming up when I was checking out sales rank on my own The Summer Garden. I'd always thought it had a handsome cover, and I finally read the description, which compares it to both The Thorn Birds and Dr. Zhivago. Juicy love stories both. I may have to get this book.

I tremble for my country

Serpent on the Rock by Kurt Eichenwald

I would say this book should probably be required reading as we head into the Trump presidency.

This is the sales pitch:  A real-life thriller—the story of kickbacks and payoffs, of shady deals struck in secret with known felons; a story in which half a million people lose enormous sums—some their life’s savings—in the largest securities fraud of the 1980s, with names like Onassis and Bush numbered among the victims.

So many book lists!

I live in the Pacific Northwest, which is blessed with wonderful bookstores, including Village Bookstore in Bellingham and Powell's Bookstore.  The Powell's staff in Portland, Oregon has an outstanding book blog, and they have this great list. I've only read a couple of the books on the list, so clearly, I have some reading to do.

Dismissing women in science isn't a new thing...

Matt Taibbi's New Book

Read a little bit about Insane Clown President at Rolling Stone.

An Agatha Christie mystery

Not written by Agatha Christie--but using Agatha Christie as a character.Not only is this a GREAT cover, but the sales pitch makes it sound really fun:

Hoping to make a clean break from a fractured marriage, Agatha Christie boards the Orient Express in disguise. But unlike her famous detective Hercule Poirot, she can’t neatly unravel the mysteries she encounters on this fateful journey.
Agatha isn’t the only passenger on board with secrets. Her cabinmate Katharine Keeling’s first marriage ended in tragedy, propelling her toward a second relationship mired in deceit. Nancy Nelson—newly married but carrying another man’s child—is desperate to conceal the pregnancy and teeters on the brink of utter despair. Each woman hides her past from the others, ferociously guarding her secrets. But as the train bound for the Middle East speeds down the track, the parallel courses of their lives shift to intersect—with lasting repercussions.
Filled with evocative imagery, suspense, and emotional complexity, The Woman on the Orient Express explores the bonds of sisterhood forged by shared pain and the power of secrets.