1335 - 1341 (2026 #45 - #51). October 2026

Food Is Medicine by Dariush Mozaffarian

I didn't realize this book was over 400 pages when I requested it from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.  With other books I needed to read and review, plus having a house guest, it took me over a month to read it.

Author Dariush Mozaffarian has an MD in cardiology and also hold a doctorate in public health, and is currently director of the Food is Medicine Institute at Tufts University, where he is also a professor in the School of Medicine.  

Subtitled "Healing Our Bodies, Nourishing Our Minds, and Transforming Our Food System," Food Is Medicine is very thorough.  I actually first read the chapter in the exact middle, "What on Earth Should I Eat?" as that was what I was most interested in when requesting the book.  I was pleased (and somewhat surprised) to find I'd already gravitated towards most of the recommended foods.  

The chapter groups food into three main groups.  The highest tier is protective foods:  fruits, nuts, seeds, fish, vegetables, plants oils, whole grains, beans, yogurt.  The middle group is foods with intermediate health benefits:  cheese, milk, poultry, eggs, butter, and unprocessed red meats.  The last group is foods the author describes as most harmful:  refined grains, starches, sugars, processed meats, other highly processed foods, and trans fat.

What I appreciated most is that the author explains WHY these foods are protective or harmful, in this and other chapters, especially the three preceding this one, on the heart, obesity, and the microbiome (your gut).

Earlier chapters address some of the history of nutrition, from the discovery of vitamins, to the Green Revolution, to the rise of ultra-processed foods.  The final six chapters discuss some changes the author feels we need in agriculture, education, regulation, taxation, nutrition security (the opposite of food insecurity), health care, the food industry, and science, to bring about healthier diets for all.  

The book was completed early in 2026, and while even I'd agree that the Make America Healthy Again movement does have some good points about nutrition, this book was either finished before or doesn't address some of the current federal administration's disastrous policies (such as cutting USAID and SNAP) and their current or expected future negative effects.

My copy of this book was an advance reader edition, so it did not yet have an index, but space was allocated for one.  (It did have a 40-page bibliography broken down by the chapters.)  It was also full of various errors (particularly sentence fragments and run-on sentences), which were hopefully corrected, as it releases on October 20.  I'm keeping my copy for its helpful middle chapter.

--------

I read the next three books for a "No Stress Book Club" meeting this month at MFPOW (Tarleton State University) where the genre of the month was mysteries.  I don't typically like to read these, because I find many to be formulaic, and because often the ones that are part of a series don't stand alone.  I found a few titles in the e-book collections I have access to that the libraries also own in print:

Mr. Churchill's Secretary (Maggie Hope series #1) by Susan Elia MacNeal

This is the first book in the series that starts in London in 1940.  Maggie Hope was born in London to two British citizens killed in a car crash when she was a baby.  She's raised in America by a college professor aunt, and is all set to start graduate school in advanced mathematics at MIT, when she has to go to London to sell the house she inherited from her grandmother (her father's and aunt's mother).  With war threatening, she can't sell the house, so instead takes in an assortment of roommates, most becoming friends.  She also gets a job.  Hoping for a position in British intelligence, she has to settle for the typing pool in the prime minister's office - but eventually becomes the chosen secretary for Winston Churchill.

This is a mystery, so soon a couple ensue.  I don't want to give the story away, but I will say author Susan Elia MacNeal did do her research.  The setting - London in the early years of World War II, including the Blitz - is very much brought to life, as well as everyday life during wartime there, including lots of time going out to clubs and dancing.  There are some anachronisms in the book, particularly the matter-of-fact way that LGBQT characters are accepted by Maggie and her friends - something that was not realistic for that time period.

I don't know if other books in this series can stand alone, or if there are frequent references to this first book in them.  This book was okay, but I'm not eager to read any more in the series.

The Case of the Bizarre Bouquets (Enola Holmes series #3) and 

The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan  (Enola Holmes series #4) by Nancy Springer

These two were also among the suggested books for historical mysteries.  I didn't realize until I started reading them that they were "tween" books, featuring a 14-year-old female protagonist who is the (invented) younger sister of Sherlock Holmes.  I understand a Netflix movie (or series?) has been made based on these books - but I don't have Netflix.  Anyway, they reminded me a bit of the Nancy Drew mysteries I used to read when I was younger.

Set in March and May, 1889, respectively, author Nancy Springer does a good job with the Victorian settings (in London) and clothing (especially with Enola's multiple disguises).  I especially liked the way she incorporated the Victorian language of flowers (floriography) into both stories.  There's also a secret language of fans that played a part in the Pink Fan story.

I was unable to read the first book in the series, so I'm still not quite sure what happened to Enola's Mum, who apparently abandoned her in late 1888.  And that, for me, is the big problem with this series - the books don't entirely stand alone.  

There's also a graphic novel series based on the Enola Holmes books, by Serena Blasco, originally written in French and translated by Tanya Gold.  My local public library had Enola Holmes: The Graphic Novels - Book Two, which included The Case of the Peculiar Pink Fan and the two following it.  The print is quite small and difficult for me to read, but the fan story followed the original novel closely.  The illustrations are quite colorful and detailed.  Each story ends with a six- to eight-page section called "Secret Notebook" (that was not in the original novels), where Enola further explains some of the details of the story.  For example, for the Peculiar Pink Fan, this included the secret language of fans, ha-has, the simple secret code a character uses in the story, and why hair was cut in orphanages in the Victorian era (and what was done with it).

--------

The Patchwork Players by Jennifer Chiaverini

This book is #24 in the Elm Creek Quilts series, of which I've read at least half.  I didn't start recording what I read until May 2007, and I know I read some of the early books in this series before then.  Author Jennifer Chiaverini states on her website that she wrote the books to stand alone, and that is true.  However, it would probably help to have read at least book #3, The Cross-Country Quilters (published in 2001), as the main character in this book, Julia Merchaud, was one of the five main characters in that earlier book, and there are many references to them.  I couldn't remember if I'd read that book or not.  That's more evidence the books in the series can stand alone - especially since Julia's backstory from that book is recapped in this one.

In the earlier book, Julia is an aging actress who's just landed the lead role in a new television series called "A Patchwork Life" - and she's supposed to know how to quilt.  So her agent sends her to a summer session of the Elm Creek Quilt Camp to learn.  In this book, set five years later, Julia's series has been very successful - but it's about to film the last season.  Julia's co-stars, writers, etc. are already lining up new opportunities.  Julia doesn't want her series to end, so she arranges to have as many of the cast and crew as possible attend a special fall session of Elm Creek Quilt Camp, under the pretense of teaching some them the basics of quilting, for more realistic acting, writing, etc.  What she really wants is for all them to feel so connected that they'll stay with the series for a few more seasons.

Well, things don't go quite as Julia plans, and it's her own fault.  Actually, I found Julia rather annoying - a wealthy woman who thinks she can buy and coerce others to get what she wants.  She does learn her lesson by the end of the book, though.

I read this book during a rough time in my extended family, and it was the kind of non-demanding read I needed during that time.  As was this next book:

The Foursome by Christina Baker Kline

I'd finished reading all the books I needed to review for LibraryThing Early Reviewers (as well as the ones to discuss at the No Stress Book Club), and was looking for some lighter reads, as life in late October was stressful.  I went to my local public library and looked at the new adult fiction shelf for historical fiction, or books by authors I recognized.  This book fits both categories.

The foursome of the title were the famous conjoined "Siamese Twins" Chang and Eng Bunker - and their wives, sisters Sarah "Sallie" and Adelaide Yates respectively.  

Author Christina Baker Kline is a distant cousin of the sisters.  In a Q&A about the book, she notes, "Because the lives of the Bunker wives were so sparsely documented, I took creative liberties to imagine their voices, emotions, and perspectives within the known historical context."  In the same Q&A, she explains how she handled sexual intimacy in the book - something I think she did quite well.

The story is told entirely from the point of view of Sallie, Eng's wife, the older sister.  In the author's note (also available online), Kline said she originally planned to alternate between the sisters in telling the story, until she learned in her research that Sallie (who died before her sister but after their husbands) was buried separately from Eng, Chang, and Adelaide, on the land she'd resided on since 1853, and owned since Eng's death.  That "quiet act of defiance" inspired Kline to write from Sallie's viewpoint.  

The Bunkers lived in North Carolina before, during, and after the Civil War, and were slaveholders.  The book explores the issue of slavery, through Sallie's growing misgivings about it, as well as the possibility that the brothers might have fathered children with enslaved women.  

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

1331 - 1334 (2026 #41 - #44). September 2026

Countess of Cons: The Story of a Gilded Age Grifter by Deborah S. Holman 

Deborah Holman, the author of this book, posted in the Chicago Genealogy group on Facebook on August 23, 2026, that she was "looking for a few additional advance readers, particularly genealogists and readers interested in Chicago history," of this, her latest book, which she described as "narrative nonfiction."

The book is about the author's husband's great-great-grandmother, and she noted that "In Chicago, my research led me to newspaper accounts, court proceedings involving fourteen criminal counts, Bethany Home records, city directories, and her later appearance at the Palmer House under another identity."  I was intrigued, and asked for the link to the review copy of the e-book.

First off, I think this book might fit the definition of true crime - a genre I don't typically read (or like).  To someone outside her family (like me), Catherine Josephine Kenney Seeley Whitmer (aka Catherine Fitzallen, among many aliases) was not a particularly likeable woman.  In fact, I was appalled by Catherine's operation of the (thankfully short-lived) "Bethany Home for Poor and Friendless Children" in Chicago, as well as some of her other grifts that involved babies.

And, probably because I'm not a true crime fan (nor of crime fiction, for that matter), Catherine's more moderate cons in multiple cities started feeling a bit repetitious.  I totally understand wanting to reference all the finds from the research behind the book, but I felt that a) some of these could have been summarized with a sentence like "Catherine repeated the same actions in *place* and *place,*" and b) extensive detail on each and every bit of research fits better in a biography or a history nonfiction book.

I guess, as a family historian and researcher myself, I was hoping for a little more of the latter.  I wanted to see all the research behind this - the actual documents, records, and newspaper articles - or at the very least, endnotes and a bibliography pointing me to the sources.  Holman discusses some of her sources in a page at her author website, and I have a feeling I may find some of those documents / records / articles in her genealogy blog.  A hint to the author:  you need a "Countess of Cons" tag in the latter blog, to make it easier to find posts related to your book!

I still found Countess of Cons to be a good read.  Although it bogged down a bit in the middle, with descriptions of repetitious grifting, the beginning hooked me, and I often found myself wondering what would happen to Catherine next.  Was she finally going to be convicted and end up in jail for a long time?

Almost every family has a black sheep, and those do make for the best stories.

The Age of Cures: How American Scientists Saved Your Life by Barry Werth

I had a tough time keeping track of the dozen or so scientists that appear in this book - perhaps because I could only read it in half-hour increments.  I did learn some things about the birth of the pharmaceutical industry in the United States, but I'm probably not the best audience for an in-depth history of it.  I have a brother-in-law who is a  retired professor specializing in mushrooms (particularly new medical applications for them), and I think he will love this book.

Damages Carried Down by Michael Keefe

Part historical fiction, part mystery/thriller, I requested this book from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program because I was intrigued by the World War I journal written by one of the main characters that is at the heart of the story, and because of the intertwining of three families that overlapped into three timelines - 1914, 1939, and 1984.  Because of the overlapping, there were a couple times when I wasn't initially clear on which timeline I was in - adding the year at the beginning of the chapter would have helped me.  

The prologue of the book sets up the mystery/thriller aspect, and kept me reading.  The 1914 chapters are all from the World War I journal kept by Josef Müller - aka Joseph Moore - while the 1939 chapters are narrated by his daughter Kate, and 1984 by his granddaughter Maggie - who has been translating the journal from its original German.  I enjoyed this novel and appreciated the flawed characters and the fact that not everything turns out perfectly at the end.

Eon: My Pet Tardigrade by Cybèle Young with Nell Jocelyn

This picture book is about a microscopic animal called a tardigrade.  They're also known as water bears or moss piglets, and it can be seen why from photographs of them as well as the author's anthropomorphized version of them.  The story is about a little girl who spots a tardigrade while looking through a microscope, and decides to make it a pet by naming it Eon and creating - with paper and scissors - multiple environments, some diorama-like, for it to explore.  Along the way, the reader learns a lot about these interesting creatures.

On the verso, it says "Cybèle's artwork in this book was rendered in graphite pencil and sculptures made with Japanese papers, and Nell's sculptures were made with a variety of western papers."  These miniature sculptures and cut-paper art were the main reason I requested to review this book for LibraryThing Early Reviewers. They are gorgeous and beautifully detailed. With a magnifying glass, you might spot Eon in some of them.

In an afterword, award-winning author and artist Cybèle Young explains her own encounter with a tardigrade inspired the book, and that "as it developed it became clear that I needed to find a special collaborator."  Nell Jocelyn is actually Young's niece-in-law, and has worked on other books with her mother, Marthe Jocelyn.

I will be passing this book on to one of my great-grandchildren.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

1327 - 1330 (2026 #37 - #40). August 2026

The Windsor Affair by Melanie Benjamin

I knew the basic story about King Edward VIII of England giving up his throne for "the woman I love," twice-divorced American Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson.  And of course I knew of the "Queen Mum", Queen Elizabeth II's mother Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, although I didn't know much about her, other than she was married to George V, Edward's younger brother, who became king upon the elder's abdication - and I didn't know much about him, either.  I haven't seen The Crown series nor The King's Speech movie.  I had no idea there was such a rivalry between the two women.

This book revolves around those four main characters, much of it told from Wallis' and Elizabeth's alternating points of view.  It covers their early years (they were all born between 1895 and 1900) up to 1976.  I learned a lot about them (and about English history in the same time period), but I found all four characters to be either weak (the men) or extremely catty (the women).  In other words, they were all pretty unlikeable.  Nevertheless, I'm glad I read the book.  I won a hardbound, dust-jacketed copy in a Goodreads Giveaway, and I'll pass the book on to a friend or donate it to a library.

The Odyssey by Homer, translation by Samuel Butler

After seeing the Christopher Nolan movie adaptation and reading Gareth Hinds' graphic novel version of this classic last month, I wanted to read a "complete" version.  This was one of the translations recommended by Hinds.  In this edition of Samuel Butler’s translation, the names of the gods and characters have been restored from Latin to the original Greek - which is appropriate.  After reading it (there is LOTS of repetition), I decided to cancel all the other holds I had placed on this book.  Twice is enough.  

Good Families Don't by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Joy Ang

Most everyone is familiar with Robert Munsch, author of the classic picture book Love You Forever.  This is a re-release of one of his titles originally published in 1990, with new artwork by Joy Ang.  The title kind of reminds me of the saying about "horses sweat, men perspire, women glow," in that the premise of this book is that nice families don't fart (and stink).  Given that I have great-grandsons who are ages two and four - I think they will love this funny book.

Little Girl Blue: The Life of Karen Carpenter by Randy L. Schmidt

As part of its fundraising, my local PBS station recently showed the 1998 PBS documentary "Close to You: Remembering The Carpenters" (and offered a set of their CDs and a DVD of their TV specials as thank-you gifts for certain donation levels).  Their biggest hit, 1970's "Close to You," was the first record single I ever bought, at age 13.  I was looking for a biography of Karen Carpenter and hit upon this one, published in 2010, by Randy L. Schmidt, an elementary school music teacher in Denton, Texas.  The title comes from a 1935 Richard Rodgers / Lorenz Hart song Karen Carpenter recorded in 1978 and performed in a TV special that year, but not released until after her death, in the 1989 Lovelines album.

In an interview, Schmidt noted that Karen's brother Richard "never tried to stop [the book], but he didn't want to contribute either."  However, he feels this made others open up and talk more than they might have if Richard had been involved in the project.  Schmidt interviewed nearly 100 people, including most of Karen's best friends.  

I thought I already knew a lot about the Carpenters, but I learned even more from this book.  At the end, it has extensive acknowledgments, a selected discography and list of television appearances, end notes, a bibliography, suggested reading, and an index, so it is a serious biography.  There are even a number of photographs.

Addresses to check (to look for connections to my family in these locations):

1317 Mulberry St, Baltimore

13024 Fidler Ave, Downey

9828 Newville Ave, Downey

8353 and 8356 East 5th St, Downey - apartment buildings they purchased and renamed Close to You and Only Just Begun

8341 Lubec St, Downey

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

1323 - 1326 (2026 #33 - #36). July 2026

The Architecture of Wesley Clark Dodson:  Legacy of a Good Name by Mary Helen Dodson

I went to a local presentation about this book by its author (one of the descendants of the architect of the title), held at our local county courthouse, one of many in Texas he designed.  Although the hardbound-with-dustcover book cost $50, I decided to buy it, partly to see how the author approached her subject, given that I might someday like to write a book about my architect first cousin twice removed, Ewald Theodore Pape.

The book was published by the Texas A&M University Press, a good sign.  It's coffee-table size, about 9.5 inches by 10.5 inches and one inch thick, printed on heavy, high-quality paper, and sturdily cloth bound.  A note on the title page indicates publication was assisted by generous funding from the Summerlee Foundation of Dallas.  

The book has over 300 pages and is generously illustrated with color as well as black-and-white photographs, maps, charts, line art, and other drawings.  There are 37 pages of end notes, a five-page bibliography, and an index of slightly over eight pages.  There are also two pages of acknowledgments - at the beginning of the book, rather than at the end - identifying the many people and places who helped Dodson with her research.  

In an interview, Dodson noted that research included visits to the courthouses and county clerk offices (where she reviewed county commissioners court minutes of the years in which those buildings were being built), county histories and newspapers of those periods "so that I could fill in the surroundings of what was going on in the town at the time," and the Portal to Texas History, which had "the records of the Texas State Architectural Association, which he helped found.  And they also had the records of the Presbyterian Church there in Waco, where he was an elder for 20 or 30 years."

As is the case with me and Ewald Pape, this book, as explained in the preface, had its inspiration in genealogical research.  The author was fortunate that the book's subject, her great-grandfather Wesley Clark Dodson (1829-1914) was the also the subject of a collection at Baylor University in Waco that included photographs, letters between Wesley and his wife Sarah, as well as memoirs Wesley had written when he was in his eighties.  

Those memoirs form the framework for the first six chapters (92 pages) in the book, covering his early life in Tennessee and Alabama, his participation in the Civil War, his post-Civil War life in various towns in Texas, and settlement in Waco in 1876.

The next seven chapters (127 pages) discuss his architectural works, with a focus on the "cathedrals of Texas" - his courthouses.  He also designed jails, schools, churches, and other public buildings.  The short (seven-page) chapter seven introduces this section, with a discussion of courthouse construction in Texas in general, and ends with a map showing the 19 counties in northeast Texas where he worked.  This section ends with chapter 13, where the fate of Dodson's buildings is discussed.  Seven courthouses, two jails, and one church are still standing. 

The book ends with a chapter covering the last years of Dodson's life, followed by three appendices - one on Dodson's ancestors, a brief one on his children and grandchildren, and a third listing his buildings that have Recorded Texas Historic Landmark and National Register of Historic Places designations.

Author Mary Helen Dodson retired at age 80 in 2020 from a career as a test developer for Educational Testing Service of Princeton, New Jersey, and lives in Pennsylvania.  This gives me hope that I might write a similar book in my 70s about an architect whose works (75 at latest count) are located in the Portland, Oregon area, miles away from me.

I will be donating this book to the Tarleton State University Dick Smith Library in Stephenville.  

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

I realized when I read James last month that I had probably never read this, one of its inspirations.   Twain was using satire to expose the hypocrisy, cruelty, and deep-seated absurdity of white supremacy in the American South, Jim is portrayed as a loving and ethical father and human being, and Huck chooses not to turn him in as a runaway.  However, there is frequent use of the N-word, and Jim is often characterized as being excessively superstitious, gullible, or easily duped - pretty much as expected, given the era in which it was written.  I also didn't care for Tom Sawyer's stupid game at the book's ending, prolonging Jim's final escape to freedom.  I can see why Percival Everett did not include that in James.

The Odyssey - graphic novel adaptation by Gareth Hinds

After seeing the recently-released Christopher Nolan movie The Odyssey, I wanted to read (or reread -  not sure if I ever read it in school) the book, and this was the only version currently available at my libraries.  At 248+ pages in typical hardbound graphic novel size, it's very accessible, with its detailed illustrations in pencil and watercolor, and without, in author Gareth Hinds' own words in the notes at the end, being "one-hundred-percent historically accurate."

Hinds also notes that his favorite translations of the Homeric poem are by Robert Fitzgerald and Robert Fagles, but he also used the "plainer prose" of E. V. Rieu's and Samuel Butler's translations, and that he used "near-direct quotes" from the first three in various passages in his book.  He also admires "Rodney Merrill's metrically correct verse translation," but did not discover it until he was partway through creating his book.  He also mentions translations by Lattimore, Lawrence, Cowper, and Chapman.  All versions for me to look for among the many holds I've placed.  

Daughter of Egypt by Marie Benedict

I went to my local public library to pick up The Odyssey and decided to look around for other things to read, and found this book on the "New" shelf (although the library has had it since April).

I'd describe this book as speculative historical fiction, because so little is known about one main character - Hatshepsut, a female pharaoh of Egypt - and much is invented about the other main character - Evelyn "Eve" Herbert, daughter of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the man who financed much of archaeologist Howard Carter's explorations in Egypt, including the one that found the tomb of King Tut.

Eve was present when that tomb was found, but the novel has her obsessed with finding the tomb of Hatshepsut.  This is entirely author Marie Benedict's invention, which she does admit in her author's note at the end of the book.  There's a little more leeway with Hapshepsut, since so little is known about her, and Benedict comes up with her own theory on how and why Hatshepsut was mostly erased from history.

The story is told through Eve (from 1919 to 1923), and Hatshepsut (from 1486 BC to 1458 BC) in alternating sections of short chapters.  Eve's sections are always labeled with her name, but Hatshepsut's instead change based on her role at the time - The Princess, The Queen, The Pharaoh, and so on.

As I've noted in other reviews of her work, I'm not particularly fond of Benedict's writing style, particularly her use of first-person present-tense for her narrators.  Each short chapter begins with a date and location, but using present tense makes the chapters seem less like the journal entries such chapter headings might imply.  The book is over 300 pages long, and feels repetitious at times. 

And yet, I continue to read her books, because she chooses interesting, little-known women to write about.  I felt this was one of her better books, primarily because Hapshepsut was fascinating.  I also appreciate her sharing of the sources she used in the author's note, as they inspire me to read more about the main characters.

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!

1318 - 1322 (2026 #28 - #32). June 2026

Manufacturing a Duchess by Tracy Wise

Subtitled "A Novel of the Regency Era," I'd classify this as Regency historical romance, in that it's not a Traditional Regency romance in the vein of the genre's pioneer, Georgette Heyer.  Wikipedia's description of Regency historical romances notes that they 

may include more social realism, or, conversely, anachronistically modern characterization, ... their general setting is in Regency England, but the plot, characterization, or prose style of the work extends beyond the genre formula of the Regency romances published by Heyer and her successors. Characters may behave according to modern values, rather than Regency values.

That's certainly the case with Manufacturing a Duchess (clever title, by the way), especially with the main (title) character.  Aurora Hardcastle is the only child of a country doctor turned cloth manufacturer, and, although a heiress, is not your typical duchess-to-be.  Alec Raeburn is a widowed Scottish duke with a young daughter and no money.  He's looking for an heiress who can also be a mother to his beloved daughter.  Aurora's parents send her to London for the season and put her in the care of the parents a former classmate of Aurora's, the gorgeous Millicent ("Missie") Wentworth, whose family needs the money Aurora's parents provide - Lord Wentworth is a gambler.  Meanwhile, Alec is accompanied by his wealthy cousin, Finlay ("Finn," aka Lord Henry, Duke of Galloway), as they are all entering the "marriage mart."  The four, along with Alec's precocious daughter Marjorie, all meet early on at the Tower of London, where Aurora and Marjorie bond.  Both men are smitten with the beautiful Missie, but Alec knows he should focus on Aurora, needing her money.

This was predictable, but still a light, fun, summer beach or vacation read.

I think my mother read every single book written by Heyer - at least, I seem to remember seeing hardbound copies of her other books on our bookshelves when I was a kid (1960s and early 1970s), and I probably read at least one of them.  My mother asked for Cousin Kate (originally published in 1968) for Christmas sometime after it was republished in 2009, and I know I read that one.  It is described as "one of only two Heyer Gothic Regency romances," because of its elements of suspense and horror.  I'm not a fan of either Regency romances or the Gothic genre.

Lost Treasures of Houston by William Dylan Powell

In late February 2025, I was contacted by author William Dylan Powell, requesting permission to use a couple photos of the long-gone Peppermint Park (a kiddie amusement park) in Houston in his upcoming nonfiction book, Lost Treasures of Houston.  He found the photos in a post I wrote about the park for my genealogy and family history blog, and I really appreciate his asking my permission first before using them. 

In January 2026, Powell sent me a copy of the book in gratitude.  As he said in his email, the book "celebrates 200+ beloved places, people and phenomena around town that are now sadly gone."  I'm finally getting around to reviewing it.

Lost Treasures of Houston has 176 large-format pages (9" x 12"), and each page covers two items at most.  The book is divided into five large sections, which are designated with different colors along the head and top of the fore-edge (opposite the book's spine).  The sections are Food and Drink, Entertainment, Retail, Media, and Community, and a table of contents further subdivides these.  (The book also has an index.)

My mother's roots in Houston go back to 1897.  Although I'm not a native, I lived there from infancy in 1958 through 1976, and visited a lot in following years, as I still have family and friends living there.  The book covers places and people that had come and gone both before I lived there and after I moved away, but I found plenty of memories.  There's something in this book for Houstonians of all ages, current and former, and it would be a great gift and/or coffee table book.  It's attractive and easy to read.

The photo I contributed is on page 57, and I'm also credited by name.  Powell also listed all the contributors in the acknowledgements section at the front of the book (page vii).  My one little gripe is that he also should have indicated that the abbreviation HHRC refers to the Houston History Research Center (part of the Houston Public Library), as that is the source for many of the great old photographs in the book.

The Paper Princess by Elisa Kleven

This is an inspiring story about a little girl who creates a paper doll that is blown away by the wind and has a number of adventures, before returning to the little girl.  Elisa Kleven's mixed-media illustrations (watercolor, colored pencils, ink, crayon, collage) are wonderfully colorful and detailed.  This story was originally published in 1994, and my review copy is the beautiful deluxe gift edition being published in June 2026, featuring gold foil stamping and an embossed image of the originally-blank side of the paper princess.  In a 2015 interview, Kleven discussed the origins of the book, and how it helped her make sense of the early losses of her mother and brother.  Recommended - I look forward to giving this book to my great-granddaughter.

The Fourth Princess by Janie Chang

I'm not a big fan of the Gothic subgenre and haven't read much of it.  I've read a couple other historical fiction books by Janie Chang, so I decided to request this one from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program, as it was the only book that appealed to me in the February 2026 offerings.  I just received it this month.

The book is set in Old Shanghai, China, in 1911.  The story opens with nineteen-year-old Lisan Liu, an orphan whose guardian since childhood is the wealthy Master Liu, applying for a job as secretary to Caroline Vessey Stanton, an heiress American who has moved into the remote Lennox Manor with her husband Thomas.  The Manor belongs to Thomas' uncle Mason Burnett, with whom Thomas is investing in a Chinese railway venture.  

Lisan gets the job and goes to live at the manor, with Master Liu requiring that she come home on her days off.  At the manor, Lisan is haunted by her dreams, and by a vision of a woman in a red dress that she often spots on the manor grounds.  However, her days are brightened by the presence of Yao, a former gardener of Master Liu's now working for the Stantons.

It soon becomes apparent that all the main characters have secrets - or, as in the case of Lisan, others have secrets about her.  Perhaps because I read so few Gothic novels, I have to admit I was surprised by some of the turns of events in the story.  

In an author's note at the end of the novel, Janie Chang admits that the Gothic subgenre required that she:

... really had to hold back on history.  During the first iteration of the book, it just didn't seem gothic enough, and I realized that there was too much about what was going on in China outside Lennox Manor.  It's 1911 and the Qing empire is on its way out (China becomes a republic in 1912), there is talk of revolution, China is fragmenting into a nation carved up by warlords, and political intrigue abounds.  My characters are aware of all the tumult around them, but in gothic fiction the focus has to be the danger from within: the location and/or its residents.  One revision later, less history, more atmosphere, and the story was starting to feel like a gothic novel.

I guess I would have preferred more history, less atmosphere.  The author's note does go on to explain some of the history, as well as other aspects of the novel.

James by Percival Everett

I've been wanting to read this book for some time, given that it was the National Book Award winner for fiction in 2024 and the Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction in 2025 (among other awards).  It's a sort-of retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from the point of view of the slave Jim (the James of this title).  If I read Huck Finn, it would have been back in high school, and I don't remember it.  So that's next on my list to read.  Regardless, I know enough about Twain's novel to know that James stands on its own.  Incredibly thought-provoking, and a short, easy read (I finished it in thirty-minute increments over six days).

© Amanda Pape - 2026 - e-mail me!