The Rush

 The Rush: Californai Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Modern World- Nathaniel Philbrick

Viking

Release Date: October 6, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: In January 1848, a carpenter spotted flecks of gold in a shallow stream at Sutter’s Mill in California—triggering the greatest voluntary migration in U.S. history and jolting a fragile republic already sliding toward crisis. In The Rush, Nathaniel Philbrick transforms the Gold Rush from a tale of sudden riches into the origin story of America’s modern capital consolidated at dizzying speed, democracy in thrall to private power, xenophobia weaponized in the name of liberty—and a stubborn belief in the American experiment that refuses to die. This is the story of a nation tearing at the seams—a republic tested by its own ideals.

From the feverish gold-mining camps of the Sierra Nevada mountains to the wharves and vigilance committees of San Francisco, Philbrick renders a combustible, all-world Chilean brothers reinventing themselves to outrun prejudice; Native communities navigating dispossession and violence; the merchant-showman Samuel Brannan, drawn into the center of early vigilantism; and the politicians vying for control of California’s future—the ambitious free-soil political boss David Broderick, who squared off against William Gwin, the Southern power broker intent on tilting the state toward slavery and the Confederacy. Not until a year after the outbreak of the Civil War, when President Lincoln signed legislation that would unite the nation east to west by building a transcontinental railroad, was California’s loyalty secured.

Philbrick follows the gold as it moves from riverbed to countinghouse to the halls of power, revealing how vigilantism hardened into law and how debates over slavery in the West tipped the balance in Washington. The result is a clear, human story of how a scramble for wealth reshaped ideas of freedom, labor, and belonging—and how California's rise helped push a fractured nation toward war.

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If you're looking for a completely new take on California during and after the Gold Rush, Nathaniel Philbrick's The Rush: California Gold, the Civil War, and the Making of the Moder World is the place to go. This isn't a book about the hardships of traveling West and panning for gold (though it talks about that). This is a book about the people who arrived, full of gold fever, and what it did to them-and what they did in return.

I went in knowning a lot about the Gold Rush. So some of this book was familiar. How ships would arrive in port and every sailor would jump overboard to head for the hills and try their luck. How the real money was made by those selling necessary items to the miners. How San Francisco would regularly burn down because it was nothing more than rough wooden buildings because no one took the time to build anything else.

Philbrick goes into the people. The utter lawlessness of those who arrived, the entitelment of the Americans. The horrific killings of anyone they felt had wronged them in anyway-which eventually gave way to the attempted genocide of the indigenous population. Even after becoming a state, vigilante, mob rule had an alarming tendency to take hold. 

I had no idea how closely tied California was to the Southern politicians in the years before the CIvil War, or how close it came to becoming two separate states and supporting slavery. Philbrick did a good job making the connections between California and the road to war in the East Coast in ways I'd never heard before, but made perfect sense when he laid them out. 

The one place I thought he fell a bit was trying to make connections to the "making of the modern world." The idea that the 1849 gold rush was the first time a people and an area were so focued on speed and 'time is money' that this was all they thought about worked to an extent. That we can trace today's fast-paced world to this phenomenon I was less convinced by. Philbrick didn't seem to know how to end his book and the last chapter suffered as a result of this. It needed to end with the transcontinental railroad and a way to tie up the 'rush' mental phenomena if that was what he wanted to focus on, but it kind of petered out instead and seemed to forget about it's grand title and plan to connect the gold rush and today's fast-paced world—hence the final chapter. Personally, I think it would have been a stronger book without that.

Even so, The Rush is a well-researched, fast-paced, and fascinating book. A book that should be read by anyone interested in American history.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Queens and Kings

Queens and Kings: An Unusually Personal History-Lucy Worsley

Pegasus Books

Release Date: September 3, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: No one has lived and breathed the monarchy quite like Lucy Worsley. For over twenty years, she worked as Chief Curator in some of Britain's most splendid palaces—and now she is ready to throw open the doors and welcome us in.

In Queens and Kings, Lucy takes us on a journey through some of our most turbulent and significant moments in history. From the Council Chamber in which Henry VIII decided to break from the pope to lunch with the late Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, from encounters with the Tower of London's Ravenmaster to the depths of Queen Victoria's wardrobe, Lucy shares how she grew to know the queens and kings, courtiers and servants who lived in these buildings over the centuries. 

She traces their footsteps through the corridors and cloisters, the courtyards and kitchens and breathes new life into moments of great joy and consequence‚ as well as tales of intrigue which lurked in the shadows of regal splendor. Packed with new stories told from unexplored places, this is a fresh history of the monarchy.

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The delightful Lucy Worsley does it again! Her latest book, Queens and Kings: An Unusually Personal History,  offers history lovers a high-level history of British monarchs from the Tudor period to modern day with a certain focus. As the former Curator of Historic Royal Palaces, Worsley is intimately familiar with the palaces so many moarchs lived in and offers us specific stories of their lives in connection to the physical locations we migh still know today: Kennsinton Palace, the Tower of London, Kew Gardens, and my personal favorite Hampton Court Palace.

She also shares stories from her own time as curator and filming numerous documentaries connected to the palaces she knows and loves with her trademark sense of humor. From living and working at Hapton Court Palace to army crawling across lawns to preserve the view for important visitors; finding and interpreting blueprints of pre-renovation rooms to see what might actually have happened; reinterpreting the story of George III and more. 

Queens and Kings is an excellent addition to any history lover's collection-fun to read, and definitely a book that will encourage those who don't know Lucy Worsley and Britich history to take a deeper dive!

I received an ARC of this book from Eidelweiss in exchange for an honest review

Think Like a Dog

Think Like A Dog: Canine Adventures into the Science of Positive Psychology- Dr. Jen Golbeck, PhD

Atria Books

Release Date: September 1, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: A engaging exploration of dogs and positive pyschology, this book reveals the surprising science that explains how your dog thinks and acts from Jen Golbeck, the “internet’s dog mom” behind the massive social media platform The Golden Ratio and the author of The Purest Bond.

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I got the advance of this book just as my family and I were adopting a new dog and I thought the timing would be perfect- I'd learn about the latest in dog psychology and how to make sure our new dog could thrive in her new environment. 

Golbeck combines her personal obervations (she rescues and fosters Goldens), social media observations, and scientific studies to look at 7 aspects of Positive Psychology for dogs, including empathy, kindness, persistence, and humor. The scientific studies I found interesting- dogs have been taught to lie down in functioning MRIs so we can actually see what is going on in their brains while they are thinking (proving they aren't actually, for example, feeling guilty when we catch them doing things they know they shouldn't do). I very much appreciated the relaxed, conversational style of writing throughout the book- I didn't need to be a scientist to understand what Golbeck was talking about!

Sometimes a few of the anecdotes seemed to wander off the subject than other times, and I was hoping for more ideas in practical solutions to coming up with engagement and problem solving puzzles (we adopted a Malinois, I'm always looking for those ideas), but there were interesting facts, and it was a fast and fun read. 

Everyone who lives with dogs should definitely read Think Like A Dog!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

The Blood Countess

  

The Blood Countess:Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster- Shelley Puhak

Bloomsbury Publishing

Release Day: February 17, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady-a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families-is a vicious killer. Some even say she bathes in the blood of her victims. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she has blood on her hands, caught in the act of murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she broods over the countryside, cursing all those who dared speak up against her.

Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So, was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both? With the breathlessness of a whodunit, drawing upon new archival evidence and questioning old assumptions, Shelley Puhak traces the Countess's downfall, bringing to life an assertive woman leader in a world sliding into anti-scientific, reactionary darkness-a world where nothing is ever as it seems. In this exhilarating narrative, Puhak renders a vivid portrait of history's most dangerous woman and her tumultuous time, revealing just how far we will go to destroy a woman in power.

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If you go into Shelley Puhak's The Blood Countess expecting to read confirmation of the same horror stories you've heard before, imaging Elizabeth Bathory as a serial killer of innocent young women and bathing in their blood, you'll be disappointed. If, however, you want to read it for a fascinating exploration of a woman in power and how she was brought down by politics, religion, and the patriarchy—this is the book for you.

I knew nothing about Hungarian politics or how the Lutheran/Calvinist religious division manifested itself there or affected everyday people before reading this book. Puhak does a good job of breaking things down into understandable accounts, sticking to what we need to know because it's going to be important to Elizabeth's story. Puhak talks about working with translators and what previous translations of documents got wrong, which first led to accounts of cannibalism (for example) when that's not what was happening. 

The Bathorys were a powerful family in Hungary and Transylvania at a time when this was dangerous. Elizabeth was a strong woman who held a lot of land (both on her own and for her young son), she supported women healers during a time they were being pushed out by men. She made enemies by standing up for herself and other women, for insisting on justice during a time of corruption. She believed in the courts and the law, even when she saw it being made a mockery of by the Holy Roman Emperor, her supposed ruler and protector. When her neighbors came for her, she thought the laws would protect her. 

Instead, she became perhaps the greatest reminder of how much men fear women's minds, their leadership, their knowledge, and their strength, and how far men will go to erase women's power.

The Blood Countess is well researched, well written, full of fascinating information, and a great read for anyone interested in learning how politics, jealousy, and greed can create such an enduring and false legacy. 

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review 

The Murder Game

 

The Murder Game- John Curran

Collins Crime Club

Release Date: January 27, 2026

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: With books flourishing in the 1920s and ’30s like never before, no genre was more innovative or popular than detective fiction. It was an era that saw the emergence of Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, John Dickson Carr, Ellery Queen and dozens of other authors who became household names for a generation of readers.

The Golden Age of Detection has enjoyed a great resurgence of interest in recent years, with publishers mining back catalogues to bring the best of yesteryear to very receptive new audiences. What is it about a literary movement that took off in the 1920s that still appeals to book lovers in the 2020s?

In this authoritative new study, John Curran reveals that it is the ludic qualities of classic crime fiction that continue to intrigue. At its heart is the ‘whodunit’ game between writer and reader, but there is also the game between detective and murderer, between publisher and book-buyer, even between the writers themselves.

Coinciding with an increase in leisure time and literacy, the Golden Age also saw the development of the crossword, the growth of bridge and Mahjong, the enduring popularity of jigsaws and the emergence of Cluedo – all activities requiring the ‘little grey cells’. The Murder Game considers all of these, and many other sporting and competitive recreations, helping to explain the reading public’s ongoing love affair with the Golden Age.

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In his new book, The Murder Game, John Curran goes on a quest to write a book that focuses on the early mystery novel and its love of the game. Beginning with the always tricky question of defining the Golden Age of the mystery (everyone agrees it starts around the first World War but endings vary. Curran ends up not choosing a date but saying it is more of a vibe than a specific time period), Curran explores what games mystery writers play, why, and with whom. 

Ranging from the obvious: can the author keep the reader from figuring out the ending while presenting all the clues; to the more unique: acutally having puzzles within the book whose answers help readers figure out "whodunit"; to the brief stint in the 1930s of full on game kits including physical clues and suspect files, Curran surveys the range. He talks about when "rules" developed and how authors worked with or broke the rules (Agatha Christie was a constant rule bender if not full on rule breaker).

At its heart, this is a survey, with references to the books that fit whatever Curran happens to be talking about. The can make for sometimes lengthy lists or dry spells when reading and the book definitely went a bit long, even for me. There are spoilers, many of which he flags ahead of time, but the reader should be warned that if you haven't already read particular books you'll at least be getting hints and might want to skip some sections if you don't want to know what happens in certain books before you've read them. 

Who is the audience for The Murder Game? This is not a book for the casual reader. But someone fascinated with the history of the development of the genre; a fan of Martin Edwards' fantastic nonfiction books The Golden Age of Murder and The Life of Crime; a professor of writing; or a student of the Golden Age of mysteries will absolutely need John Curran's The Murder Game in their collection.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review

Carthage

 Carthage: A New History- Eve McDonald

W.W. Norton & Co.

Rating: 📚📚📚

Release Date: January 13, 2026

Synopsis: Carthage was a power that dominated the western Mediterranean for almost six centuries before its fall to Rome. The history of the realm and its Carthaginians was subsumed by their conquerors and, along the way, the story of the real Carthage was lost. An ancient North African kingdom, Carthage was the home of Hannibal and of Dido, of war elephants and enormous power and wealth, of great beauty and total destruction.

In this landmark new history, Eve MacDonald tells the essential story of the lost culture of Carthage and of its forgotten people, using brand new archaeological analysis to uncover the history behind the legend. A journey that takes us the Phoenician Levant of the early Iron Age to the Atlantic and all along the coast of Africa, Carthage puts the city and the story of North Africa once again at the centre of Mediterranean history. Reclaimed from the Romans, this is the Carthaginian version of the tale, revealing to us that, without Carthage, there would be no Rome.

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(3.5 stars)

When history is written by the winners, it can mean the losers are all but erased- and that is what happened with Carthage. Anything anyone today knows about the city comes to us from Roman eyes. So this book, trying to find the Carthage that isn't told to us through Roman propaganda, is a fascinating and much needed book for the history shelves.

From the city's founding as a Phoenecian outpost to its destruction by Rome hundreds of years later, Eve McDonald takes readers through the development of a city, a people, and a mega-power whose existence rivaled (and threatened) Rome's desire to dominate the Mediterranean. She critically examines both ancient sources and modern archaeological discoveries to evaluate how different events, trade, sieges, and the wars with Rome would have effected the Carthaginians. I found her explaination of the changes in the power structures across the Mediterranean over time, and how Alexander the Great essentially changed the game for everyone, quite interesting.

The chapters on the Punic Wars were, for me, the clearest and best written. Maybe because there's the most evidence in the historical sources for her to work with. McDonald is never afraid to admit when there is simply not enough information for scholars to do more than some educated guesswork on something, which I admire. By the end of the book I was pretty solidly on Carthage's side and wishing more reasonable treatied could have worked- but apparently that's not what was going on in this time.

An excellent, well-written, well-researched book for anyone who is interested in getting the story Carthage wishes it could have told us. A must-read for ancient history enthusiasts.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Stolen Crown

 

The Stolen Crown: Treachery, Deceit & the Death of the Tudor Dynasty- Tracy Borman

Hodder & Stoughton

Release Date: November 4, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: In March 1603, Queen Elizabeth I, the last Tudor monarch, lies dying at Richmond Palace. The queen's ministers cluster round her bedside, urging her to name her successor - something she has stubbornly resisted throughout her reign. Almost with her last breath she whispers that James VI of Scotland should succeed her. She dies shortly afterwards and the throne of England passes peacefully from Tudor to Stuart.

Or so we've been led to believe . . .

But, as enthralling new research shows, this is not what happened. In the years that followed, history was literally re-written on the orders of James VI to hide the Elizabeth went to her grave without formally naming an heir. The notion of an approved succession from Tudors to Stuarts is little more than an elaborately constructed fiction.
And so James's rule in England began with a lie - a lie that went on to have devastating consequences. The Stuart regime rapidly descended into turbulence and uncertainty, conspiracy and persecution, witchcraft and gunpowder - culminating in the destruction of the monarchy in the English Civil War.

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Tracy Borman (Henry VIII and the Men Who Made Him) is one of my favorite historians, so I was very excited to get her new take on Elizabeth I's succession. We've all been taught that she named James VI of Scotland her heir as she lay dying and the crown peacefully transferred over to him. But Borman's new book reports on work done by the British Library, showing that this is a story James ensured was passed around well into his reign- in order to keep him on the throne.

The Stolen Crown follows Elizabeth I's reign with the focus solely on how it reflected on who she would name her heir. Over the decades Elizabeth was pressed to marry and have children of her own, and/or to name successors to the crown. The chaos of the Wars of the Roses were still fresh enough in people minds that they didn't want to go through that again, and there were multiple candidates with potential claims of varying strength (despite Henry VIII doing his best to kill them all off while he was in power). Who rose or fell in Elizabeth's favor, moving nearer or farther to the throne, might surprise some readers. 

I was surprised by how active in the succession Eilzabeth's council became in the last few years of her reign, though in retrospect it does make sense. The fact that they managed to keep their dealings a secret from Elizabeth is perhaps the greater surprise. Did they, or did she let them think so? I learned more here about James than I'd ever known before- and while all of it fascinating, none of it to his advantage! It was really interesting to learn that in trying to firm up his claim on the throne once he had it, James is perhaps one of the people largely responsible for the image of "Good Queen Bess" that we still have today.

Brilliantly researched, engagingly written, The Stolen Crown is a must read for history lovers!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

 

Winston and the Windsors

 

Winston and the Windsors: How Churchill Shaped a Royal Dynasty- Andrew Morton

Hanover Square Press

Release Date: October 21, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Few figures in British history have been so deeply and consequentially involved with the British royal family as Winston Churchill. Churchill was unique in his helping to shape not only a single reign but an entire royal dynasty.

However, it was by no means a seamless relationship. At times, the royals treated him with suspicion and contempt; at others they were avuncular, competitive and cheering. Yet whether he was playing the role of antagonist to the royal family or that of trusted confidante, the Prime Minister's influence was central to the twentieth-century history of the monarchy. This is drama of the first order, at times thrilling and always compelling.

Winston and the Windsors marks the first dual biography of Winston Churchill alongside the royal family. Having unearthed much under-appreciated archival material – including diary entries, postcards and letters to and from Kings, Queens and princes – Morton presents a meticulously researched biography of a royal house and a beloved Prime Minister.

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I've read many books on Winston Churchill, but this is the first I've read that focuses specifically on his relationship with the royal family- not as The Monarchy, but as individuals. In following his career there are certainly cases where his influence did help shape the monarchy's path, particularly during World War II, but it was the individual stories I found most interesting.

  

Churchill was born during the reign of Queen Victoria and his parents were close friends with her eldest son, the Prince of Wales and future King Edward VII. While I knew Edward and Churchill's mother Jennie had a close friendship, I'd never known how close the relationship between Edward and Winston was. Even after becoming king, Edward took the time to offer nearly parternal advise and praise to young Winston- something he never received from his own father. That section was perhaps my favorite to read for the new knowledge I gained and the stories it shared. 

As a rising politician Churchill frequently clashed in his thoughts and policy ideals with the reigning monarch (especially George V!) and Morton includes notes and diary entries from George V with his thoughts on Churchill that were less than complementary at times. But each man was able to separate politics from the personal and it was fascinating to watch their developing relationships on different fronts.

Much of the information covering the Abdication Crisis, Winston's relationship with David (Edward VIII) and George VI wasn't new but still presented well. And within the context of the book it put a different spin on things I already knew. Morton goes deeply, if briefly into Churchill's relationship with Queen Elizabeth II and I greatly enjoyed that section- again the context of the book helped me see things I knew as well as new information (maybe just new to me) in new and interesting ways.

Winston and the Windsors is more than a new biography of Winston Churchill. It is a biography of the Windsor family and the monarchy throughout the first part of the 20th century, and the huge part that Churchill played in keeping it a strong institution in trying times. Anyone interested in Churchill, the British royal family, and 20th century Briish history should read the carefully researched and entertainingly written book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

The Story of Tudor Art

 The Story of Tudor Art: A History of Tudor England Through Its Art And Objects- Christina J. Faraday

Apollo

Release Date: September 25, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: The volatile years of England's Tudor dynasty (1485–1603) and the five monarchs who ruled England during this period continue to fascinate and intrigue. Thanks to the paintings of artists like Hans Holbein, we have very definitive ideas about the appearance and personalities of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I and her successor Elizabeth I. It is through their eyes of artists that we still see the dynasty which ruled England for just over a century. Yet, iconic though they are, when it comes to Tudor art, portraits – and monarchs – are far from the whole story.

Throughout the sixteenth century, images and objects were employed for political, religious, social and scientific ends, by a greater range of people than ever before. The Church and the royal court, archbishops, monarchs, and courtiers, were some of the most important patrons, commissioning artists in painting, tapestry, print and other materials, to convey particular messages and promote them as individuals and office-holders. But in this period too, the 'middling sort', professional men and women, increased in power, wealth and influence. They also wanted to promote themselves, and used not only art, but also a plethora of other objects to do so.

In this novel and unique exploration of England's Tudor dynasty, Christina Faraday uses the art of the era – both images and objects - as a means of investigating every facet of the period. As well as deconstructing sometimes familiar portraits of Tudor kings, queens and noblemen, Faraday will bring a forensic eye to bear on a broad and heterogeneous array of artefacts – charters, clocks, cushions, coins, devotional artworks, furniture, jewels, manuscripts, miniatures, sculptures, scrolls and tapestries – thereby providing the reader with a vivid and detailed feel for the political, social, economic and cultural texture of sixteenth-century England.

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When we think about Tudor art we automatically think portraits. It's only recently that I've started to read about Elizabethan architecture and tapestries and I definitely wanted to read more. Christina Faraday's book took these topics- and so much more!- and put them in fantastic context.

Well-researched and well-written, this book touched on everything from tapestries and paintings to the beginnings of importing Chinese ceramics vs English pottery. How did art change from Henry VII to the end of Elizabeth I's reign? Why? The global movements and context for art, artists, patrons, and collectors created changes in types of art, symbolism, and so much more. The scope of the book means that Faraday isn't able to get into deep dives on every single type of art for every decade of the Tudor dynasty but her broad strokes and quick dives to give us illustrative examples are incredibly helpful to understanding the progression of art over time. Set up by monarch it is easy to see the progression of different types of art or symbols over time, why certain things were done or stopped being done. 

If you're interested in Tudor history, art history, or both, Faraday's The Story of Tudor Art is an absolute must read!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

Wild For Austen

 

Wild For Austen: A Rebellious, Subversive, and Untamed Jane- Devoney Looser

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: September 2, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚📚

Synopsis: Thieves! Spies! Abolitionists! Ghosts! If we ever truly believed Jane Austen to be a quiet spinster, scholar Devoney Looser puts that myth to rest at last in Wild for Austen. These, and many other events and characters, come to life throughout this rollicking book. Austen, we learn, was far wilder in her time than we’ve given her credit for, and Looser traces the fascinating and fantastical journey her legacy has taken over the past 250 years.

All six of Austen’s completed novels are examined here, and Looser uncovers striking new gems therein, as well as in Austen’s juvenilia, unfinished fiction, and even essays and poetry. Looser also takes on entirely new scholarship, writing about Austen’s relationship to the abolitionist movement and women’s suffrage. In examining the legacy of Austen’s works, Looser reveals the film adaptations that might have changed Hollywood history had they come to fruition, and tells extraordinary stories of ghost-sightings, Austen novels cited in courts of law, and the eclectic members of the Austen extended family whose own outrageous lives seem wilder than fiction.

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When you think about Jane Austen and her books, what comes to mind? Do you still imagine a quiet woman who never did anything and whose characters never challenge anyone? 

This image has been challenged more and more and in Wild for Austen Devoney Looser wants to put that out-dated Victorian fictional image to rest once and for all. She explores the real Austen, the women in her family who wrote, the ones who inspired her fictional characters, the brothers who spoke out against slavery, and more. Who would Austen have known whose actions and reputations would have been considered "wild" in her day? 

Looser explores what the word "wild" meant (both positive and negative) in Austen's time and how it is used in her books and letters. Each book, including the frequently forgotten Juvenilia, is explored for the "wildness" of its characters and what Austen might have been saying or satirizing on each occasion. It was an interesting angle of exploration that I quite enjoyed. Her research and arguements are interesting and cover a wide range of topics, several that I'd never heard before (like Austen's brothers in support of abolition).

Looser also explores our changing relationship with Austen's works. How has fan fiction, Hollywood interpretations, and our perhaps more willingness to accept Austen as a complete person, changed our relationship with her and her works? Can we accept her today in ways that were denied to her after her death? As perhaps more "wild" than "mild"? I think, based on Looser's arguments, we both can and should- and that an understanding of Austen like the one presented in Wild For Austen might make her more accessible in some ways to younger readers assigned the books in school who find them irrelevant today.   

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Penelope's Bones

Penelope's Bones: A New History of Homer's World Through the Women Written Out of It- Emily Hauser

University of Chicago Press

Release Date: June 13, 2025

Rating: 📚📚📚

Synopsis: In Mythica Emily Hauser tells, for the first time, the extraordinary stories of the real women behind some of the western world’s greatest legends. Following in their footsteps, digging into the history behind Homer’s epic poems, piecing together evidence from the original texts, recent astonishing archaeological finds and the latest DNA studies, she reveals who these women – queens, mothers, warriors, slaves – were, how they lived, and how history has (or has not – until now) remembered them.

A riveting new history of the Bronze Age Aegean and a journey through Homer’s epics charted entirely by women – from Helen of Troy, Briseis, Cassandra and Aphrodite to Circe, Athena, Hera, Calypso and Penelope – Mythica is a ground-breaking reassessment of the reality behind the often-mythologized women of Greece’s greatest epics, and of the ancient world itself as we learn ever more about it.

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I had very mixed feelings with this book. On the one hand, there was some very cool information on the latest archaeaolgical research and discoveries. New technology means DNA can tell us about travel in the Late Bronze Age, if families are buried together, or prove that more warrior gravesites are women warriors than were earlier believed. Texts unearthed through the Hittite Empire introduce powerful queens helping to rule the Hittite world next to Troy, and letters and tablets have been unearthed that suggest enough similarities between pieces of Homer's poems and real life to make Hauser's arguments plausible that the epics contain fragments of memories for ways of life that would have probably been old when the Iliad and the Odyssey were written down. I enjoyed most of the archaeological information, because I like reading about that kind of thing. 

Other parts of the book were, to me, more of a stretch. There was a lot of repetition. Hauser clearly didn't trust her audience to remember who any of the characters were, so would remind you every single time- especially the women already less well known like Briseis. Once or twice I can understand, but it was really annoying having her do it all the time. Each chapter would start with a short fictional story, which I know is the current fad, but personally I find throws me out of the nonfiction narrative and I always find off-putting. Some chapters were a stretch in terms of subject matter. In Circe's chapter, for example, I expected to learn about the ancient world's views on magic, or women living alone, or something else that might focus on women. Instead it is mostly about pigs. Yes, Circe and pigs go together and Hauser manages to connect them to religion and briefly to the mystery cults, but I was hoping for more. 

Frequently in the chapters Hauser brings up the modern retellings we see that are so popular today. Madeline Miller, Natalie Haynes, and some of her own books as well. These additions missed the mark for me. The readers of those books may be part of the audience she's trying to reach with this book, but adding the retellings here in the chapters themselves isn't part of the story of Homer's world. It would have worked better in the introduction or conclusion as part of the conversation on why women are now retelling the stories and focusing on reclaiming the lives and voices of the women in Homer's world.

I had high hopes going into Penelope's Bones, and while I would overall recommend reading it, I can't say I was as impressed with the book as I had hoped to be. Maybe I was expecting too much out if it. After all, Trying to uncover what has been pushed to the margins for thousands of years, both by the erosion of time, the men of the time period and by male archeologists until fairly recently, doesn't give you a lot to work with.

I received an ARC of this boon from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

Whack Job

Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder- Rachel McCarthy James

St. Martin's Press

Release Date: May 13, 2025

Rating: 📚

Synopsis: For as long as the axe has been in our hands, we have used it to kill.

Much like the wheel, the boat, and the telephone, the axe is a transformative piece of technology—one that has been with us since prehistory. And just as early humans used the axe to chop down trees, hunt for food, and whittle tools, they also used it to murder. Over time, this particular use has as the axe evolved over centuries to fit the needs of new agricultural, architectural, and social development, so have our lethal uses for it.

Whack Job is the story of the axe, first as a convenient danger and then an anachronism, as told through the murders it has been employed in throughout from the first axe murder nearly half a million years ago, to the brutal harnessing of the axe in warfare, to its use in King Henry VIII's favorite method of execution, to Lizzie Borden and the birth of modern pop culture. Whack Jobsheds brilliant light on this familiar implement, this most human of weapons. This is a critical examination of violence, an exploration of how technology shapes human conflict, the cruel and sacred rituals of execution and battle, and the ways humanity fits even the most savage impulses into narratives of the past and present.

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I'm not a massive reader of true crime books, but the description of Whack Job: A History of Axe Murder sounded unusual, and more my style. It sounded like I'd be reading a book exploring our relationship with the axe through time, maybe comparing it with our relationship to other potentially murderous tools (and really, aren't they all?) and why the axe won when a weapon was reached for. The book's description really sold me. 

The book itself didn't match the description and I ended up highly disappointed. Over 12 chapters author Rachel McCarthy James never really gives us her definition of an "axe murder" which meant that I disagreed with her on probably the first 8 or so chapters. People died, but often in war where axes were weapons, or state executions where axes were used (think Henry VIII). Are those murders? The axes are symbolic of power in several of these cases, which was interesting, but not related to murder in my opinion. 

The tone and focus of Whack Job was also all over the place. Sometimes dry and scholarly, sometimes humorous or flippant. The early chapters in particular were more a general history where if you didn't pay attention you could miss the death-by-maybe-axe completely. I'm particularly thinking of Ch 1 here. I've worked in a museum with an amazing collection of hand axes and they deserve to be talked about and clearly James wanted to talk about the early weapons/tools hand axes were. But since the "murder" is pretty vague in Ch 1, perhaps talking about the development of axes from stone tools on might have found a more impactful place in an introduction? Or call the book something like "The History of the World in 12 Axes", which would warn the reader that they are going to get a lot of general history of ancient Egypt, China, Greece, etc. and at some point axes will wander in. The book takes a turn around Ch 9 and focuses on specific killings done with an axe in the 20th century, although you still get more set-up than I at least felt was needed. 

Overall, not a book I'd recommend. Maybe if you're a serious fan of axes you'll get something out of this book, but generally I found the book not well written, prone to wandering, and seriously lacking in focus. Don't be fooled by the interesting book description- the pages don't remember that's what they were supposed to be focusing on.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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