In short? This is a great book! In a sweet, wholesome way Melody Carlson has painted a picture of frontier life that we can savor and learn from through her Homeward on The Oregon Trail Series. The third and final book is now here: A...

Africa's Unfinished Symphony is the work of Lucia Mann, a former journalist, who was born in South Africa. The story opens as a young man attempts to roust an elderly woman, Vimbela, who has Down's Syndrome, and is lying prone on the burial site he...

Across the River by Elaine Russell, is powerful reading. It is the harrowing tale of a family’s escape from the horrors of the Vietnam war. At the time, Nou is a child. It is her family's story. Freedom is when the Americans leave the country....

"A Christmas of Grace" is the story of eleven year old Grace Gillian and her almost six year old brother Henry James. For the Gillian children life had never really been stable. Because of their alcoholic mother, Grace had always been the one to make...

Thomas is a warrior in medieval England. He is not a knight or a squire. He is not well-known or incredibly exceptional (at least not that anyone knows) but all of that is about to change. Thomas has lived a rather commonplace life and hasn’t...

Astray by Emma Donoghue, audio format “Astray” is an anthology of fourteen short stories that transport the reader to the past where they will meet historical characters who were once emigrants or the reader will experience an event from the past that deals with emigration. Many...

"A Mixture of Madness" by Andrew Levkoff is the second book in this series, taking us to Alexandros, a man who at 19 was chained to the tail of a victorious Roman army that was on the march home. He was just one more slave...

It is the summer of 1953 and three high school friends, Faith, Octavia and Bernadette, live in the New York State town of Port Pompeii which was once an active part of the famous Erie canal system. Faith lives with her father and grandfather in...

"A Diary with a Difference" by Martin Line is an interesting juxtaposition of two diaries - a contemporary one by Judith Thomas, a slightly reserved 20-year-old with a keen eye for political comment, and the 17th century account by Jane McCarthy, one of Judith’s forbears,...

"Alexander's Lighthouse" is a story set in Alexandria during the Imperium of Domitian. The setting is historical, but it creates major events that did not happen, so it is not entirely a historical novel. The story is generally well-written and produced, and the writing flows...