Book Reviews

If you can spend hours in  little bookstores, often prefer a good book to a live person, love the way books smell, and seek out libraries when you’re on vacation, this book is for you. Coming up next, listen to Kirsten Nilsson, Summit County Library’s Children’s Librarian, review the compelling historical novel The Paris Library.

  The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Turn of the Key and In a Dark Dark Wood returns with another suspenseful thriller set on a snow-covered mountain. 

Ruth Ware, an alias for Ruth Warburton, is a British, psychological-crime, thriller author and no stranger to the New York Times bestseller list. Her latest book, One By One, could be the perfect read when you leave the slopes surrounding us here in Park City and curl up by the fire.

The book, A Woman of No Importance  The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell is the true story of an American woman, Virginia Hall, who lived, survived and even excelled in the 'man's world' of espionage and war in France during World War II.

Author Susanna Clarke’s recent novel introduces us to a breathtaking new world and an intriguing protagonist who’s trying to make sense of his place in it. Dan Compton has this month’s book review of Piranesi.

The book “Likes” is great escape and a reminder of what’s real, and what’s not, in these unsettling times. Summit County Librarian Kirsten Nilsson, has this month’s KPCW Book Review.

You know, lately, with all our divisive national politics, racial tensions, a world pandemic and even murder hornets, I’ve really longed for some way to escape it all. And, as a librarian, you know I’m going to tell you that reading can take you lots of places, really anywhere you want to go.

Living through the Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives in ways large and small. A new collection of essays and poems explores various ways we are reacting to and coping with this uninvited guest.  Amy Mills has this month’s book review of Alone Together: Love, Grief, and Comfort in the Time of Covid-19.

American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings, hailed as “‘The Grapes of Wrath’ for our times,” was Oprah's Book Club selection in January. By March there was so much controversy the book tour was canceled.

Chapter one: “One of the very first bullets comes in from the open window above the toilet where Luca is standing. He doesn't understand immediately that it is a bullet at all, and it's only luck it doesn't strike him between the eyes.”

Great historical fiction combines engrossing entertainment with fresh details of places, times, and people different from our own. The best historical fiction does that and makes it relevant and meaningful today.

How do people in power use their office to control citizens? Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s historical fiction of Norway four hundred years ago feels surprisingly timely.

 The One Book One Community selection this year is “Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country,” which recently won the Reading the West Advocacy Award. Author Pam Houston, once a resident of Park City, will hold a virtual talk with locals in September about her latest book. 

“Deep Creek: Finding Hope in the High Country” is author Pam Houston's first memoir. It's an obvious love letter to the natural world in general and her ranch specifically. 

A new novel is a heartfelt inquiry into Viet Nam’s complex and brutal past. It follows one family’s heartache and healing that spans decades. Dan Compton has this month’s book review of The Mountains Sing.

One of the lesser known migrations in modern history was that of refugees from the Spanish Civil War to Chile in 1939.  South American author Isabel Allende tells an engrossing tale of two refugees who make the trip halfway around the world, only to become embroiled in Chile’s own internal upheaval.  Amy Mills reviews Allende’s latest book, A Long Petal of the Sea.