Backlist Book Picks

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist ( Backlist Book Pick )

September 18, 2020 by Lynn Leave a Comment

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

I read The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist as part of my nonfiction book for every state challenge. It was an impulse purchase at Barnes and Noble, but I knew it would work perfectly for my Mississippi book.

Not only was this book perfect for learning about Mississippi, but it was also a fascinating book.

I have talked about this book several times over the last few years, but I thought it would be a great backlist book. It was published in early 2018 and I don’t think that it got the attention that it deserved.

The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist is a shocking account of racism and junk forensic science in our criminal justice system, and its devastating effect on innocent people.

It is a story that is so hard to believe happened and yet it happened. Not only did it happen, it happened in recent history. This is not a long ago type of story. This is a “it happened in my generation” story.

It covers the important topic of crime and injustice in the south and how two men manipulated the system in order to make money and further their careers.

I will admit that this was not a fast read for me. It goes into quite a bit of detail about crime against women and kids.

It is a rough read, and one that I did not read right before bed. It is graphic and sad, but such an important event that not very many people know about. I highly recommend it.

I read it. My husband read it. And we have both recommended it to more people than I can count. If you like fascinating nonfiction or true crime type of books I think you will love The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist.

A Beautiful Blue Death ( Backlist Book Pick )

August 20, 2020 by Lynn 3 Comments

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

This week for our Backlist Book Pick we are featuring the first book in one of my favorite mystery series.

Backlist Book Picks is where we feature older books, books that are not the new releases that everyone is talking about.

With all the new book releases each week, older books often get forgotten on the bookstore shelf. We want to change that by featuring a backlist book each week.

A Beautiful Blue Death is the first book in the Charles Lenox series by Charles Finch.

I love a good mystery book, but I like my mystery books without all the graphic details. Thrillers and gory graphic details are not for me.

A Beautiful Blue Death is not considered a cozy mystery, but I think it fits in that category because it doesn’t have all the graphic details that many mysteries do.

A Beautiful Blue Death, and The Charles Lenox series, are considered historical mysteries.

The series is set in Victorian England. Charles is the second son in the family. He gentleman and an amateur detective who loves solving a good mystery.

In A Beautiful Blue Death Charles helps his good friend, Lady Jane, after one of her former servants is found dead.

This book and the entire series involve the upper and lower class of Victorian England. This is a great series if you like Dowton Abbey type of stories.

I am featuring the first book in the series today because it is important to start with the first one, but I think the series gets better as it goes on.

There are thirteen books so far in the series. I have enjoyed all the books, but books two, three, four, and five are probably my favorite.

If you love a good British mystery, give A Beautiful Blue Death and The Charles Lenox series a try.

Have you read any books in this series?

The Story Keeper by Lisa Wingate

July 16, 2020 by Lynn Leave a Comment

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

The Story Keeper by Lisa Wingate is a powerful story of love and forgiveness.

We are back with another backlist book pick!

Backlist Book Picks is where we feature older books, books that are not the new releases that everyone is talking about.

With all the new book releases each week, older books often get forgotten on the bookstore shelf. We want to change that by featuring a backlist book each week.

I recently read The Story Keeper by Lisa Wingate and loved it. It was published in 2014 and is one of Lisa Wingate’s older historical fiction books.

I was first introduced to Lisa Wingate’s books when I read Before We Were Yours, since then I have been slowly working my way through her other books. I had no idea that she had written so many books.

The Story Keeper, is now one of my favorite books by her. It is a book that I won’t forget. I could not stop thinking about. It is one of those books that I wish I had someone to talk about it with after I finished it. If you read it or have read it, I would love to talk about it with you!

In the book, The Story Keeper, Jen Gibbs is a successful New York editor who finds herself revisiting her past through a manuscript that somehow found its way to her desk.

This manuscript shares the life of Sarra, a Melungeon girl, in Appalachia during the turn of the twentieth century.

In searching for the answers behind this mysterious manuscript, Jen is forced to face her own past.

She returns to the Blue Ridge Mountains, which is the place of so many complicated childhood memories for her.

In her quest for a best selling book, she is confronted with not only her family history but the complicated life and history of others.

The Story Keeper is about love, family, and so much more. It contains a mystery while also dealing with past and present difficulties. This book draws you in to the story in a way that few books do.

If you love Lisa Wingate books, this is a great one. If you have not read anything by Lisa Wingate, this is a great one to start with.

If you have read The Story Keeper, I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Other books by Lisa Wingate that I read and loved:

84, Charing Cross Road ( Backlist Book Pick)

May 21, 2020 by Lynn Leave a Comment

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

84, Charing Cross Road is a book about books. But it is about so much more. Since it was written in 1970, it makes a perfect book for a backlist book pick.

Backlist Book Picks is where we feature older books, books that are not the new releases that everyone is talking about.

With all the new book releases each week, older books often get forgotten on the bookstore shelf. We want to change that by featuring a backlist book each week.

I have heard 84, Charing Cross Road described as a love story, and in a way it is, but it isn’t so much a love story between people. This book is more of a story of love and friendship between people who love books.

And not just any type of books. They are two people who cherish old quality rare books.

When I first heard about this book, I thought that is was fiction, but it isn’t. Which to a nonfiction lover makes it that much more intriguing. 84, Charing Cross Road is the true story of Helen Hanff, New York writer, and a London used book dealer, who corresponded the years following WWII.

The author loves old rare books, but can’t find many of the books she is looking for in the bookstores in the U.S. The ones she can find cost more than she can spend. So she contacts a used bookseller in London.

The author develops a friendship not only with the book dealer, but with his family and the other employees of Marks & Co bookstore.

They correspondence go back and forth for twenty years. The letters not only share about books but also share about the ups and downs of life and jobs.

The friendship is based on a common love of books, but it is about so much more than books. I am not usually a fan of books that are just letters, but it works in this book. The letters aren’t just information being passed back and forth, they tell the story of people and their lives.

If you love books about books or books about friendship or the letter format, 84, Charing Cross Road, is a great read! Have you read it?

Devil At My Heels ( Backlist Book Pick )

March 6, 2020 by Lynn Leave a Comment

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Devil At My Heels

This week’s backlist book pick is the book Devil At My Heels.

The story of Louis Zamperini was unfamiliar to many of people until Laura Hillenbrand’s book Unbroken was published in 2010. Louis Zamperini’s life is an inspiring story of faith, forgiveness, war, love, and strength.

Unbroken is a powerful book. It is one of my favorite books of all times. It is a narrative nonfiction type of book and the writing draws you in.

Even those that don’t read a lot of fiction or history type books enjoy Unbroken. It is a book that is hard to put down once you start reading it.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it, but it actually isn’t the book that I want to talk about today for our backlist book pick.

Unbroken

The book Unbroken is far from the first book written about Louis Zamperini. Quite a few books have shared his story over the years. One of them was his autobiography Devil At My Heels.

A well written biography like Unbroken is great. But a biography is just that, a biography.

It is someone sharing some else’s story. It is second and third hand information. It is not the story from the original person or source.

An autobiography has the advantage of being from the person who lived it. The disadvantage to autobiographies is that not everyone is a writer. Many autobiographies are tough to read. They are dry, boring, and lack good editing.

They also can be skewed. They only show the author’s life from his perspective, and he only shares what he deems important. This can be disappointing as it may not show the whole story.

But a well done autobiography like Devil At My Heels is an amazing resource.

In 1956, Louis Zamperini shared is story in his autobiography Devil At My Heels. This is the first hand account. It is is story in his own words. It shares what it was like to actually live it. Not from a source, but from the man who survived it.

Devil At My Heels

Devil At My Heels is not really narrative nonfiction. It is an ordinary man sharing his extraordinary story in a well written way.

If you loved Unbroken and want to know the story from the man who actually lived it, Devil At My Heels is a great read. If you haven’t read Unbroken, but love a well written autobiography I think you will enjoy this one.

It is not just a war story either. He is sharing his story of how he came to faith and his running career. It is from his view, which allows the reader to see what he feels is important in his life. It also pulls the reader through the personal stories that captivate the reader.

Have you read Devil At My Heels or Unbroken? I would love to hear yours thoughts on them if you have!

Let Us Help You Find Great Books!

Backlist Book Picks