On The Road To Freedom: A Guided Tour Of The Civil Rights Trail, Charles Cobb Jr., Cobb, Charles E. Jr; Algonquin Books

“An award-winning black journalist takes a pilgrimage through the sites and landmarks of the civil rights movement as he journeys to key locales that served as a backdrop to important events of the 1960s, journeying around the country to pay tribute to the people, organizations, and events that transformed America.”
Robin’s Note: For anyone interested in the 1960s and the struggle for civil rights, this personal view of history illuminates.  Cobb was a part of these events and has a vast memory for the people, places, and situations, and the narrative presented as a travelogue is an engaging and different way to present recent history.  If you’re curious for more, you might also try Freedom Riders by Raymond Arsenault.

Little Brother, Cory Doctorow; Tom Doherty Associates

“After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco, California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set things right.”
Robin’s Note: This title, set in a very near possible future, is one of the best recent thrill rides.  Little Brother combines a lot of ideas: security, terrorism, patriotism, and loyalty mix with gaming, hacking, and clever non-violent public protests.  The insight of Marcus’s computer invasions are exciting and impressive, like any good movie where one side outsmarts the other.  Once the story begins, it never lets up, and pulls you right through to the end.  Doctorow poses a lot of questions along the way in this book, and does have clear concerns about civil rights and government restrictions, but the most engaging part of this book is the tense adventure.

Beguilement (The Sharing Knife #1), Lois McMaster Bujold; Eos

“Troubled young Fawn Bluefield seeks a life beyond her family’s farm. But en route to the city, she encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, nomadic soldier–sorcerers from the northern woodlands. Feared necromancers armed with mysterious knives made of human bone, they wage a secret, ongoing war against the scourge of the “malices,” immortal entities that draw the life out of their victims, enslaving human and animal alike.

It is Dag—a Lakewalker patroller weighed down by past sorrows and onerous present responsibilities—who must come to Fawn’s aid when she is taken captive by a malice. They prevail at a devastating cost—unexpectedly binding their fates as they embark upon a remarkable journey into danger and delight, prejudice and partnership . . . and perhaps even love.”

Robin’s Note: Lois McMaster Bujold is renowned for her complex, engaging fantasy series, including the adventuresome Vorkosigan saga, but this series is a new tale for her combining romance and fantasy in equal parts.  She’s a smart, practiced writer, and her deep world-building creates a rich world.  If you want to try a definite romance/fantasy combination, this is one of the many hybrids that were published in testing out the combinations of the fantasy and romance markets, and of all the writers making the attempt, Bujold is the most likely to succeed.

Alphabet Of Thorn, Patricia A. McKillip; Ace Books

“One of the most spectacular fantasists of our time, Patricia A. McKillip creates fairy tale worlds of wonder and magic. Now, she opens the page on a time and place where an orphan girl is haunted by thorns…a reluctant queen rules between sea and sky… and epics never end…”

Robin’s Note: As with all of Patricia McKillip’s fantasies, this title is full of evocative imagery and lush language.  This time around she zeroes in on the force of love, to both save and destroy.  Learning from your own and your culture’s history and the power of language is all important in this tale.  McKillip is talented as weaving together magic with relatable and endearing characters, from a lonely librarian to a skittish new queen, each coming in to their power.  This particular novel is one of her easier titles to get into, if you are not already a fan, and has a stronger romance element than her other titles.