The Round House [fiction] By Louise Erdrich 2012-02 – Harper Perennial 2012 National Book Award for Fiction Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Friday, April 26, 2024 6:30 Spice Pepper Garden … More |
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A Shadow Under the Rock: A Personal Account of New England Archaeology By Peter Waksman 2023-06 – Independently published Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Tuesday, March 5, 2024 via Zoom… More |
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History of the Nashobah Praying Indians: Doings, Sufferings, Survival, and Triumph By Dan Boudillion 2023-03 – Raven House Check Minuteman Library Network Public book discussion (FoPH October event): Monday, October 16, 2023… More |
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The Rediscovery of America: Native Peoples and the Unmaking of U.S. History By Ned Blackhawk 2023-04 – Yale University Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Thursday, September 14, 2023 at Spice Pepper Garden… More |
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Land So Strange: The Epic Journey of Cabeza de Vaca By Andrés Reséndez 2007-11 – Basic Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Wednesday, March 22, 2023 via Zoom… More |
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Indigenous Continent: The Epic Contest for North America By Pekka Hämäläinen 2022-09 – Liveright Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Thursday, January 19, 2023 via Zoom… More |
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The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America By Thomas King 2013-09 Univ of Minnesota Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Wednesday, November 30, 2022 via Zoom… More |
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(selected from previous year’s reading) A Deep Presence: 13,000 Years of Native American History By Robert G Goodby 2021-10 – Peter E. Randall Publisher Check Minuteman Library Network Public book discussion (FoPH October event): October 24, 2022 at the Acton Memorial Library … More |
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The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity [part 2] By David Graeber & David Wengrow 2021-11 – Farrar, Straus and Giroux Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Tuesday, September 20, 2022 via Zoom… More |
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The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity [part 1] By David Graeber & David Wengrow 2021-11 – Farrar, Straus and Giroux Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Thursday, July 21, 2022 via Zoom… More |
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Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas By Jennifer Raff 2022-02 – Twelve Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Wednesday, May 25, 2022 via Zoom… More |
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1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed By Eric H Cline 2021-02 (revised edition) Princeton University Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Thursday, March 24, 2022 via Zoom… More |
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A Deep Presence: 13,000 Years of Native American History By Robert G Goodby 2021-10 – Peter E. Randall Publisher Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 via Zoom… More |
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Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our Past By Sarah Parcak 2019-07 – Henry Holt and Co. Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion: Wednesday, December 1, 2021 via Zoom… More |
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Our Beloved Kin: A New History of King Philip’s War By Lisa Brooks 2019-02 – Yale University Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Tuesday, July 6, 2021, 6:00 p.m. at Sydney’s house. Meeting included discussion of Memory Lands.…More |
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Memory Lands: King Philip’s War and the Place of Violence in the Northeast By Christine M. Delucia 2019-11 Yale University Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Tuesday, July 6, 2021, 6:00 p.m. at Sydney’s house. Meeting included discussion of Our Beloved …More |
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The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall By Mark W. Moffett 2019-04 – Basic Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Tuesday, May 4, 2021, 7:00 p.m. via Zoom …More |
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Kindred: 300,000 Years of Neanderthal Life and Afterlife By Rebecca Wragg Sykes 2020-10 – Bloomsbury SIGMA Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Tuesday, February 2, 2021, 7:00 p.m. via Zoom teleconference …More |
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Gods of the Upper Air: How a Circle of Renegade Anthropologists Reinvented Race, Sex, and Gender in the Twentieth Century By Charles King 2019-08 – Doubleday Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Thursday, November 19, 2020, 7:00 p.m. via Zoom teleconference …More |
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The Day Before America: Changing Nature of a Continent By William H. MacLeish 1994-09 – Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Monday, May 18, 2020, 7-8:30 p.m. via Zoom teleconference. Discussion continued on Thursday, July 16, 2020, 6:30 p.m. via Zoom …More |
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This Land Is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving By David Silverman 2019-11 – Bloomsbury Publishing Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Thursday, March 5, 2020, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) Acton. Ahead of the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving, a new look at the Plymouth colony’s founding events, told for the first time with Wampanoag people at the heart of the …More |
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The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Indian America from 1890 to the Present By David Treuer 2019-01 – Riverhead Books Check Minuteman Library Network Awards: National Book Awards (2018) Book Discussion: Thursday, January 9, 2020, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) Acton …More |
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The Indians of the Nipmuck Country in Southern New England, 1630-1750: A Historical Geography By Dennis A. Connole 2000-12 – McFarland & Company Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Monday, November 18, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) Acton The North American Indian group known as the Nipmucks was situated in south-central New England and, during the early years of Puritan colonization, remained on …More |
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Atlas of a Lost World: Travels in Ice Age America By Craig Childs 2018-5 – Pantheon Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, October 9, 2019, 7:00 p.m. at Acton Memorial Library (repeat of January 2019 discussion). …More |
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Albion’s Seed: Four British Folkways in America By David Hackett Fischer 1989-10 – Oxford University Press, USA Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, June 12, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) …More |
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Where the Lightning Strikes: The Lives of American Indian Sacred Places By Peter Nabokov 2006-02 – Viking Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, April 24, 2019, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) Acton …More |
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Spirit of the New England Tribes: Indian History and Folklore, 1620-1984 By William S. Simmons 1986-03 – University Press of New England Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, November 14, 2018, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) Acton. Legends, folktales, and traditions of New England Indians reflect historical events and a changing Indian identity over a 365-year period. … More |
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The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story By Douglas Preston 2017-01 – Grand Central Publishing Check Minuteman Library Network The #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller, named one of the best books of the year by The Boston Globe and National Geographic: acclaimed journalist Douglas Preston takes readers on a true adventure deep into the Honduran rainforest in this riveting narrative about the …More |
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An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz 2014-09 – Beacon Press Check Minuteman Library Network 2015 Recipient of the American Book Award The first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples Today in the United States, there are more than … More |
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Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind By Yuval Noah Harari 2015-02 – Harper Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, August 1, 2018, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road (Route 2A) Acton …More |
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Living the Sky: The Cosmos of the American Indian By Ray A. Williamson Illustrator Snowden Hodges 2012-05 – University of Oklahoma Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, May 23, 2018, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Red Raven Restaurant (‘The Nest’ on the second floor), 3 Nagog Park, Acton …More |
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Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors By Nicholas Wade 2006-05 – Penguin Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Thursday, November 30, 2017, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Linda’s house, Acton (note change of usual venue). Pot luck. Based on a groundbreaking synthesis of recent scientific …More |
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American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America By Colin Woodard 2011-09 – Viking Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Monday, October 23, 2017, 7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Acton Memorial Library Woodard leads readers on a journey through the history of this fractured continent, and the rivalries and alliances between its component nations, which conform to neither state nor international boundaries. He illustrates and explains …More |
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The Mind in the Cave: Consciousness and the Origins of Art By David Lewis-Williams 2002-11 – Thames & Hudson Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, September 13, 2017, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Red Raven Restaurant (‘The Nest’ on the second floor), 3 Nagog Park, Acton. …More |
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The Settlement Of The Americas A New Prehistory By Thomas D. Dillehay 2000-05 – Basic Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, July 26, 2017, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at the home of Sydney in Harvard, MA. Note that book is c. 2000, 1st ed. –more recent edition-dates are only re-printings. …More |
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The Memory Code: The Secrets of Stonehenge, Easter Island and Other Ancient Monuments By Lynne Kelly 2017-1 – Pegasus Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Thursday, May 11, 2017, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Red Raven Restaurant, 3 Nagog Park (off Rt. 2A), Acton, MA 01720. …More |
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Breaking the Maya Code By Michael D. Coe 1999-10 – Thames & Hudson Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, March 22, 2017, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden Restaurant, 36 Great Road, Acton, MA 01720. Coe’s classic inside story of one of the major intellectual breakthroughs of our time–the last decoding of an ancient …More |
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Jungle of Stone: The Extraordinary Journey of John L. Stephens and Frederick Catherwood, and the Discovery of the Lost Civilization of the Maya By William Carlsen 2016-4 – William Morrow & Company Check Minuteman Library Network The acclaimed chronicle of the discovery of the legendary lost civilization of the Maya. Includes the history of the major Maya sites, including Palenque, Uxmal, Chichen Itza, Tuloom, Copan, and more. …More |
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Captive Histories: English, French, and Native Narratives of the 1704 Deerfield Raid Edited By Evan Haefeli and Kevin Sweeney 2006-06 – University of Massachusetts Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion with Co-Author Kevin Sweeney :Sunday, October 23, 2016, 2:30-4:00 p.m. at the Acton Memorial Library This volume draws together an unusually rich body of original sources that tell the story of the 1704 French and Indian attack on Deerfield, Massachusetts, from different vantage points. Texts range from one …More |
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Vikings: Vikings By William F. Fitzhugh Edited by Elisabeth Ward and William F. Fitzhugh Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion, Wednesday September 14, 2016, 6:30-8:00 p.m., Filho’s Great Road, 59 Great Rd., Acton. …More |
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Hidden Cities: The Discovery and Loss of Ancient North American Civilization By Roger Kennedy 1994-08 – Free Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, May 18, 2016, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Rapscallion Table and Tap, 5 Strawberry Hill Road, Acton. Few realize that some of the oldest, …More |
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Ceremonial Time: Fifteen Thousand Years on One Square Mile By John Hanson Mitchell 1997-03 – Counterpoint LLC Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, March 2, 2016, 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Rapscallion Table and Tap, 5 Strawberry Hill Road, Acton (note new location). Ceremonial time’ is the moment when past, present and future can be perceived simultaneously. In this, John Mitchell’s most magical book, first published in …More |
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Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi By Timothy R. Pauketat 2009-08 – Viking Books Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Wednesday, January 20, 2016, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Larry’s house in Acton (note change of usual venue). …More |
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American Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England By Katherine Grandjean 2015-01 – Harvard Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: American Passage: The Communications Frontier in Early New England, by Katherine Grandjean. Tuesday, October 13, 2015, 7:30-9:00 p.m. at Acton Memorial Library (note change from usual …More |
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The Chaco Meridian: One Thousand Years of Political and Religious Power in the Ancient Southwest By Stephen H. Lekson 2015-03 – Rowman & Littlefield Publishers Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Thursday, September 17, 2015, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Linda’s house in Acton (note change of usual venue). …More |
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House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest By Craig Childs 2007-02 – Little Brown and Company Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: House of rain: tracking a vanished civilization across the American Southwest. Thursday, May 14, 2015, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden restaurant at 36 Great Road (Route 2A) in East Acton. The greatest unsolved mystery of the American Southwest is the fate of the Anasazi, the native peoples who in the eleventh century …More |
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Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America By Daniel K. Richter 2001-12 – Harvard University Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Thursday, March 19, 2015, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden restaurant at 36 Great Road (Route 2A) in East Acton. In the beginning, North America was Indian country. But only in the beginning. After the opening act of the great national drama, Native Americans yielded …More |
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Who Discovered America?: The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas By Gavin Menzies and Ian Hudson 2013-10 – William Morrow & Company Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Who Discovered America?: The Untold History of the Peopling of the Americas. Thursday, January 29, 2015, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden restaurant at 36 Great Road (Route 2A) in East Acton. Greatly expanding on his blockbuster 1421, distinguished historian Gavin Menzies uncovers the complete untold history of how …More |
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Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England By William Cronon Foreword by John Demos Afterword by William Cronon 2003-09 – Hill & Wang Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion: Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Book Discussion Wednesday, December 10, 2014, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Spice Pepper Garden restaurant at 36 Great Road (Route 2A) in East Acton. Lauded on Amazon.com as “The book that launched environmental …More |
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Behind the Frontier: Indians in Eighteenth-Century Eastern Massachusetts By Daniel R. Mandell 1996-05 – University of Nebraska Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion Monday, October 27, 2014, 7:30-9:00 p.m. at Acton Memorial Library [This book discussion is a part of Acton’s annual Massachusetts Archeology Month program. Please note the change from our usual venue and day]. The book, by historian Daniel R. Mandell is a detailed yet readable look at the development of Native American communities in our …More |
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Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture By Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley Foreword by Michael B. Collins 2012-02 – University of California Press Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion Monday, September 22, 2014, 6:30-8:00 pm at Spiceppper Garden, a nice Chinese restaurant on Route 2A in East Acton. [Please note the change from our usual Thursday day]. According to a long-accepted story, the first mammal hunters entered North America from Asia some 12,000 years ago via a …More |
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Trespassing: An Inquiry Into the Private Ownership of Land By John Hanson Mitchell 1999-06 – Counterpoint LLC Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion Thursday, June 19, 2014, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Bella Famiglia, an Italian restaurant on Route 2A in East Acton. John Mitchell is a noted local author who lives in Littleton and is editor of the award winning magazine, Sanctuary, published by the Massachusetts Audubon Society. He has written several books, with subject matter …More |
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Manitou: The Sacred Landscape of New England’s Native Civilization By James W. Mavor Jr. and Byron E. Dix 1989-11 – Inner Traditions International Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion Thursday, April 17, 2014, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Bella Famiglia, an Italian restaurant on Route 2A in East Acton. Archaeoastronomy has received much public and professional attention in recent years, especially in relation to Mesoamerican civilizations. This book attempts to establish that rock piles and other stone formations in New England are …More |
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The Name of War: King Philip’s War and the Origins of American Identity By Jill Lepore 1998-01 – Alfred A. Knopf Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussion Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014, 6:30-8:00 p.m. at Bella Famiglia, a nice Italian restaurant on Route 2A in East Acton. King Philip’s War, the excruciating racial war – colonists against Indians – that erupted in New England in 1675, was, in proportion to population, the bloodiest in American history. Some even argued that the massacres and outrages …More |
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1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus By Charles C. Mann 2006-10 – Vintage Check Minuteman Library Network Book discussion Thursday, January 9, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. at Bella Famiglia Restaurant, Route 2A in East Acton In this work, Mann, an established science writer, assembles recent work by archaeologists and anthropologists which challenges many of the common conceptions of our understanding of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans in 1492. …More |
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Caleb’s Crossing By Geraldine Brooks 2011-05 – Viking Books Check Minuteman Library Network Awards: Chautauqua Prize (2011), Christianity Today Book Award (2011), Langum Prize for Historical Literature (2010), New England Book Award (2010) Book discussion Tuesday, October 29, 2013 at 7:30 p.m. at the Acton Memorial Library. Inspired by true events, this novel tells a story of cultural understanding that unfolds in Massachusetts in the mid-1600s around the young daughter of a Calvinist minister and the son of a Wampanoag chieftain. …More |
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The Farfarers: A New History of North America By Farley Mowat 2011-04 – Skyhorse Publishing Check Minuteman Library Network Book Discussionn Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 6:30 p.m. at Bella Famiglia Restaurant, Route 2A in East Acton. Mowat, a well-known Canadian environmentalist and writer, creates an engaging historical novel which details an alternative version of pre-Viking contacts with North America. …More |