Ascent: A story of danger, adversity, and love by Cathie Dunn

Empires are rarely born in triumph. More often empires rise from ruin — the smoke, broken walls, the lives abruptly unmade and forced into new shapes. But history and human nature also suggest otherwise. I’ve been exploring a remarkable group of historical voices lately and discovered what lies beneath quiet surfaces. When the world is remade around us, do we shape it in return… or are we shaped beyond recognition?

14/04/202614/04/2026

Their Castilian Orphan by Anna Belfrage: Keeping Secrets

Power rarely announces itself with noise. More often poser moves in silence: through lineage, allegiance, and the dangerous secrets of what must remain hidden. But history and human nature also suggest otherwise. I’ve been exploring a remarkable group of historical voices lately and discovered what lies beneath quiet surfaces. Is it blood that defines us… or the secrets kept to protect it?

15/10/202114/04/2025

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny, a Review, #StateOfTerror

detailed in depth book review Hillary Clinton Rodham Louise Penny

State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny is a thoughtful thriller that puts the heart back in the White House, a review.

I could say that State of Terror by Hillary Rodham Clinton and Louise Penny is a political thriller about a handful of politicians and civilians who, except for their patriotism, have nothing much in common yet manage to annihilate a terrorist infiltration into the alt-right movement, a military-coup and a nuclear terrorist attack on US soil. But it is much more than that.

I could say that State of Terror is a conspiracy theory novel suspenseful at times; uproarious at others, and satisfying in the end. It is a book that for me, as a European reader, has put the heart back into the White House politics.

But it is more than that.