Sunday Salon: Historical Fiction and Non-Fiction

Welcome to the Sunday Salon! Also visit The Sunday Post hosted by The Caffeinated Bookreviewer; It's Monday: What Are You Reading? at Book Journey. Also visit Mailbox Monday.

The sun is out and it's warm!! We bought a finch bird feeder and hope to hear their lovely songs soon. I didn't realize there are about 20 kinds of finches. We have only been aware of the purple finch, house finch, and the goldfinch in this area.

I am reading books for book tours as well as sneaking in other reads. Here are a few that have been added to the shelves:

Bourbon: A History of the American Spirit by Dane Huckelbridge

Bourbon whiskey. Its primary ingredient was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Its recipe was perfected on the Western frontier. In 1964, Congress passed a resolution declaring it to be a "distinctive product of the United States." First brewed by pioneers in in the backwoods of Appalachia, bourbon whiskey has become a modern multi-billion dollar international industry today. As this book reveals, the Kentucky spirit--the only liquor produced from corn is the American experience, distilled, aged, and sealed in a bottle.

Huckelbridge tours across three hundred years.  Interweaving the development of bourbon to America's own rise, his  study is popular history,  an informative look at our past. (goodreads)

The Medici Boy by John L'Heureux, historical novel

Art, politics and passion collide in John L’Heureux’s novel, The Medici Boy.  L’Heureux  transports the reader to Donatello’s Renaissance Italy—directly into his bottega, (workshop), as witnessed through the eyes of Luca Mattei, a devoted assistant. While creating his famous bronze of David and Goliath, Donatello’s passion for his enormously beautiful model and part time rent boy, Agnolo, ignites a dangerous jealousy that ultimately leads to Agnolo’s brutal murder. Luca, the complex and conflicted assistant, will sacrifice all to save the life of Donatello, even if it means the life of the master sculptor’s friend and great patron of art, Cosimo de’ Medici. A narrative of the creative genius, Donatello, at the height of his powers, and the artistry that enthralled the powerful and highly competitive Medici and Albizzi families in fifteenth century Florence.  (goodreads)

Last Night at the Blue Angel by Rebecca Rotert, historical novel

In the early 1960s Chicago jazz scene, a literary debut about a talented but troubled singer, her precocious ten-year-old daughter, and their heartbreaking relationship. Naomi Hill, a singer at the Blue Angel club, has  her big break -the cover of Look magazine. But Naomi is a fiercely ambitious yet extremely self-destructive woman whose charms are irresistible and dangerous for those around her. No one knows this better than Sophia, her precocious ten-year-old daughter.

Unsettled by her uncertain home life, she harbors the terrible fear that the world could end at any moment.... Her one constant is Jim, the photographer who is her best friend, surrogate father, and protector. But Jim is deeply in love with Naomi-a situation that adds to Sophia's anxiety. An unforgettable tale about what happens when our passion for the life we want is at odds with the life we have. (goodreads)

What books are on your shelf these days?