All Souls' Rising, Master of the Crossroads,

I just returned from the best summer reading experience I've had in a very long time. I spent almost 2,000 pages soaking up the imagined atmosphere of Saint Domingue (now Haiti) during the decade of 1791 to 1801. In this superb historical fiction, Bell is an intrepid guide through the terrors and triumphs that brought about the first successful slave revolution. He introduces you to a cast of characters who are so alive in their specificity that you become deeply invested in their fates. And where a history book would have left me confused, his ingeniously constructed narrative allowed me to grasp all the factions and alliances and re-alliances that made up these fascinating events. Bell also animates the historical figure of Toussaint L'Ouverture, a military genius on the order of George Washington who has now joined Alexander Hamilton as my favorite "Founding Fathers of the New World." Born around the same time and in the same part of the world as Hamilton, he was equally obsessed with the history-changing power of words. (In fact, I may have found Lin-Manuel Miranda's next project right here.) I could go on and on, but instead I will just say that these books are probably the most enlightening and moving reading I'll do all year. —Liz

P.S. In case you can't tell, Liz loves these books and has been talking about nothing else all summer! She's got me convinced, if I can only find the time for 2,000 spare pages...