Stevie Szabad, Author

2025_February – Yes, this is my back yard pathway right now. Snowy is the word.

Second Installment of Stevie’s Read and Review. February is my second-least-favourite month, so thank goodness it’s short! (Nothing beats November for the blahs. Wait, you’ll see.) This year February includes a cruise down south. And reading, of course, always reading. Starting with :

• ‘The Frozen River’ by Ariel Lawhon. I picked this one up at the airport bookstore in Fort Lauderdale after (what else) a previous cruise down south. Puritan-settled small-town Maine, 1780s with flashbacks to 1750s, just after the Indian wars, that explain the current story. We follow our heroine and local midwife/doctor, Martha. Murder, rape, love and death. Joys and injustices of life on the frontier of a struggling new country. Engrossing and satisfying.

• Next up, a Kobo purchase after reading a previous from this author, Alan Furst, “Night Soldiers”. I chose this one to take on the cruise, but the intricacies of an early Soviet Russia spy system battling/infiltrating 1930s fascist Europe were hard to follow sitting in the Caribbean sunshine. Deep and complicated, I’ll finish it at home later while sitting in my cozy chair hoping the weather warms up enough to melt the piles of snow into icicles from the roofs across the way.

Speaking of cold, here’s an excerpt from “Camp Follower One Army Brat’s Story” by Michele Sabad : Goose Bay Excerpt from “Camp Follower” – Goose Bay – Stevie Szabad, Author

Ok, enough sidelining, back to my spy novel.

• A rough, emotional beginning, rich characters, heartbreak and hope. A modern writing style that is fresh and unique, even though this book was published in 1988! Are you someone who likes spy movies? Sitting in a theatre, the dark night scenes, mysterious characters, rainy settings that smell of the wet concrete? I’m not, not really, but if enticed to go, I spend a lot of time asking, “Who’s that? What do they want? Is that the same one? Where are they going?” This book is like that. Interesting but very far-reaching and complicated, a book I would call 4-dimensional. I’m slogging through, determined to finish and have no idea how the main guy gets out of it. On to March with it!

So short February is over, and I only got through 1.5 books. Snowstorm expected for tomorrow (such is March, in like a lion), so time for more reading.

See you next month. Try Michele’s Books.