Jenny's Book Bag

I’d like to thank NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

It’s so nice to see an author show appreciation for a city like Rafael Alvarez does in Tales from the Holy Land. I can tell that he loves Baltimore and he did a lot of research to write these stories. I was attracted to this short story collection because it takes place in my hometown of Baltimore.

I had so much fun reading about stories that referenced locations that are very familiar to me. Some landmarks and places I’ve driven by thousands of times, so when he referenced a familiar place, I’d excitedly say, “I’ve been there!” Some of my favorite references are Sparrows Point, Bethlehem Steel, Enoch Pratt Library, Patterson Park, Fells Point, Locust Point, Camden Yards, Johns Hopkins Hospital, North Point Road, and “the Sip & Bite where Aliceanna dead-ends at Boston Street.” One of those locations is only five minutes from my house. There were some historical references that weren’t familiar to me, but I loved learning about them.

Some of my favorite stories were Junie Bug, The Sacred Heart of Ruthie, Granada in the Drink and An Alley Most Narrow. Junie Bug is about a man who spends thirty years digging around town in search of his father’s body. The Sacred Heart of Ruthie is about a fifteen year old teen that had heart trouble while giving birth. In Granada in the Drink a lake was drained and they found a car with a body in it. In An Alley Most Narrow an alcoholic man leaves work with his $16 paycheck and a turkey with the intentions of buying a Christmas tree on his way home on Christmas Eve, but things don’t go as planned. I loved the variety of the stories since you didn’t know what adventure you were going on in each story.

You don’t need to be from Baltimore to enjoy these stories. I recommend this short story collection to fans of short stories and historical fiction.