Why am I passionate about this?

I grew up in a troubled, violent family in a violent, Mafia-controlled neighborhood. I did a tour in the Air Force and spent some time in Vietnam, surrounded by unseen enemies. When I got out, I stayed in London, surrounding myself with unsavory characters, narrowly avoiding trouble and wondering if I would ever see the twenty-first century. Having lived through so many troubled times, I can identify with those people in history who have overcome overwhelming odds to accomplish their goals, and I enjoy reading about them. They give me the strength to face each day. 


I wrote

Three Families: A Mafia Love Story

By Art Lee,

Book cover of Three Families: A Mafia Love Story

What is my book about?

My book is the suspenseful story of a Romeo and Juliet-like love affair that grows over five decades, beginning in…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of A Red Death

Art Lee Why did I love this book?

I like reading Mosley’s mystery novels because they are about people overcoming extreme difficulties, and this book is one of his best. I couldn’t put it down.

The main character is an African-American private detective working in Los Angeles in the 1950s and 1960s, and Mosley paints a realistic picture of LA during that time.  There are always a few women in distress and white policemen who don’t like the black detective and constantly make his efforts more difficult. 

By Walter Mosley,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Red Death as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Easy is out of " the hurting business" and into the housing (and the favor) business when a racist IRS agent nails him for tax evasion. FBI Special Agent Darryl T. Craxton offers to bail him out if he agrees to infiltrate the First African Baptist Church and spy on alleged communist union organizer Chaim Wenzler. That's when the murders begin...


Book cover of Fall of Giants

Art Lee Why did I love this book?

I love historical fiction, and this is a historical novel about a family throughout the late 19th Century and early 20th Century. It kept me guessing what the next pitfall would be that the family would have to overcome.

There are members of this family who I hoped would win and others who I knew would fail because they were not good people.  All of his novels are good reads; this one is very compelling.

By Ken Follett,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Fall of Giants as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

This is an epic of love, hatred, war and revolution. This is a huge novel that follows five families through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution, and the struggle for votes for women. It is 1911. The Coronation Day of King George V. The Williams, a Welsh coal-mining family, is linked by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-mine owners. Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of an ambitious young aide to U.S. President Woodrow Wilson…


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Book cover of Follow Me to Africa

Follow Me to Africa By Penny Haw,

Historical fiction inspired by the story of Mary Leakey, who carved her own path to become one of the world's most distinguished paleoanthropologists.

It's 1983 and seventeen-year-old Grace Clark has just lost her mother when she begrudgingly accompanies her estranged father to an archeological dig at Olduvai Gorge on the…

Book cover of To Catch a King

Art Lee Why did I love this book?

I really like Jack Higgins, a world-renowned author of mysteries and historical novels. As a history buff, I particularly liked this one because it is a thriller set during WW2, and I couldn’t put it down. WW2 was an amazing time filled with heroism, danger, and the constant threat of death, and Higgins makes me feel like I was there in the midst of it all.  

By Jack Higgins,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked To Catch a King as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?



From the New York Times–bestselling author Tom Clancy called “the master”: In war-torn Lisbon, a bartender and a nightclub singer are caught up in a treacherous Nazi plot.

 

As the Nazi war machine prepares to invade England, Hitler plots to kidnap the Duke and Duchess of Windsor while they travel in Portugal, and install them as puppet monarchs under the thumb of his fascist regime.

 

But when an American bartender and a young Jewish nightclub singer catch wind of the scheme, they set out to derail the Nazi conspiracy. As Hitler’s henchmen close in, their thrilling rescue mission—and the surprising…


Book cover of The Gold Coast

Art Lee Why did I love this book?

I liked this book so much that I read it three times. Of all of DeMille’s novels, which take place throughout the Northeast of America, I particularly liked this one because it combines mystery, romance, and the Mafia. It was thrilling; he painted the locations so vividly that I felt like I was there.

By Nelson DeMille,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked The Gold Coast as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The Great Gatsby meets The Godfather in this #1 New York Times bestselling story of friendship and seduction, love and betrayal.

"[Demille is] a true master." - Dan Brown, #1 bestselling author of The Da Vinci Code

Welcome to the fabled Gold Coast, that stretch on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America. Here two men are destined for an explosive collision: John Sutter, Wall Street lawyer, holding fast to a fading aristocratic legacy; and Frank Bellarosa, the Mafia don who seizes his piece of the staid and unprepared…


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Book cover of Knife Skills

Knife Skills By Wendy Church,

"Dizzying . . . Audiences who wished the TV series The Bear had made room for Russian mobsters are in for a treat" - Kirkus Reviews Starred Review

Sagarine Pfister is a great cook but has been blacklisted by almost every restaurant in Chicago. She gets her chance at Louie's,…

Book cover of Silk Road

Art Lee Why did I love this book?

I really like Falconer’s works because they are historical novels involving tense mysteries of heroes overcoming dramatic odds to end as victorious models of perseverance, overcoming odds against them.

While enjoying a great read and being engulfed in the dangers the characters faced, I learned a lot about what was happening in the 200–300 AD period. The details that Falconer included were just fascinating to me.     

By Colin Falconer,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Silk Road as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Bestselling historical thriller, Silk Road, paints a captivating story of courage, daring and human frailty onto the grand canvas of the medieval East.
The Holy Land, 1260: Josseran Sarrazini is a Templar Knight, trained for war. But as the Christian garrisons in the Holy Land begin to fall to the Saracen, he is sent on a mission of peace. Haunted by the things he has done, he sees it as a way to escape his past.

His task is formidable. To forge an alliance with Kublai Khan, ruler of the greatest empire in history and commander of the invincible Mongol…


Explore my book 😀

Three Families: A Mafia Love Story

By Art Lee,

Book cover of Three Families: A Mafia Love Story

What is my book about?

My book is the suspenseful story of a Romeo and Juliet-like love affair that grows over five decades, beginning in 1958 in Northern New Jersey. The lovers, young Tony Moretti and Teresa Falzone are from competing families–the modern-day Capulets and Montagues–crime families of New Jersey and New York. The competition and violence between the families create a constant struggle for the lovers, threatening to separate them, but it cannot keep them apart until unforeseen disaster forces its way into their lives.

The story is loosely based on my own experiences as a teen in a Mafia-controlled part of New Jersey during that period, which helps to make it passionately realistic.


Book cover of A Red Death
Book cover of Fall of Giants
Book cover of To Catch a King

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