Why am I passionate about this?

I am what you might call an “armchair explorer.” I love reading about new places and parts of the world. I am fascinated by the history of communities. Places are not just locations; they are ideas formed by the stories that people tell about them. I love novels where I can get a true sense of a place and time. This passion led me to a love for folklore and legend. Nothing can provide a sense of a place better than its folklore. When I wrote Intercession, one of my main goals was to create a place and people that could be known through the stories they tell each other. 


I wrote

Intercession

By Kevin J. Haar,

Book cover of Intercession

What is my book about?

Aoife is cursed. Everyone says so, except for her father who knows such things are nonsense. Born under mysterious circumstances…

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The books I picked & why

Book cover of Mink River

Kevin J. Haar Why did I love this book?

Mink River is a novel of optimism and joy.

Set in a small, coastal Oregon town, this lyrical novel follows an intimate cast of characters as the history and lore of their town intertwines with their lives. Each character has their own struggles and joys and their own story to tell.

The cast includes two aging best friends at the Public Works Department, a twelve-year-old boy who rides bikes and reads Irish history, a doctor who talks little but smokes often, and a philosophizing crow who hangs out with a mechanic. Doyle expresses such love and empathy for his characters.

To Doyle, everything matters: each character, each story, every tree, every choice. It’s the most beautiful novel I’ve ever read. 

By Brian Doyle,

Why should I read it?

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

What is this book about?

Like Dylan Thomas' Under Milk Wood and Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, Brian Doyle's stunning fiction debut brings a town to life through the jumbled lives and braided stories of its people.

In a small town on the Oregon coast there are love affairs and almost-love-affairs, mystery and hilarity, bears and tears, brawls and boats, a garrulous logger and a silent doctor, rain and pain, Irish immigrants and Salish stories, mud and laughter. There's a Department of Public Works that gives haircuts and counts insects, a policeman addicted to Puccini, a philosophizing crow, beer and berries. An expedition is mounted, a…


Book cover of The Bear and the Nightingale

Kevin J. Haar Why did I love this book?

The Bear and the Nightingale expertly intertwines folklore into the real world.

Set at the edge of medieval Russia, Arden infuses the novel with fairy tales and folklore told by the hearth. After her mother dies, Vasilisa’s father returns with a new wife from the city. She quickly forbids Vasilisa and her grandmother from honoring the old spirits or sharing legends of the forest. But as omens start to befall the town, Vasilisa realizes the old stories are more than just fables; they hold truth.

Arden uses history, lore, and cold winter nights to create such a strong sense of place. I frequently thought of this novel as I weaved Irish folklore into my own. Arden has made her world so dense and alive by filling it with centuries of history and allowing the reader to decide what is real and worth believing. 

By Katherine Arden,

Why should I read it?

13 authors picked The Bear and the Nightingale as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

_____________________________
Beware the evil in the woods...

In a village at the edge of the wilderness of northern Russia, where the winds blow cold and the snow falls many months of the year, an elderly servant tells stories of sorcery, folklore and the Winter King to the children of the family, tales of old magic frowned upon by the church.

But for the young, wild Vasya these are far more than just stories. She alone can see the house spirits that guard her home, and sense the growing forces of dark magic in the woods. . .

Atmospheric and enchanting,…


Book cover of Exit West

Kevin J. Haar Why did I love this book?

Exit West follows a young couple who must escape their war-torn Middle Eastern city and find refuge somewhere on this shrinking planet.

The couple loses their sense of home while their home loses its history. Hamid writes with a detached intimacy, like from the viewpoint of a drone, the kind that bombed Nadia and Sayed's city, as it hovers over the couple during their most challenging and intimate moments.

Still, while they leave everything they know, Nadia and Sayed find home in each other. Hamid crafts a sense of place not bound to one location, but to two hearts. As the couple tries to locate doors that open to refuge sites around the world, we never truly leave the destruction of their home city.

Beautiful in its simplicity, Exit West is a powerful novel by my current favorite author.

By Mohsin Hamid,

Why should I read it?

4 authors picked Exit West as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A BBC 2 Between the Covers Book Club Pick - Booker Gems

THE NEW YORK TIMES AND SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER
SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2017
WINNER OF THE ASPEN WORDS LITERARY PRIZE

'Astonishing' Zadie Smith
'Stunning' Spectator
'Extraordinary' TLS

An extraordinary story of love and hope from the bestselling author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist

All over the world, doors are appearing.
They lead to other cities, other countries, other lives.

And in a city gripped by war, Nadia and Saeed are newly in love.
Hardly more than strangers, desperate to survive, they open a door and step through.…


Book cover of The Snow Child

Kevin J. Haar Why did I love this book?

Perhaps no other novel falls as perfectly into both the categories of historical fiction and fairy tale.

Set in 1920s Alaska, The Snow Child follows Jack and Mabel as their relationship slowly dissolves, in part because of their inability to have children. They soon notice a young girl hunting with a fox near their home. She appears to somehow survive the Alaskan winter on her own. They slowly begin to consider tales of the region and discover who the girl may be.

Ivey depicts the struggles of homesteading in Alaska as well as the despair of being barren. From the beginning, I felt for the characters emotionally while I became absorbed in the mystery and lore of the wild girl in the wilderness. 

By Eowyn Ivey,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked The Snow Child as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

A bewitching tale of heartbreak and hope set in 1920s Alaska, Eowyn Ivey's THE SNOW CHILD was a top ten bestseller in hardback and paperback, and went on to be a Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.

Alaska, the 1920s. Jack and Mabel have staked everything on a fresh start in a remote homestead, but the wilderness is a stark place, and Mabel is haunted by the baby she lost many years before. When a little girl appears mysteriously on their land, each is filled with wonder, but also foreboding: is she what she seems, and can they find room in…


Book cover of This Is Happiness

Kevin J. Haar Why did I love this book?

Gentle, soft, and full of humor, This is Happiness is told through the narration of a 78-year-old seminarian dropout in Ireland circa 1920.

The story is an oral history of a fictional town as modern ideas of electricity begin to arrive. Niall Williams writes with some of the most gorgeous prose I’ve ever read about Ireland's weather and landscape. He takes time to linger on small, intimate moments of his characters from teenage embarrassments to first loves to visiting your grandparents.

Williams creates a fictional town that is so real and hopeful despite being so "behind the times." Williams argues that every life has a story and our greatest joys are those framed in sorrow. This book was such an inspiration for my first novel that I named a character Niall after the author of this lovely novel.

Every time I am reminded of This is Happiness, a smile comes to my face. 

By Niall Williams,

Why should I read it?

9 authors picked This Is Happiness as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Shortlisted for Best Novel in the Irish Book Awards Longlisted for the 2020 Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction From the acclaimed author of Man Booker-longlisted History of the Rain 'Lyrical, tender and sumptuously perceptive' Sunday Times 'A love letter to the sleepy, unhurried and delightfully odd Ireland that is all but gone' Irish Independent After dropping out of the seminary, seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe finds himself back in Faha, a small Irish parish where nothing ever changes, including the ever-falling rain. But one morning the rain stops and news reaches the parish - the electricity is finally arriving. With it…


Explore my book 😀

Intercession

By Kevin J. Haar,

Book cover of Intercession

What is my book about?

Aoife is cursed. Everyone says so, except for her father who knows such things are nonsense. Born under mysterious circumstances after the Irish Civil War, Aoife is willing to do whatever it takes to rid herself of the malediction. She encounters saints and witches while she navigates the superstitions and folklore that permeate her homeland and guide her toward adulthood.

Full of Irish and Catholic folklore, Intercession weaves through the history and myths of Ireland to its thrilling and mysterious conclusion. In a place steeped in legend, Aoife must decide for herself what stories are worth believing and suffer the consequences of those beliefs, for better or worse.

Book cover of Mink River
Book cover of The Bear and the Nightingale
Book cover of Exit West

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Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

Book cover of Elephant Safari

Peter Riva Author Of Kidnapped on Safari

New book alert!

Why am I passionate about this?

I have been to, and loved, North, Central, and especially East Africa for over fifty years. Only six times have I been to Africa on holiday; more often, perhaps twenty or more times, as a television producer. Working in Africa gains a perspective of reality that the glories of vacation do not. Each has its place, each its pitfalls like stalled plane rides with emergency landings in the bush or attacks by wildlife. But, in the end, the magic of the “otherness,” what an old friend called “primitava” captures one’s soul and changes your life.

Peter's book list on the otherness that few get to experience

What is my book about?

Keen to rekindle their love of East African wildlife adventures after years of filming, extreme dangers, and rescues, producer Pero Baltazar, safari guide Mbuno Waliangulu, and Nancy Breiton, camerawoman, undertake a filming walking adventure north of Lake Rudolf, crossing from Kenya into Ethiopia along the Omo River, following a herd of elephant making their annual migration.

Stumbling onto an elephant poaching, the team become embroiled in true financing of terrorism for al Shabaab –ivory sales–and are determined to stop the slaughter at any cost. Ivory trade financing terrorism involves UN refugee camps with two hundred thousand displaced Somali persons, powerful…

Elephant Safari

By Peter Riva,

What is this book about?

A documentary team hiking through East Africa collides with a gang of deadly poachers, in this gripping adventure by the author of Kidnapped on Safari.

Years of filming, extreme dangers, and daring rescues have taken their toll on documentary producer Pero Baltazar and his team. To relax and reconnect with the East African wildlife they love, Pero organizes a walking safari for him, his camerawoman Nancy Breiton, and their elite guide Mbuno Waliangulu. Still, Pero has trouble truly disconnecting from work. When the team comes across a herd of elephants making their annual migration north of Lake Rudolf, Pero decides…


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