Editor’s note: The opinions of the smart, well-read women in my Denver book club mean a lot, and often determine what the rest of us choose to pile onto our bedside tables. So we asked them, and all Denver Post readers, to share their mini-reviews with you. Have any to offer? Email bellis@denverpo st.com. – Barbara Ellis “An Offer From a Gentleman: Benedict’s Story,” by Julia Quinn (Avon, 2001) At a masquerade, Benedict becomes entranced with a masked stranger, who returns his feelings but slips away before he can pin down her name or home. The mysterious woman (Sophie Beckett) successfully evades him but, surprise!, winds up serving as a maid to his rich family. Benedict has vowed to find the disguised stranger who stole his heart, but he’s equally attracted to the domestic. How can Benedict solve this dilemma? By making the two beauties one and the same! Thus, author Quinn maintains a grip on her reputation of satisfying romances with the sparkle and happy twists she writes so well. (Part of the extremely popular Bridgerton Regency Romance series that spawned an equally fashionable television series. A new edition of the book is scheduled for later this month, when Season 4 of the TV series kicks off.) — 2 stars (out of 4); Bonnie McCune, Denver (bonniemccune.com) "Black Moses," by Caleb Gayle. (Penguin Publishing Group/TNS) “Black Moses: A Saga of Ambition and the Fight for a Black State,” by Caleb Gayle (Riverhead Books, 2025) Before the 20th century’s Great Migration of Black Americans from the Southern states, there was a little-remembered movement of Black Americans into the Old West territories, starting in the late 1870s, as the failings of Reconstruction became ever more clear. This movement was dubbed an exodus, and its migrants were called “Exodusters.” Gayle lays out the pre-Civil War historical and political antecedents for this movement and then focuses on Edward McCabe, a key Exoduster, who dreamed that a single U.S. state could be governed by a Black majority population. Gayle describes the creation of significant Black settlements in Kansas, Nebraska and Oklahoma. We now know the futility of McCabe’s dreams. Yet, it is inspiring to be reminded that big dreams exist. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver “Murder in Pitigliano,” by Camilla Trinchieri (Soho Crime, 2025) Trinchieri’s fifth book in her Tuscan mystery series is her best to date. Don’t worry if you have not yet read the others; this book begins with a list of the characters. The story is a classic whodunit to determine the killer of a philandering, ne’er-do-well Italian businessman. It’s up to American ex-pat and retired homicide detective Nico Doyle to suss out the murderer by traipsing through Pitigliano and interviewing the many associates and paramours of the dead man. He is helped by several Tuscan natives. — 4 stars (out of 4); Joanna Johnson, Denver “The Land in Winter,” by Andrew Miller (Scepter, 2025) How have I missed reading British master Andrew Miller? Two couples inhabit this quiet novel set in a small village near Bristol in 1962. Bill and Irene and Eric and Rita all contribute to the narrative of their entwined relationships. Miller’s writing style is crystalline, and the setting is beautifully rendered. I recommend this novel as a book club possibility, as reader opinions will be varied. (Shortlisted for the 2025 Booker Prize, and an NPR Best Book of 2025.) — 4 stars (out of 4); Neva Gronert, Parker “1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in History and How it Shattered a Nation,” by Andrew Ross Sorkin (Viking, 2025) Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — and How It Shattered a Nation" by Andrew Ross Sorkin. (Courtesy/Viking) Sorkin brings to life the events of 1929 leading to the U.S. stock market crash through the eyes and words of many participants and observers – bankers, stockbrokers, politicians, industrialists, Federal Reserve officers, economists and journalists. But the story Sorkin relates is really all about the insiders, their privileged lives, their thoughts and actions. Sorkin finds no heroes but also no villains. However, he does find plenty of rot in the closed society of the ultrawealthy elites of the early 20th century. He also outlines some of the “remedies” enacted by the federal government in the 1930s aimed at avoiding similar future financial meltdowns. But, as we know, bad actors can always find the loopholes. — 3 stars (out of 4); Kathleen Lance, Denver ...read more read less