Join us for another installment of Novel Night, a monthly celebration of all things prose! Here’s how it works: published authors will read from their books and there’ll be an audience Q & A. And we’ll also have “Book Talk,” in which an intrepid Malvern staff member will introduce you to one of our favorite prose titles. Also worth noting: we’re offering 20% OFF ALL FICTION TITLES during Novel Night (from 6pm till closing).

This month’s Novel Night is a special edition—Political Science Professor Roy Casagranda will be launching his new novel, The Blood Throne of Caria.

Casagranda’s story is a bona fide page-turner that should have readers rooting for the tenacious Artemisia from beginning to end. A gripping, fast-paced adventure that delivers passionate writing. —Kirkus Reviews

The Blood Throne of Caria pushes back against the dominant misogynistic and racist portrayals of Artemisia I as a cruel and maniacal ruler. Casagranda reexamines the much-maligned queen to create an explicitly feminist portrait of ancient woman who must achieve to fulfill her ambitions and endure both familiar and extreme gender limits. Twenty-five centuries ago, the very mention of a woman’s name in public was taboo in Athens, yet despite this Artemisia assailed the ramparts of patriarchy to become one of the greatest rulers in human history.

Roy Casagranda got a GED and a BS in political science and went on to teach high school calculus, algebra, history, physics, and chemistry. Eventually he went back to school for a couple of graduate degrees and now teaches political science at a community college. Though he is obsessed with politics, he mostly hates it. And though he is obsessed with the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean he mostly loves it. Roy is especially interested in telling stories from the perspective of the loser, the forgotten, the unjustly villainized, and women with weapons.