Set during the Great Depression, this story covers a variety of experiences a Native American family faced living on the fringes of an Appalachian community. The narrator is Little Tree, a five-year-old part-Cherokee boy whose goes to live with his grandparents after the death of his mother and father. His grandmother is full Cherokee while his grandfather is part Cherokee… Read more »
Rebecca has been on the to-read list for ages, and thanks to Book Club, it has been marked off (and was much enjoyed)! First, a short and spoiler-free synopsis: Late 1930’s. An unnamed protagonist narrates this story–a young woman training to become a lady’s companion. She meets a mysterious widower in Monte Carlo and before she knows it, she’s a… Read more »
The Night the Lights Went Out by Karen White This is another book club read, and I was pleasantly surprised to find it included sections that are historical–Great Depression and WWII era. The main character, Merilee, is a recently divorced mother of two trying to make it on her own in a new environment–among the more affluent members of society–due… Read more »
Today being Hedy Lamarr’s birthday, it seems an appropriate time to publish this review! The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict was the pick for my book club last month and I found it a quick and enjoyable read. Although it is not greatly detailed on Hedy’s life as a Hollywood actress or as a budding scientist, these… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION The Miltons are a powerful old New York family – the kind of family that used to run the world. And in 1935, they still do. Kitty and Ogden Milton seem to have it all: an elegant apartment on the Upper East Side, two beautiful little boys, a love everyone envies. When… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION A deeply moving and masterfully written story of human resilience and enduring love, The Plum Tree follows a young German woman through the chaos of World War II and its aftermath. “Bloom where you’re planted,” is the advice Christine Bölz receives from her beloved Oma. But seventeen-year-old domestic Christine knows there is… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION A young widow. A husband she thought she knew. On the picturesque Italian coast of Amalfi lies a chocolatier’s destiny… San Francisco, 1953: Heartbroken over the mysterious death of her husband, Celina Savoia, a second-generation chocolatière, resolves to take their young son to Italy’s shimmering Amalfi coast to introduce him to his… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION New York, 1910: A city of extravagant balls in Fifth Avenue mansions and poor immigrants crammed into crumbling Lower East Side tenements. A city where the suffrage movement is growing stronger every day, but most women reporters are still delegated to the fashion and lifestyle pages. But Vera Garland is set on… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release (Kindle) – Amazon Link – HC Mar 2020 BOOK DESCRIPTION Deploring social injustice, Lady Deborah Claremont opens a staff agency, concealing the fact that she’s a member of the aristocracy. But Deborah has become accustomed to keeping secrets. It began eight years ago in 1918 when her dashing French lieutenant was tragically killed. Amid an undercurrent of… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION Young nurse, Gemma, is struggling with the traumas she has witnessed through her job. Needing to escape from it all, Gemma agrees to help renovate a rundown farmhouse in Doullens, France, a town near the Somme. There, in a boarded-up cupboard, wrapped in old newspapers, is a tin that reveals the secret… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION Christmas 1889. A baby is born in the early hours at Vienna General Hospital, only to be abandoned by her unwed mother and entrusted to a foundling home and its loving caretaker. Fanny Schindler grows from a precocious girl into a strong-willed young woman. Undeterred by the rules of her station, she’s… Read more »
Jan 2020 Release – Amazon Link BOOK DESCRIPTION New York, present day: On a whim, Juno Lambert buys a 1931 Underwood typewriter that once belonged to celebrated journalist Cordelia Capel. Within its case she discovers an unfinished novel, igniting a transatlantic journey to fill the gaps in the story of Cordelia and her sister and the secret that lies between… Read more »
