8. ALL THE LIGHT WE CANNOT SEE by Anthony Doerr (5/5/20) Historical Fiction
Set in German occupied France in 1944, “All the Light We Cannot See” is the story of Marie-Laure, a young girl blinded in childhood, who with her father flees the bombing of Paris to stay with her uncle. The story involves rescuing a legendary artifact, the acts of resistance against the occupiers, and the unusual relationship Marie has with a young German orphan who falsifies his age to enter the German army.
I found this story beautifully written, bringing the threat of the Nazi invasion to life while humanizing both sides as all try to survive. We see the horror and humanity of this legendary time. A beautifully written Pulitzer Prize winning novel.
5 Stars
13. PACHINKO by Min Jin Lee (5/23/20) Historical Fiction
Starting in early 20th century Japan, we follow four generations of a poor Korean family fighting to survive while exiled in Japan who controlled and dominated their destiny.
We can learn a lot about the Korean and Japanese history and how interwoven the two countries were in that time. The story is well-written and moves easily between the generations and how the game of Pachinko is intertwined in their lives. I found it interesting, colorful and moving. Pachinko is now a movie streaming on Netflix and Prime.
5 Star
15. THE TATTOOIST OF AUSCHWITZ by Heather Morris (5/27/20) Historical Fiction
This 2018 novel tells the story of Slovakian Jew Lale Sokolov who was imprisoned at Auschwitz in 1942. Lale speaks several languages and is put to work as a tattooist who permanently marks numbers on his fellow prisoners. In this privileged position Lale is able to see atrocities and bravery and seeks to help his fellow prisoners to have small gifts of food in order to stay alive. This is a vivid portrayal of the dynamics within the concentration camp including a love story which is a testament to the love, humanity and endurance they had under the darkest conditions. Heart-wrenching yet hopeful, this is one of my favorite books so far.
5 Stars
20. THE GIVER OF STARS by JoJo Moyes (6/6/20) Historical Fiction
Alice, an unhappy Londoner, jumped at the chance of marrying an American, followed him to Appalachia during the Great Depression, hoping for a new beginning and a new adventure. When her husband insisted that they live with his overbearing and controlling father she realizes her mistake. Bored and disheartened she volunteers to join a team of women, part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s traveling library program, which brings books by horseback to the isolated areas of Appalachia.
This book of hardships, illiteracy, bravery gave a sense of purpose and friendship to the women who needed it. I never knew about this program, how it brought joy to the isolated and how it helped open their eyes from ignorance and brought the world to them through books. I loved this story and admired Eleanor even more than before. I think you will like it.
5 Stars
26. BEFORE WE WERE YOURS by Lisa Wingate (6/16/20) Historical Fiction
This is the fictional story of twelve-year-old Rill and her four siblings. They lived aboard a Mississippi shanty boat. When the parents left to go to the hospital to give birth to another child, they left Rill in charge of the children. The parents were delayed and strangers arrived in their absence to take them to what turned out to be the Tennessee Children’s Home Society Orphanage. This story of the kidnapping and sale of poor children to rich people is one of the biggest scandals in the days of orphanages.
This story follows in depth the true circumstances of just one family. It is heartrending and well-written and shows the fear, the determination, and the tenacity of a young Rill in her struggle to keep her siblings together.
5 Stars
27. RODHAM by Curtis Sittenfeld (6/20/20) Historical Fiction
Yes, that is a picture of a young Hillary Clinton, and it says, “A Novel”. It is hard to say how to approach a fictional book of a living First Lady since much follows history and could be quite true. And then you realize that it goes in another direction, total fiction. Sittenfeld gets away with this-and I am guessing here-by following her life pretty closely until Hillary decides NOT to marry Bill Clinton. From there on the author speculates what her life might have been like had she not married Bill.
What an interesting thing to take well-known characters, follow them accurately for a time, then fictionalize juicy tidbits and add a new ending. I’m not sure Hillary and Bill appreciate it but the romance with Bill is hot and heavy. I enjoyed the author’s premise and style of writing so much I decided to read another of her books next: #28 Fiction, AMERICAN WIFE.
5 Stars
29. SANDITION by Jane Austin and Kate Riordan (6/25/20) Historical Fiction
This unfinished story was written months before Austin’s death and Riordan tried to finish it in Austin’s famous style, with the familiar theme of a beautiful daughter trying to marry well for the sake of her less than wealthy family. Sandition is a seaside village being turned into a resort by a lovable but impractical man. He invites the beautiful and interesting young daughter to the resort in hopes of attracting wealthy visitors to his business venture.
As I read it I thought it would be a perfect movie or series with the beautiful seaside location and YES! it was made as a PBS series for Masterpiece. I will have to check that out too!
3 Stars
50. MRS. LINCOLN’S SISTERS by Jennifer Chiaverini (8/12/20) Historical Fiction
During the Civil War Mary Todd Lincoln and her sisters had grown apart from each other partially due to their husband’s differing alliances to the war. Sister Elizabeth insisted that her sisters bury the hatchet and come to the aid of Mary, now a widow of the fallen president, after hearing of her attempted suicide. Mary’s son Todd arranged legal proceedings for the court to declare her legally insane in order to institutionalize her. The sisters wanted to take her home and care for her.
Fictional historical books can fill in the blanks of history that are unverifiable for the author to help round out a story, but it is always hard to determine truth from fiction. This author tends to fill in what most believe to be true like the anguish of the war and Lincoln’s assassination from Mary’s perspective and we get a good glimpse into the superstitions and paranoia that were documented about Mary. This is worth reading.
3 Stars
65. DAUGHTER OF FORTUNE by Isabel Allende (9/16/20) Historical Fiction
Orphaned at birth and taken in by a wealthy spinster and her brothers, in Chile, Eliza, a free spirit, meets a clerk, Joaquin, who works for her uncle. He then leaves her for the California Gold Rush. When Eliza finds herself pregnant she decides to follow him. The book follows her dangerous journey on a ship to San Francisco. After landing in the big raucous city with no understanding of English and no means of support a Chinese medicine doctor, Tao, helps her as she masquerades as a deaf mute boy. Eliza searches for her lover to no avail and learns, through her transformation what freedom there is in being a boy.
Allende, through rich history, interesting characters, and an incredible adventure, created a rich yet unconventional tale of personal freedom and destiny in a raw, new country.
4 Stars
67. DRAGON SPRINGS ROAD by Janie Chang (9/22/20) Historical Fiction
Dragon Springs Road is set in 20th Century Shanghai, where seven-year-old Jialing is mysteriously abandoned by her mother in the courtyard of a large estate. The crying, starving child is taken in as a bond servant by the Yang family, owners of the estate. Soon she begins to realize she is different looking than the family in that she is Eurasian. This fact limits her chances in life by never being fully accepted by her peers and chosen family.
Jailing is befriended by a spirit called “Fox” who has been haunting the courtyard for centuries. It is through this friendship that Jailing is able to accept her fate and find the strength to search for her lost mother who she refuses to believe abandoned her on purpose.
Chang weaves a magical story of class divisions, family honor, obligations and traditions in this richly told historical fiction intertwined with fantasy. Great writing.
5 Stars
73. THE BOSTON GIRL by Anita Diamant (10/8/20) Historical Fiction
From the author of “The Red Tent”, comes this historical fiction novel told by an 85 year-old grandmother to her granddaughter. Addie Baum, born in 1900 to immigrant parents, tells her story of growing up in North End Boston. Her parents are finding it hard to assimilate to the new country but Addie, with her curiosity and intelligence, wants to take advantage of all the New World has to offer. Through her story she encourages her 22-year-old granddaughter to forge ahead and to follow her dreams as she had under more difficult circumstances.
By paying attention to historical details of life in the early 20th Century, we are treated to a look at the past and the future for two women in a changing world. I really enjoyed her writing, as I did with “The Red Tent” and hope to read her book, “Day After Night” soon.
5 Stars
79. LIBRARY OF LEGENDS by Janie Chang (10/22/20) Historical Fiction
The Library of Legends is a 500-year-old collection of Chinese myths and folklore. It is housed in a university in Nanking where during the bombing of 1937 by the Japanese the students and faculty were forced to leave, bringing the priceless Library of Legends to safety.
They become refugees in their own country as they struggle to what they hope will be safety by walking 1000 miles to China’s Western provinces. This explores through historical fiction their trek through a war-torn country, and a journey complete with tragedy, love and determination.
4 Stars
80. WE WERE THE LUCKY ONES by Georgia Hunter (10/25/20) Historical Fiction
“We Were The Lucky Ones”, although technically historical fiction, was inspired by a Polish-Jewish family striving to survive in 1939 Nazi occupied Poland. The author, Georgia Hunter learned she came from a family of Holocaust survivors at age 15 and through extensive research she sought to uncover much of her ancestor’s history.
This is the story of the Kurt family of Rodom, Poland, mother, father, and four siblings and their extreme attempts to flee and/or become resistance fighters in the Nazi occupation. Extreme detail is given to each family member’s experience and the difficulty of reuniting at the war’s end.
It is always difficult to be allowed into the experiences of horrendous anxieties, hardships, cruelties, and losses of the victims, but one that is always so important to never forget. I find this important today when we are experiencing a global pandemic and many people are resisting a few precautions, such as social distancing, vaccinating, mask wearing, isolating when infected, etc. in order to end a plague. Cooperation and compliance were imperative to survive the Nazi camps.
5 Stars
81. THE BOOK OF LONGINGS by Sue Monk Kidd (10/31/20) Historical Fiction
Sue Monk Kidd spends no time getting our attention in this newest of her four novels. “I am Ana. I was the wife of Jesus.” There starts a narrative of Ana’s story of her life. Young Ana, born into wealth and privilege, yearns to live a worthy, spiritual life. She is considered rebellious when she challenges the role of women and seeks to pursue larger intellectual and spiritual dreams. She begs her father, a scribe, to teach her to read and scribe which she uses to write secret narratives about women of her day, who are silenced and neglected.
Ana meets 18 year-old Jesus and they become drawn to each other philosophically and physically. They marry and Ana gives up her advantaged lifestyle to become part of Jesus’ family, as they move in with his mother, Mary, and Jesus’ two brothers, James and Simon. Ana leaves behind her family, including her adopted brother Judas, who later becomes the famous betrayer of Jesus.
Kidd does and excellent job of honoring the historical and religious history of this story which is filled with historically accurate detail and many complex plots of the mystery of what was happening to Jesus before his ministry began.
I think Kidd did a masterful job of developing an alternate story line to one of the best known legends of all time.
5 Stars
82. THE BOOK OF LOST FRIENDS by Lisa Wingate (11/3/20) Historical Fiction
“The Book of Lost Friends” is about ads accumulated by the South Western Christians Advocate, written by freed slaves, and sent to churches and newspapers, in the hope of reuniting their friends and relatives who had been sold and delivered to far off places as slaves.
In the book we find an emancipated slave, Hannie, and two friends were searching through the South for their missing families. As they traveled they catalogued names of other missing people and those searching to find them, which became “The Book of Lost Names”.
The modern part of the story is in Louisiana where a first-year teacher named Bennie subsidizes her student debt by teaching in a rural county school where the students and staff take little interest in education, jaded by the lack of resources and parental involvement. It is the late 1980’s and Bennie, who also came from poverty, is determined to change the lives of her students by getting them interested in the local history of the slave owners and their slaves buried in local graveyards. She comes across a treasure trove of information in an abandoned mansion, formerly owned by slave holders.
The author ties the past and present together by using this town to authentically merge their history together. The audiobook was especially made to ring true by the talented performers which made it come alive. A great read.
5 Stars
83. A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA by Isabel Allende (11/11/20) Historical Fictionn
When Franco’s fascists defeat the Republican army during the Spanish Civil War, thousands of Spaniards fled to France where their welcome as refugees is more than difficult. When Roser, a pregnant widow has to flee again, her dead husband’s brother Victor offers her a platonic marriage and a chance to come with them on a rescue ship headed to Chile. There they start a new life and where she finds her skills as a pianist to help them succeed. This is their story of friendship, wisdom, hope and resilience.
Isabel Allende is know for interesting stories similar to this but I missed having an attachment to the main characters in this book.
3 Stars
88. THE WATER DANCER by Ta-Nehsis Coates (11/20/20) Historical Fiction
“The Water Dancer” is about young Hiram Walker, born a slave on a Virginia plantation, son of Rose and the plantation master, Howell. When Rose tried to escape with baby Hiram and was caught, as punishment Rose was sold and Hiram left behind. Hiram had an incredible memory except for remembering his mother, repressed by the trauma. Hiram’s father brings him into the house as a man-servant for his half-brother, Maynard. Hiram is admonished to ‘protect’ Maynard, less gifted than Hiram.
The story is filled with imagery and themes. Water and water movement represent a path to freedom and a symbolism of the movement they were constantly seeking. Water dancing was a dance the women did while balancing a jug of water on their heads while giving praise to those who danced on the waves of freedom and a reminder that she owns her own body. We see how slavery corrupts and destroys families through the rape of women, family separations, stolen labor,knowledge and death.
Despite witnessing a bleak part of American history, Coates brings to life the beauty, power, and knowledge of the enslaved and their determination to share in the promise of freedom. This is an incredible book and the audio version brings life to the characters with song and lyric voices.
5 Stars
98. THE HENNA ARTIST by Alka Joshi (12/22/20) Historical Fiction
Seventeen-year-old Lakshmi flees an abusive arranged marriage in 1950 to the city of Jaipur, India, where she uses her skills as an herbalist healer and henna artist on upper-class women. She must keep her secret of leaving her marriage or be spurned by society. Independent minded she slowly builds a life for herself and later helps her younger sister to do the same.
With vivid portraits of struggling with the complexity of post-colonial life in India and the traditions of the caste system, we see the obstacles for women and their destinies. This, the first novel by the author, is filled to the senses with visions, sounds, smells and tastes of India. Beautifully written and extremely vivid.
5 Stars
100. THE HUNTRESS by Kate Quinn (1/1/21) Historical Fiction
I wanted my 100th book to be special. Little did I know it would also be finished on the first day of the new year, 2021. I saw that this book, The Huntress, was written by the author of “the Alice Network”, a book I loved, so this seemed perfect to celebrate my 100th book and the new year, an event so many were looking forward to after the the turmoil of 2020.
Quinn continues to follow a World War II theme. Who knew that the Germans called Russian female bomber pilots, “Night Witches”? Who knew that they even had female bomber pilots in Russia? This is what I love about historical fiction, how we can learn so much about history from a fictional book.
We are introduced to “the Huntress”, a woman who has killed six innocent Polish children during the war. Next we meet a teenage girl with a penchant for photography and her father who live in Boston shortly after the end of the war. Then we meet a young Russian peasant woman who wants to learn how to fly and become part of the war effort. Then, post-war, we meet Ian, a war correspondent and his partner Tony who have become Nazi hunters looking for the infamous “Huntress”. From these characters an intricate story is woven filled with historical detail and pace. Through flashbacks and fast-forwards the story begins to take shape and build in suspense.
With three themes, at times this book was hard to follow, but soon I realized this was it’s way of building suspense. I felt like the book could have easily been called “Night Witches”, in that the most developed and interesting character was Nina, with all her flaws and wounded spirit,however “Night Witches’ can be degrading to women. However, I can see why Quinn chose not to go deeper into the Huntress, a horrific character/criminal.
5 Stars
101 THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES by Kristin Harmel (1/5/21) Historical Fiction
Eva, a librarian, saw a picture and article in a magazine of a book she wrote and hadn’t seen for 65 years, since the time she was a part of the underground helping smuggle Jewish families to safety during World War II. This was one of the books saved from the destruction the Nazis carried out on libraries all across Europe. This book looks like an 18th century religious text, but is really in code, a code only Eva can break.
“The Book of Lost Names” contains the real names of the Jewish children she smuggled out of Germany in 1942. Eva, a young Jewish woman had learned to forge documents for the families being smuggled and wanted to have a record of the children’s real names so they could someday be reunited with their family or know their origins. This book is based on true events and is filled with details of the risks people took to help others in extraordinary times. Filled with the horror and memories of the Nazi occupation, an aging Eva must retrieve the book from Berlin’s Central Library and open it’s secrets.
5 Stars
104. REMEMBRANCE by Rita Woods (1/15/21) Historical Fiction
“Remembrance’ is an historical novel about the slave trade spanning from Haiti, to New Orleans, and north to Ohio. Remembrance is a place north of New Orleans, part of the Underground Railroad, a safe haven for slaves on the road to freedom. Remembrance was founded by an elderly slave from Haiti, Mother Abigail, who is a spiritual priestess and healer. She uses her ‘powers’ to protect the compound’s “Edge” from white slavers intent on capturing the free and runaways to sell to the highest bidders. Heaped in Voodoo traditions and rituals we get an authentic image of the lives , suffering, and spiritual beliefs of the Haitian Caribbean slave culture. Culturally this is an outstanding, sometimes hard to follow but interesting and beautifully written.
4 Stars
118. THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah (2/26/21) Historical Fiction
Kristin Hannah is the author of 27 novels (how does she do it?) and if you like books of great hardship, with flawed turned heroic and strong women, she is your go-to author. I think my first Hannah book was “The Nightingale”, set in occupied France during World War II, where two sisters discover their own pathway toward survival, heroism, and freedom. I loved that book the most, maybe because of the WWII theme, one off my favorite historical times in books. “The Great Alone”, #11 on my Fiction p.1 list, strays a little away from the norm in that the protagonist is a male, a mentally wounded POW who wants to start a new life in Alaska. This hardship is about fighting the elements and being Ill-prepared to handle the challenges. His wife becomes the savior of the family.
In this book, “The Four Winds”, we are in the middle of the Great Depression at a farm in Texas, struggling but happy, when the Dust Bowl gets hit with winds that take out all of the crops. Struggling to survive, our woman figure Elsa, flees Texas for the sake of her son’s lung condition and struggles to reach California, the land of “milk and honey”, where migrant farming is far worse than imagined. This book of realistic, unbelievable hardship, poverty, starvation, and lack of clothing and shelter was so strongly and well-portrayed that I felt fatigued, slightly depressed, and stressed over the injustices for all the poor souls in this situation. This again, is a well-written, well-designed story of some of the hardest times in our nation’s history. Did I like it? Let’s just say I appreciated it. I shouldn’t give a lower rating based on the tough time I had reading it. It has great value historically, it is a best-seller. It’s just a tough subject.
4 Stars
120 THE NIGHT PORTRAIT by Laura Morelli (3/4/21) Historical Fiction
The Author, Laura Morelli, an art historian, tells the story of how Leonardo da Vinci came to paint ‘The Lady With Ermine’, a portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, a 15th Century mistress to the Duke of Milan. We weave forward 500 years to World War II and Edith Becker, an art conservator from Munich, who after cataloging the great art of Europe, finds that she has made it possible for the Nazis to steal artwork from homes and museums. The story continues with an American GI, Dominic, whose mission it is to protect the Monuments Men, British and American art curators and directors commissioned to retrieve stolen art.
Morelli’s background in art allowed her to bring vivid details of both periods of time to light and of the rescue and protection. She did a great job of bringing the stories together in an interesting and exciting way.
5 Stars
123. THE ROSE CODE by Kate Quinn (#/13/21) Historical Fiction
The setting is England, WWII, 1940, where we find three young women, debutante, Osla Kendall, London East Ender, Mab Churt, and Beth Finch, a shy, reclusive local girl. The three are recruits at a highly secretive code-breaking compound called Bletchley Park. Beth is especially good at code-breaking analytics and she suspects a traitor within the compound. As she tries to alert the higher-ups they come to suspect the strange Beth. She is impounded away to a sanitarium under the guise of having had a mental breakdown. Even her friends question her loyalties.
This book has betrayals, secrecy, love affairs and friendships amidst the bombings of London and the threat of Nazi victories. A good read.
4 Stars
125. THE PARIS LIBRARY by Janet Skeslien Charles (3/22/21) Historical Fiction
Based on true stories of the heroic librarians at the American Library in Paris who defied the Nazis while protecting and sharing their books in a time when book burning and censorship was commonplace. The shares two timelines: 1939 Paris and 1983 Montana where the protagonist, Odile flees to at the end of the war.
This is a glimpse at the value of books during wartime as an invaluable escape from the atorcities and destruction of the war and what lengths bibliophiles will take to save the written work from extinction. The book is about relationships, suspicions, and consequences as all try to survive World War II. The Montana aspect felt a bit thrown in in order to provide an escape for Odile from mistakes she made in Paris but fails to show depth in the continuation of her life in a new place and time. However, the Paris sequences were filled with interesting characters and events that save the story line and make us care.
3 Stars
126. THE LILAC GIRLS by Martha Hall Kelly ((3/25/21) Historical Fiction
It is 1939, World War II, when three women’s lives become emerged. Caroline Ferriday, a New York socialite working for the French Consulate, loves the French and becomes involved in raising money for the French orphans during the German occupation, and later for the “rabbits”, young Polish women used as medical experiments by the Nazis. Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, has become a courier for the underground resistence movement and later as a prisoner in Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. Herta Oberheuser, a German doctor, becomes a physician at Ravenbruck, known for it’s medical experimentation. We follow each woman’s path during the war years and beyond. Caroline and Kasia strive for justice amidst the atrocities Herta has been involved in under Hitler’s regime.
I have read many gripping stories about women’s rolls during the war in Europe and this one with it’s three parallel narratives, from America, Germany and Poland, give us heart-wrenching details we may rather not know but realize we must know. Caroline Ferriday and Herta Oberheuser are NOT fictional characters. Kasia Kuzmerick is fictional, however a composite of several real resisters. As Martha Hall Kelley’s debut novel, and after ten years of research, she has chosen to take her place with the throng of historical novels about World War II. She hits the mark with accurate details of the the Camp, the heroic courage of the resisters, and through Farriday archives she has unfurled the poignant post-war details of what became of the “Rabbits”. This book is amazing.
5 Stars
127. THE LAST RUNAWAY by Tracy Chevalier (3/27/21) Historical Fiction
Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling author of “Girl With a Pearl Earring”, one of my fondest books, wrote this book about Quakers, The Slave Fugitive Act and the Underground Railway, with nothing in common with the former book set in circa 1665, Holland. We are now in Ohio, 1865, pre Civil War. Our protagonist is a young Quaker woman from England, Honor Bright, on her way from Dorset to a place called Ohio, with her soon to be married sister. Tragedy envelopes them and her sister dies of yellow fever. Honor, naive, frightened, continues the journey alone to the home of her sister’s fiance. The carriage driver delivers her to a millinery shop run by Belle Mills who befriends and nurses the ailing and mourning Honor until she gets picked up to be taken to her destination. While with Belle, she helps her with some stitching orders and Belle realizes her superior skills. Honor has also met Belle’s brother, a wise-cracking, brash rogue who makes his living as a slave hunter, legalized under the Fugitive Slave Act. At her sister’s fiance’s house she fails to fit in with the shocked man and his widowed sister-in-law and escapes by marrying Jack Haymaker.
From here the book’s theme becomes one about slavery, a custom opposed by Quakers, and the jeopardy put on all who try to help the fleeing slaves by the “Underground Railroad”. The most interesting characters are Belle, an outspoken, hard-drinking but kind soul, and her brother Donovan who fancies Honor, but who’s violence, drinking and womanizing are opposite of Honor’s strict Quaker values.
Chavalier gave an interesting depiction of pre-Civil War America and the issue of slavery in the North but there were too many ways in which I felt the story was contrived and many characters barely developed. Also, Honor came across as judgmental of America and Americans, particularly objected to their food, boisterous behavior and even their quilting patterns and needle skills. A bit haughty for a Quaker, I imagine. I think I was spoiled with the rich texture of “Girl With a Pearl Earring” and was hoping for more depth. I will give Chevalier at least one more chance as I will soon be reading another of her books soon, “A Single Thread”.
3 Stars
129. A SINGLE THREAD by Tracy Chavalier (4/4/21) Historical Fiction
After 38-year old Violet Speedwell lost her fiance and father in World War II she knew her prospects of finding love again were unlikely and she knew she would have to make a life for herself without the prospect of having a family. So many men were lost during the war forcing many widows and spinsters, known as surplus women, to go it alone in an era when working women had few options. Life’s options were bleak for the women left behind.
Violet did have a job but it payed poorly and barely covered her expenses when she moved from her domineering mother’s home to a boarding house in Winchester to try to forge a life of here own. Shy and hesitant to friendships but forced herself to join a group of Winchester Broderers, volunteer embroiders who made kneeling cushions for the famous Winchester Cathedral. Soon the exacting project of having the skills to be a part of the organization gave Violet a sense of belonging and an escape from her job as a typist and eventually she was able to forge out a life with purpose.
Chevalier’s skill to take an ordinary life and make it interesting and detailed made me care about Violet and her life. Luckily she does meet a man and enjoys a mutual attraction but it is complicated. I liked this book very much and her writing.
5 Stars
144. THE ISLAND OF SEA WOMEN by Lisa See (5/19/21) Historical Fiction
On a small Korean island, Jeju, experienced woman train younger girls to join in the traditional of haenyeo, women divers who learn breath control in order to swim underwater many minutes to free-dive deeply to reach the best of the ocean catch. Though strenuous and dangerous they take pride in this time-honored occupation. Respect for these hard-working women from the villagers as their husbands stay home to raise the children and cook, a clear role reversal.
The story follows the lives of Mi-ja and Young-sook, best friends from different backgrounds, over eighty years, capturing many difficulties, including the Japanese occupation during World War II, and to present day. We watch their friendship and trust grow as they become divers and become part of the collective, and how their lives change over the years as they follow their own paths and dramatic history shapes their lives.
5 Stars
148. FIFTY WORDS FOR RAIN by Asha Lemmie (5/30/21) Historical Fiction
This is Lemmie’s debut novel and begins during World War II. Eight-year-old Nori was born into royalty, illegitimately by an aristocratic mother and an African American GI father. Nori’s mother has abandoned her to her grandmother’s home where she is confined to the attic and suffers scalding chemical baths to lighten her skin. She was taught silence, to not question, fight or resist. Completely obedient she accepts her solitary life although has a natural curiosity about the outside world. By chance she becomes aware of her brother and the two acquire a great bond for one another. He is to inherit his grandmother’s estate and becomes the first person to allow Nori to question her life and gets a glimpse at what the world has to offer.
I found her story to be rich in culture and traditions although frustrating in the aspects of racism. Spanning over several decades this first novel shows a broad picture of heredity and change.
4 Stars
157. THE KITCHEN HOUSE by Kathleen Grissom (6/19/21) Historical Fiction
In this, Grissom’s debut novel, a young white Irish girl, Lavinia, becomes an indentured servant at the captain’s tobacco plantation when her parents die during the voyage in debt to the captain. At the plantation she is under the care of the illegitimate slave, Belle, to work alongside her in the kitchen house. Lavinia is accepted into this world of slavery through the wise guidance and kindness of Belle and her family. In time Lavinia, mostly because of her skin color, is accepted into the big house, caring for the master’s addicted wife, but she misses the daily contact of her family-the slaves at the kitchen house.
This antebellum saga, pre-Civil War, shows the depth of sorrow the slaves endure when they have no control over their destinies, even when they are illegitimate children of the master. It also shows the advantage Lavinia has due to her race even though poor and indentured. This is a beautifully written story that needs to be told.
5 Stars
161. THE WARSAW ORPHAN by Kellly Rimmer (6/25/21) Historical Fiction
It is 1942, Warsaw, Poland, and though young Elzbieta Rabinek is unaware of of the chaos going on behind the walls of the Jewish Ghetto near her comfortable home, she makes a discovery that changes her life and stirs her onto heroic acts which threaten her and those around her. The story covers the occupation by the Nazis and beyond to the starvation, deprivation, and terror brought on by the lesser known “second occupiers,” the out of control Easter Bloc soldiers who run a rampage of victimization rather than liberation.
This poignant, authentic story, based on a real-life heroine who smuggled thousands of Jewish children to safety during WWII, is compelling and hopeful despite the details of atrocities which were difficult to imagine, yet true.
5 Stars
166. THE ORPHAN’S TALE by Pam Jenoff (7/12/21) Historical Fiction
I just finished reading this magnificent book and my eyes are still laden with tears. I felt compelled to immediately review this book while my emotions are still engorged in the ending. This is another of the many historical fiction books out there that are set in WWII, Nazi Germany, however this one seemed special to me. It begins when sixteen-year-old, pregnant, Noa is cast out in disgrace by her parents after succumbing to the attentions of a young Nazi soldier. With no resources she seeks help at a home for unwed mothers but is forced to give up her baby. She takes refuge in a rail station and cleans in order to earn her keep. When she hears a noise in a boxcar she discovers dozens of Jewish babies piled in unattended, some deceased. Still longing for her own lost baby she rescues one baby and flees away from the station.
She happens upon a German circus and becomes a part of the flying trapeze act with an experienced performer named Astrid who teaches her to fly. Their relationship throughout the book is rocky, yet sometimes close as both women have lived lives of tragedy. With the background of the traveling circus and the horrors of war, we follow the powerful bond between Astrid and Noa in a compelling story of secrets, survival and hope.
5 Stars
169. THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS by Pam Jenoff ((7/16/21) Historical Fiction
After reading the bestselling, The Orphan’s Tale (#166), Jenoff tells a compelling story based on a network of female secret agents sent to occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid in the resistance, but never returned home.
The story begins several years after the war when Grace Healey discovers an abandoned suitcase in Grand Central Station. Her curioscity overcame her as she discovers a dozen photographs of different women. On impulse she takes the photos but learns the suitcase belonged to a woman named Eleanor Trigg, leader of the female secret service. Grace decides to try to solve the mystery of the disappearance of the women in the pictures. This was well written and another interesting piece about people willing risk their lives in the battle against fascism.
4 Stars
176. THE WAR WIDOW by Tara Moss (8/1/21) Historical Fiction
It is postwar Sidney, Australia, 1946. Billie Walker is home but saddened by the loss of her father and the disappearance of her husband, Jack. As a war reporter she is home to make a name for herself but finds job priorities are to returning soldiers. Billie decides to reopen her late father’s private investigation agency. At first she get typical tailing of suspected cheaters by unhappy wives. When she takes on the job of finding a missing young man, son of European immigrants she finds herself in dangerous territory as people she interviews start to turn up dead. This mystery makes her realize that though the war is over there is more at stake than she planned on.
The is the first in a series of mysteries about Billie. She made a good first attempt with lots of war history, the underground and fast-paced mystery.
3 Stars
177. THE LAST BOOKSHOP IN LONDON by Madeline Martin ((8/11/21) Historical Fiction
It is London, August 1939 and London is preparing for the Nazi invasion and what will become known as “the Blitz”. And under these circumstances Grace Bennett follows her dream of a life in London where she hopes to find employment. Without the important letter of recommendation she needs to work in a large department store she finds a temporary job in a bookstore. Never having had the time to read she finds herself a fish out of water. The Primrose Hill bookshop is owned by an old gentleman who would rather read than organize or clean the shop and with his permission Grace takes on the task wholeheartedly. After receiving a book as a gift from a customer she builds a passion for the stories within the books and the world of literature.
During the Blitz and the terror of the raids, which bombarded the buildings in London, while in the shelters Grace is asked to read from her book aloud so others in the shelter have something to take their minds off of the devastation above. More and more join the reading group as she mesmerizes them with the tales.
This is about the power of books in the worst of times and the escape the stories provide to the community.
4 Stars
185. OUR WOMAN IN MOSCOW by Beatriz Williams (9/2/21) Historical Fiction
In 1948 Iris Digby disappears from her London home along with her husband, an American diplomat, and their two children. During this time Cold War speculation is widespread. Did they get captured or eliminated by the Russians? Did they defect? In 1952 Iris’s twin sister Ruth hasn’t heard from her sister in four years when she receives a postcard from Iris. She hasn’t seen Iris since 1940 in Rome when Iris had fallen madly in love with Sasha Digby. Desperate to find them, Ruth decides to go to Moscow and poses as the wife of Summer Fox, a counterintelligence agent, who will help and protect her.
There is a complex story about Iris”s marriage, a cliche character in Ruth, and an ending almost too unbelievable to handle.
3 Stars
186. THE LOST WIFE by Alyson Richmond (9/4/21) Historical Fiction
In pre-war Prague two young lovers, Lenka and Josef, decide to marry despite the oncoming war. When Josef gets the opportunity to go to America Lenka says it is impossible to leave her family and refuses to go with Josef. Much of the story deals with Lenka’s life in a concentration camp. Josef moves on with his life when all the letters he has written to Lenka are returned. Both Lenka and Josef are under the impression the other had died. He eventually marries but always thinks of Lenka, and holds his love for her in his heart. Heartache, deprivation, and the power of first love. This is not the best holocaust book I have read nor the worst.
3 Stars
189. THE SECRET LIFE OF VIOLET GRANT BY Beatriz Williams (9/13/21) Historical Novel
In 1964 Vivian Schuyler, a new graduate of Bryn Mawr College, breaks with her wealthy family’s tradition of being idle and privileged and gets a job at a magazine. When she receives an overseas parcel in the mail she uncovers a lost aunt named Violet Grant who had disappeared during The First World War in 1914. Vivian decides to dig deeper into this mystery woman and discovers the troubled life her aunt had endured as she strove to be an American female physicist in pre-war Germany.
This is the backstory of the two women of different generations with much in common and each trying to overcome societal norms in order to reach their goals.
3 Stars
194. THE SECRET KEEPER OF JAIPUR by Alka Joshi (9/24/21) Fiction
The Secret Keeper is #2 in the Jaipur trilogy with #1 being The Henna Artist (#98 on my book list-5 Stars, where you should start. Lakshimi is now married to Dr. Jay Kumar and her adopted son Malik is now 20 and has finished his private school education and has met a young woman named Nimmi. Soon he has to leave to apprentice a the building of a gigantic movie house in Jaipur, leaving his family and Nimmi behind. Lakshimi helps Nimmi, young and tribal, find work and become acquainted with modern society.
In The Henna Artist, we found Lakshimi independent, and resourceful. As an adult in the Secret Keeper, she is still dealing in healing and we see a beautiful relationship with her husband, a kind and supportive husband. But in this book she takes a lesser role and we don’t see the same qualities that made her so vibrant in the first book. Malik and Nimmi are driving the narrative in this second book and I kind of missed the young Lakshimi.
4 Stars
210. SECRETS OF A CHARMED LIFE by Susan Meissner (11/2/21) Historical Fiction
In current day Oxford, England, Kendra Van Sant, a young American student seeks an interview with London Blitz survivor, Isabel McFarland, now 93 years old. Isabel is now ready to tell a story with hidden secrets about her life. She tells the story of two sisters, Emmy and Julia Downtree, who have been evacuated to the countryside for safety as were most children in London. Fifteen-year-old Emmy had great dreams to design and create the most beautiful wedding dress and hoped to work as a apprentice at a dressmaker shop in London. Emmy decided to sneak back to London and her mother with her younger sister who insisted she not be left behind. On the first night of bombing the sisters are separated and young Julia has disappeared.
Meissner builds extraordinary scenes of what life was like during the relentless bombing, with terror, shortages, and acts of kindness a daily occurrence. It was another World War II novel, but refreshing to see the London perspective.
4 Stars
211. THE WOMAN WITH THE BLUE STAR by Pam Jenoff (11/5/21) Historical Fiction
It is 1943 Krakow, Poland and the Nazi’s are rounding up the Jews and sending them to the ghetto. Rumors abound about what happens to the Jews when they leave the ghetto. Sadie’s father believes they must hide and with the help of a Polish sewer worker they and another family enter Krakow’s sewer system, with the most horrible of conditions, to escape. While exploring the tunnel Sophie sees an open grate and makes eye contact with a young woman her age looking down into the sewer. After the frightening contact Sophie takes a chance that this girl, Ella will not betray them and they become friends.
As with most stories about the Nazi occupation, this story explores the lengths the Jews went to to avoid capture and the strange and heroic people who become involved in the helping them.
5 Stars
215. THE DRESSMAKER by Rosalie Ham (11/19/21) Historical Fiction
Tilly Dunnage returns home to the small Australian town to check on her ailing mother. After spending 20 years in the couture houses of Paris as a dressmaker this trip is intended to be short still harboring her childhood as an outcast. She now is acceptable having made a name for herself in the world of fashion. After the local women find her dresses irresistible, forging a friendship with the town’s policemen, and starting a romance with a local football coach, she decides to stay. But Tilly has revenge on her mind for those who wronged her.
Published in 2000, and made into a major motion picture in 2005, starring Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth and Judy Davis, I intend to try to stream it to see how close to the book it is.
4 Stars
219. THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michelle Richardson (5/19/22) Historical Fiction
Thanks to Eleanor Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, Troublesome Creek got it’s own traveling librarian, Cussy Mary Carter. She is also of a skin color with a slight shade of blue, the blue-skinned people of Kentucky,and is considered “colored” by many in these Appalachian hills. This is her story.
3 Stars
220. THE WIDOWS OF MALABAR HILL by Sujata Massey (5/21/22) Historical Fiction
This is the first of a new historical series set in the 1920’s Bombay. Perveen Minstry, the daughter of a respected Roroastrian family, has just joined her father’s law firm, becoming one of the first female lawyers in India. Armed with a law degree from Oxford, she decides to champion women’s rights as she finds discrepancies in the execution of the will of a wealthy man that left behind three wives. Inspired in part by a woman who made history as India’s first lawyer, Widows of Malabar Hill dives into the customs and traditions of the day which I found interesting and multiculturally rich.
4 Stars
225. THE BOOKSELLER’S SECRET by Michelle Gable (12/17/21) Historical Fiction
The book is fiction based on a real life icon named Nancy Mitford. The time is 1942, the place, London. All are worried about air raids, German spies while Nancy, estranged from her husband, is reeling over the loss of her writing career. Needing an income she jumps at the chance to manage a bookshop while the owner is away at war. The incredible times and colorful people she meets cause Nancy to consider writing stories again. Jump eighty years later and a hunt goes on to find Nancy’s lost manuscript.
The book is filled with interesting characters, some intrigue, and a fun read.
3 Stars
228. THE LOST APOTHECARY by Sarah Penner (2/28/21) Historical Fiction
It is 1791, London, a time when women had few options when dealing with crimes and abuse against them by husbands, fathers, and employers. Nella Clavenger, has a remedy in her apothecary shop, a deadly option to help right a wrong. We also meet Eliza a 12 year old lady’s maid who is sent to purchase something from Nella.
In the present-day we find Caroline Parsewell, a visitor from Ohio, celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary alone due to her finding out about her husband’s infidelity. Caroline finds an old apothecary vial along the edge of the Thames and does research into the marking on the jar.
Penner skillfully intertwines the stories to have us rooting for the three damaged protagonists.
4 Stars
253. THE NEXT SHIP HOME by Heather Webb (3/25/22) Historical Fiction
The secrets of Ellis Island in the early 1900’s, are uncovered where all immigrants seeking a new life of opportunity get their first taste of what “processing” in the new country is like. Far from a welcoming party, rejections by staff put the most vulnerable into positions of suffering abuse in order to be allowed to stay. Francesca, a young Italian immigrant and her ill sister, are fleeing poverty and an abusive father, have arrived with great hope. On the same day Alma begins her first day of work at the immigration center and has hopes to someday become a translator, which is usually out of reach for women.
I thought this book was interesting and did not sugar coat the prejudices which still exist today: Mainly, by being poor and speaking a foreign language, immigrants can suffer abuse.
4 Star
255. THE PILOT’S DAUGHTER by Meredith Jaeger (4/2/22) Historical Fiction
In the final days of World War II, Elle Morgan is working at the San Francisco Chronicle as a secretary and dreams of becoming a reporter. She is engaged and conflicted by her fiancee’s desire to quit and join domestic life for the news room. Elle wants to try to solve the mystery of her missing-in-action pilot father and the possibility that he may still be alive. She finds a stack of love letter from a woman who is not her mother and she is determined to find the truth. With the help of her Aunt Iris, a past showgirl with the Ziegfeld Follies, she decides to embark on a search for the truth no matter where it takes them.
4 Stars
260. THE DIAMOND EYE by Kate Quinn ((4/24/22) Historical Fiction
Based on a true story, Kate Quinn continues to write captivating stories about female heros of World War II. After reading The Rose Code, The Alice Network, and The Huntress, she finds another remarkable woman, a quiet librarian who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Another interesting detail is that the protagonist, Mila Pavlichenko, lives in the snowbound city of Kiev (quite in the news these days) and joins the fight as Hitler invades Russia. Her shooting expertise cam from the farm and she, with great determination, had to gain acceptance from her male soldiers by being the best. Eventually known as “Lady Death”, she had over 300 kills and became a heroine in her own country and was even sent to America on a goodwill tour where she became a friend of First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
The author continues to take a real circumstance(s) and individual(s) and tells the story according to history but fills in the blanks she couldn’t possibly know, in order to create and develop a full personality and interesting story. And at the end she informs us of the liberties she took. I’m a fan.
5 Stars
262. THE PARIS ARCHITECT by Charles Belfoure (4/30/22) Historical Fiction
Most Gentiles in occupied Paris had little empathy for Jews. Many were displeased with the “Resistance”, they thought of as thugs and Communists. Lucien Bernard was in this group when a wealthy industrialist offered him a large sum of money to design a secret hiding place for a Jew he knew. Lucien’s first reaction was “Why would this man put himself at risk for a Jew?” Lucien struggled with this choice to become a part of a cause he didn’t believe in. He ultimately couldn’t resist the money since the war literally stopped his ability to find work. When the first hiding place was a success he continued to devise unique hiding spaces-behind a painting, inside a drainpipe, in a column, and other unique places. Soon his lack of empathy for the Jews reverses and he gets more involved in helping. But he also gets jobs from the Nazis to build armament factories he justifies as being useful to Paris at the end of the war.
This was well-written and really a great story.
5 Stars
270. THE PARIS BOOKSELLER by Kerri Maher
Young American Sylvia Beach, lover of books and Paris moves to Paris and on a quiet street in 1919 she opens her own English language bookstore, “Shakespeare and Company”. Soon her bookstore becomes a favorite of the prominent writers and intellectuals, such as Ernest Hemmingway and James Joyce whose book Ulysses, was banned in the United States and Sylvia decided to risk it all to publish it through her bookstore. But the success and notoriety of the most infamous and influential book of the century brings great personal and financial crises and a strange relationship with the careless Joyce himself.
A good read into the past although I really don’t know how much is fiction and how much truth.
4 Stars
278. WILD WOMEN AND THE BLUES by Denny S. Bryce
In the 1920’s Jazz Age in Chicago, Honoree Dalcour dreams of becoming the best of the showgirl jazz dancers. The times are wild and she becomes involved in a criminal situation.
The modern part of the book finds graduate student Sawyer in 2015 trying to interview the 109 year-old Honoree for his thesis in media studies. Sawyer becomes a vehicle for following the story of Honoree in the jazz hayday which turned out to be distracting rather than useful. The character of Honoree is believable as she tries to overcome many obstacles and relationships in this wild, crazy life. Sawyer was not a good character vehicle but Honoree held her own and the delicious scenes of the Roaring Twenties was brilliant.
4 Stars
390. THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE by Fiona Davis (5/8/23) Historical Fiction
It is 1913, New York City. Laura Lyons lives with her husband, the superintendent of the New York Library, which gives them the privilege of living in the apartment within the great library. Laura is ambitious and wants more than the traditional housewife role. She studies journalism at the Columbia Journalism School which opens a new world to her as her studies require her to find stories all over the city. Being a feminist, by nature, she is enamored with a radical feminist group in Greenwich Village who espouse suffrage, birth control, and women’s rights. When valuable books are stolen from the library her loyalties are threatened.
In this two generational story, eighty years later Laura’s great-grandmother, Sadie, is now curator of the New York Public Library, and has become a suspect in the disappearance of rare manuscripts and books being held for an exhibit, when it is exposed that Sadie’s great-grandmother, Laura was a suspect in a previous crime at the library.
Fiona Davis has given us new life to the past, as she did with her previous book, The Chelsea Girls, in post WWII. She is an excellent story-teller with convincing and interesting characters.
4 Stars
391. NEWS OF THE WORLD by Paulette Jiles (5/10/23) Historical Fiction
With the perfect amount of charm and sophistication, Grove Gardiner, the narrator of the audiobook delivers this beautiful story of how Captain Jefferson Kidd, a lonely widower in 1870 Texas, came to agree to return a ten-year old girl back to her relatives after being kidnapped, her parents murdered by Kinowa Indians, and rescued four years later by the Cavalry. The author, along with the narrator presented Captain Kidd as a lonely itinerant, near to elderly, yet schooled and cultured. He traveled from town to town, filling the curiosity and craving of the settlers for news of the day which he would read from worldwide sources each night at a gathering for a dime per person.
Most of the story tells of Kidd’s dangerous travel through Indian country to get the girl and then the difficult relationship with a mistrusting traumatized child who had bonded with the Indians and didn’t want to leave. She had taken on the Indian ways in dress, behavior, and speech and at first refused to act “civilized”, and she tried to escape from Kidd at every opportunity. She had to learn to trust and slowly senses Kidd’s purpose was to protect her well-being, but she was afraid of being rejected by her relatives whom she didn’t know.
This story was made into a movie starring Tom Hanks as Captain Kidd and as much as I admire Hank’s body of work, compared to the tender-hearted portrayal by the narrator Grove Gardiner, Hanks failed to have that same special quality. If you have seen the movie, I still recommend you read the audiobook. So many of the nuanced moments between Kidd and the girl were left out as were the inner workings of this poor girls’ traumatized mind. One of my favorites!
5 Stars
392. THE COLOR OF LIGHTNING by Paulette Jiles (5/21/23) Historical Fiction
Brit Johnson, the protagonist of this third book by Pauletter Jiles, is a freed slave and real-life character in the 1860’s. What we know about him is that his wife and children were abducted by the Kiowa Indians, and he headed to the Texas Panhandle to rescue them. Not much else is known about them but Jiles fills in a beautiful story about his journey. Jiles, also a poet, uses luxurious prose and metaphors to describe the journey through the fields of Texas landscape.
Another character we meet on Brit’s journey is Samuel, a devout Quaker, on a journey of his own to restore peace to the West by hoping to encourage the Indians to seek peace through farming. His ignorance of Indian culture and the naivete that they could be happy by farming, came to an abrupt change in his philosophy when the tragic clash of cultures reduced his good intentions to presiding over the destruction of the Indians.
I think this book may have been more interesting if we could have had a better connection to the mysterious Brit, or have had a larger story about Samuel, the character with true tragedy. Regardless, Jiles brings forth the most horrendous of times in American history, without prejudice, capturing many cultures and their attitudes including American settlers, American Indians, Mexicans, and the US Western Cavalry, all having different agendas. And we know who lost.
4 Stars
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