The WWII time period is starting to feel a bit overused in fiction, but some stellar works set during this era are still being published. One such story is The Midnight News, a haunting tale that captures the essence of London during the heart of the fighting. It’s 1940 and Lottie (Charlotte) Richmond has built…
Madeline Martin gives us another look at how bibliophiles fared in the conflicts of WWII in her latest novel, The Keeper of Hidden Books. A view of love, loss, and occupation, this stellar story will have you appreciating the freedom and peace you enjoy and realizing just what it costs to have it. It is…
The Dazzle of the Light captures life in 1920s in England in a way that few books have – it has no flappers, no bathtub gin, and little jazz. Some might compare it to Peaky Blinders and its set of dysfunctional pre-Depression gangsters, but this is an all-girl gang primed for jewel thievery. The history…
Have you missed Jackie Collins, but aren’t keen on her sexual content? Because Karin Tanabe seems to be channeling her to a degree – cutting her heady blend of sex, drugs and celebrity with a wry and witty Eve Babitzian/Marvelous Mrs. Maisel tone – with The Sunset Crowd. It’s the story of three women grappling…
Twisting the tragic tale of the Habsburg dynasty (which gave the world Marie Antoinette), The Embroidered Book throws potent magic into the existing pile of family tensions, political chess playing, and romantic complications. A few clunky turns of phrase, awkward pacing and a weak magical subplot keep this one from a higher grade, but the…
Sally Brady was only eleven when her parents put her on a train headed to the west coast – back when her name wasn’t Sally Brady. She’s under strict orders to send money home to Iowa, to help support her sick mother, the dying farm, and her four siblings. It would be an enormous burden…
Toward the end of Kate Morton’s magnificent new novel, Homecoming, she writes: Reading shapes a person. The landscape of books is more real, in some ways, than the one outside the window. In this absorbing dual timeline story, the landscape Morton creates is tangible, immersive, and transportive. Much of the novel takes place in the…
A lovely, muscular novel that takes a look at life in Louis Comfort Tiffany’s workshop during its late 1800s heyday, The Tiffany Girls finally gives a voice to the unsung designers and artists who helped put together the glass king’s most famous pieces. Responsible widow Clara Walcott Driscoll is running the women’s division of Tiffany’s…
The Secret Book of Flora Lee is a genuinely interesting mystery that keeps the reader focused and keenly flipping the pages, even when the answers are sometimes frustrating. Young Flora Lee Linden is out in the middle of a wooden copse one day when she sees them. The Whisperwood, the magical creatures that she and…
Did You Hear about Kitty Karr? is a great idea that suffers from a disorganized storytelling and a weak modern framing story. But its portrait of colorism, racism, and life lived in a segregated America is compelling. When storied actress Kitty Karr Tate passes away and wills her $60 million fortune to the St. John…
End of content
End of content