Category: Historical Literature & Fiction

The Stars Are Fire: Book Review By Dinh.

Synopsis:

In October 1947, after a summer-long drought, fires break out all along the Maine Coast, racing out of control from village to village. Twenty-four-year-old Grace Holland is left alone to protect her two toddlers. After an unimaginable night in which the fire forces them to huddle together at sea, they emerge at dawn to find their lives forever changed.

Homeless, penniless, and left to face an uncertain future in a town that no longer exists, Grace must learn to drive and find a job, a place to live, and a way to care for her family. Continue reading “The Stars Are Fire Book Review” →

True Colors: Book Review by Arlene.

Synopsis:

The Grey sisters have always been close. After their mother’s death, the girls banded together, becoming best friends. Their stern, disapproving father cares less about his children than about his reputation. To Henry Grey, appearances are everything, and years later, he still demands that his daughters reflect his standing in the community.

Winona, the oldest, needs her father’s approval most of all. An overweight bookworm who never felt at home on the sprawling horse ranch that has been in her family for three generations, she knows that she doesn’t have the qualities her father values. But as the best lawyer in town, she’s determined to someday find a way to prove her worth to him. Continue reading “True Colors Book Review” →

Everyone Brave Is Forgiven: Book Review by Dinh.

Synopsis:

London, 1939.

The day war is declared, Mary North leaves finishing school unfinished, goes straight to the War Office, and signs up.

Tom Shaw decides to ignore the war—until he learns his roommate Alistair Heath has unexpectedly enlisted. Then the conflict can no longer be avoided.

Young, bright, and brave, Mary is certain she’d be a marvelous spy. When she is—bewilderingly—made a teacher, she finds herself defying prejudice to protect the children her country would rather forget.

Tom, meanwhile, finds that he will do anything for Mary. Continue reading “Everyone Brave Is Forgiven Book Review” →

Luckiest Girl Alive: Book Review by Dinh.

Synopsis

HER PERFECT LIFE IS A PERFECT LIE.

As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret. Continue reading “Luckiest Girl Alive Book Review” →

Circling The Sun: Book Review by Arlene

Review:

The life of Beryl Markham is intricately woven for us in this very readable novel by Paula McLain. Once again, as in The Paris Wife, McLain succeeds in creating a novel, based on the life of a remarkable, complex woman who lived in a time period of history where women were held to a standard below their capabilities and intelligence.

Beryl Markham broke through those bonds on her own terms. She was smart, strong, courageous and defiant because she had to be starting at a very young age. Paula McClain captures her story and grips you all the way through this novel and doesn’t let go. Continue reading “Circling The Sun Book Review” →

Beneath A Scarlet Sky: Book Review By Dinh.

Synopsis:

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders. Continue reading “Beneath A Scarlet Sky Book Review” →

Commonwealth: Book Review by Dinh.

Summary:

One Sunday afternoon in Southern California, Bert Cousins shows up at Franny Keating’s christening party uninvited. Before evening falls, he has kissed Franny’s mother, Beverly—thus setting in motion the dissolution of their marriages and the joining of two families.

Spanning five decades, Commonwealth explores how this chance encounter reverberates through the lives of the four parents and six children involved. Spending summers together in Virginia, the Keating and Cousins children forge a lasting bond that is based on a shared disillusionment with their parents and the strange and genuine affection that grows up between them. Continue reading “Commonwealth Book Review” →

Lilac Girls: Book Review by Dinh.

Summary:

New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate but on the eve of a fateful war, her world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.

An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences. Continue reading “Lilac Girls Book Review” →

Sweetbitter: Book Review by Arlene.

Review:

The broken wine glass on the book jacket cover is the perfect silent opening line of my review.

If you are a lover of good food and wine you might be drawn to read this debut novel by Stephanie Danler.

If you choose to read this book after viewing our intro comments, keep in mind the story line is entirely based through the eyes of Tess, the 22 year old young woman searching for answers to her own life when she leaves her mid west town alone for the mystique and inviting intrigue of New York City in downtown Manhattan. Continue reading “Sweetbitter Book Review” →