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In this perfect summer read, Harrison explores 1950s life for three women facing complicated personal Nicola Harrison's The Island Club is set in the 1950s on Balboa Island off the coast of California. The Island Club delivers full-on 1950s immersion while exploring LGBTQ issues, privilege, sacrifice, For more Bossy reviews of novels set in the 1950s, please check out this link.

In the 1960s, Vernice (Niecy) headed to Spelman College, befriending powerful young women, fighting inequality

timelines equally powerfully evokes the bleak Dutch winters of the 17th century and grimy, volatile 1950s But an inheritor of the work in 1950s Manhattan wants to show it in an exhibit. Smith equally vividly captures the harsh beauty of both grimy 1950s Brooklyn and 17th century Dutch bleak

Ron Rash's newest novel, The Caretaker, Blackburn Gant is the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery in 1951

ICYMI: Taylor Brown's five-star, 1950s North Carolina-set novel offers mountain clans, whiskey runners He's running whiskey to juke joints, brothels, and other seedy spots in his 1940 Ford, driving fast,

ICYMI: Towles's closed-door tale of a Russian aristocrat under house arrest in a grand Moscow hotel manages to be at times playful, poignant, and wonderfully subversive. Let us concede that the early thirties in Russia were unkind. It's 1922, and Count Alexander Rostov has been placed under house arrest by the Bolsheviks. He is to remain in a grand hotel across from the Kremlin called the Metropol, where he will live out the rest of his days. An aristocrat used to spending his life at leisure or bustling about for his own pleasure, he now lives in an attic room, able only to peer out at the upheaval taking place throughout Moscow and witness events from a distance. Thus, it is the opinion of this committee that you should be returned to that hotel of which you are so fond. But make no mistake: should you ever set foot outside of the Metropol again, you will be shot. Next matter. The time structure of the story is interesting; Towles moves the reader in time from the starting day of Rostov's confinement to one day later, then two days later, and four days later in a doubling pattern that ends sixteen years later, then presents events in halved time periods (eight years, four years, two years, and so on) until the end of the book. The gifted storyteller Towles manages to craft a tale of  a political prisoner's decades spent under house arrest in a bustling Moscow hotel without its' feeling claustrophobic, but instead, delightfully playful, richly wrought, and wonderfully subversive. Do you have any Bossy thoughts abou tthis book? Towles is also the author of Rules of Civility and The Lincoln Highway.

I loved each of the story's two timelines--following a stewardess on board The Titanic as well as a British spy working with the WWII French Resistance--and the details of life in each time, but I found the ending's resolutions too easy. First, just look at this gorgeous cover! I love this so much. Unsinkable is historical fiction by Jenni L. Walsh that's set in two timelines. The book's past timeline is set in the early 20th century, as Violet, a young ship's stewardess bent on providing for her family after her father's death and mother's onset of illness, works aboard ships including, as the story sweeps along, The Titanic. I love a ship-life story, and I was taken with the details of Violet's caring for the elite passengers. The story's later timeline takes place in the time of World War II as Daphne, an intelligent and educated young woman who is emotionally closed off and desperately trying to impress her estranged, famous father, serves as a spy assisting the French Resistance. Sometimes in a dual-timeline story I feel far more invested in one story or the other. But while reading Unsinkable, I was equally interested in both timelines. I really enjoyed Violet's life on the ship and her foray into nursing, as well as Daphne's spy activity. The book is almost at its close by the time the two main protagonists are explicitly linked within the story, although the reader will know of their bond before the women themselves do. For me, this was a four-star read with a three-star ending. Throughout Unsinkable, Daphne and Violet fought through unimaginable difficulties, focused on their duties at the expense of their romantic happiness, witnessed various horrors, and yet recognized and cultivated an unlikely spark of hope for themselves and their futures that felt hard-won and intriguing. The final scenes felt oddly clean and neatly wrapped up with a bow as though according to a formulaic "happy ending" equation, and I found this shift from the appealingly messy, imperfect, wonderful, adventurous, tragic lives shown in the bulk of the book to a smooth, no-loose-ends set of outlandish coincidences and resolutions jarring rather than wholly satisfying. The Author's Note explains that the character of Violet and the arc of her life is somewhat loosely based upon a real person, while Daphne is an amalgamation of various special operations figures. I listened to Unsinkable as an audiobook, narrated by Barrie Kreinik and Alana Kerr Collins, courtesy of Libro.fm and Harper Muse. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Walsh is also the author of Becoming Bonnie, Side by Side, A Betting Woman, and The Call of the Wrens. You might like my Bossy reviews of other spy stories; you can find them here.

oligarchs, and the city's dark underbelly; The Island Club, Nicola Harrison's historical fiction set in 1950s nonfiction books. 02 The Island Club by Nicola Harrison Nicola Harrison's The Island Club is set in the 1950s

Briar Club employs nine points of view to tell the story of life in a female-only boarding house in 1950s In between, and for the bulk of the story, the novel offers the stories of multiple characters in a 1950s

The second book in Marske's series is an irresistible queer magical mystery thriller with Edwardian England details, racy encounters, vulnerability and love, and witty banter on a ship bound for England. A Restless Truth is the second in Freya Marske's queer fantasy mystery Last Binding trilogy that began with A Marvellous Light. A Marvellous Light was full of details of life in Edwardian England, gay love, mystery, magic, wonderful dialogue, and plenty of heart. I adored it. In A Restless Truth, the character of Maud Blyth (Robin's sister, introduced in book one) expects adventure when she agrees to help save the magical world by serving as companion to an elderly magician on an ocean liner. By doing so, Maud aims to help her beloved older brother resolve a magical mystery that's been decades in the making. But when her charge drops dead on day one, Maud must identify the murderer, try to get her hands on a magical object essential to untangling the mystery at hand--and try to survive the voyage without being murdered herself. Maud and each of her unlikely allies are fantastic characters. The mystery element kept me hooked, and details of proper Edwardian etiquette and clothing were wonderful. Marske doesn't skimp on presenting multiple magical elements, which I loved--and she includes many detailed, saucy, passionate encounters between our main characters. I was struck by the drastic manner in which Violet attempted to free herself from the shackles of marriage and the subsummation of a woman to her husband that was expected at the time. (This reminded me of the measures taken by the main protagonist in another book I recently read, A Study of Scarlet Women, in order to secure freedom from a stifling marriage.) A Restless Truth is fun and quirky yet has depth, an appealingly complicated mystery, and a satisfying version of a resolution that sets up book three. I received a prepublication edition of this book courtesy of Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tordotcom, and NetGalley. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? The third book in the Last Binding series will be titled A Power Unbound. Its publication date has not been announced.

This peek behind the scenes of a fictional 1960s sitcom is layered with the complex issues of the changing

In Wood's slim book, a practical young man is scratching out a life in a small seaside English town when an energetic young American filmmaker bursts into town. Thrills and inspiration follow--along with danger and and uncertain implications for the future in this atmospheric, eerie, beautifully written novel. Young adult Thomas Flett lives a quiet life as a shanker scraping the shore for shrimp with a horse and cart in a small seaside northern English town. He lives with his overbearing mother, who had him when she was quite young and has never revealed much information about his father. They bristle at each other, bicker, yet they live cooperatively: she feeds him and he pays the bills and fixes things around the house. Thomas's knowledge of the shoreline--its hazards, its topography, and how to stay safe among its many sinkholes and dangers--proves to be a ticket to adventure when he meets Edgar, a passionate American filmmaker eager to use the setting as a backdrop to his new film. But all Edgar says may not be the truth, and Thomas becomes more and more deeply entrenched in the drama, inspiration, unexpected twists and turns, and whirlwind of the stranger's orbit of existence. The book has a dark-ethereal quality, and the foggy coast with its literal deadly pitfalls hidden throughout the sand perfectly reflects the mysterious, brooding tone of the book in which the truth is uncertain and the future is suddenly anything but assured. There are a few indications of the time period ( Lawrence of Arabia is showing at the movie theater, and Elvis Presley is referenced), but the story feels largely to exist outside of time. Edgar begins to demonstrate that he is delusional, but the reader is left wondering if that diminishes his artistic eye and ability to create something or is irrelevant to his art. Thomas has always been practical, barely looking past the next moment, and when he enters Edgar's tumultuous universe, he is thrust into dangerous, unexpected situations, yet his desire to explore his own artistic musicality is cemented. In a near-death experience, Thomas hallucinates an afterlife, encounters his father, and understands the man's true nature. (I wasn't convinced that this experience and the "return to life" that occurs afterward weren't all part of Thomas's post-death consciousness, but I believe that this is supposed to reflect a recovery from almost dying and a fresh start with hopeful new directions indicated for every aspect of Thomas's life.) This slim story (the book is 176 pages) is eerie and unforgettable. More from This Author Benjamin Wood's Seascraper was longlisted for the Booker Prize. He is also the author of the novels The Bellwether Revivals , The Ecliptic , A Station on the Path to Somewhere Better , and The Young Accomplice .

In the 1950s timeline, Oscar Hammerstein is striving to bring Maria's story to life on the stage--but

Time of the Child feels like poetry in prose form, and Williams richly shapes a small-town Irish community's everyday and extraordinary events in this poignant, gorgeous literary fiction novel. In 1962 in the small Irish town of Faha, it's Christmastime, and Dr. Jack Troy and his oldest daughter Ronnie are coping with complicated family dynamics in their drafty, rural Irish home when an unexpected discovery turns everything upside down. Ronnie, a single and dutiful daughter, has grown up in the shadow of her father, who has long been set apart from the community where he was born and grew up because of his role as the area's physician. She is capable and smart, and assists at the front desk in his in-home clinic, but she feels she has more to give. Her books, secret writing of stories and accounts, and daily cycling trips around the area aren't fulfilling her anymore. Ronnie once kept company with a young man who's now living in America--but her father disapproved, and now it seems she will live in Faha forever. Unbeknownst to Ronnie (she and her father live together but rarely communicate) her father is feeling remorse about his reserve regarding the young man. He's also bemoaning his own chance at love; as a widower he worked with Annie Mooney at the pharmacy, but never told her about his feelings for her before Annie died. During the annual, chaotic community fair preceding this holidays, which this year is a rainy business full of haggling, disappointments, and triumphs, an infant is left by the church gates. Young Jude and Faha's grown twins, Tim and Tom, bring the baby girl to Dr. Troy and Ronnie, believing her dead but not sure what else to do. And she does seem to have passed on to another realm, until Dr. Troy is able to revive her. In an impulsive pact, the four men agree not to share the news of the baby with anyone. Meanwhile Ronnie quickly falls in love with the infant girl, who she begins to call Noelle, and Jack opens his heart with the same devotion to the baby. As weeks go on the two of them care for her and go to extremes to try to keep Noelle's existence a secret. When her presence is revealed, they form desperate plans to keep her. But an unwed mother in that time and place has little chance of keeping a child once the Church has a hold of it. What really shines in Time of the Child is the power of the small-town Faha community--gossipy and desperate for dirt as its citizens may largely be. The miracle of unity brought about by a baby's presence is poignant without feeling too easy. This story is beautiful and powerful. Williams's writing feels like a poem in prose structure; no word is wasted, and I read this novel slowly in order to savor the world the author so gorgeously created. More Irish story love Time of the Child  is set in the same village as Williams's novel This Is Happiness . You can find Bossy reviews of other novels set in Ireland here and more reviews of literary fiction titles here .

This story-within-a-story-within-a-story reveals a clever woman working within the 1920s confines of In 1920s New York, Benjamin Rask is a ruthless, outrageously successful Wall Street tycoon, and his beloved The peeks into the financial world of 1920s New York City was intriguing--particularly since the unorthodox

, widespread, deadly West Virginia Mine Wars and thousands-strong labor uprising that took place in 1920 In Rednecks, Taylor Brown presents a historical novel centering around the real-life events of the 1920

Whalebone Theatre begins with offbeat children's performances on a lazy, decadent English estate in the 1920s Joanna Quinn's debut novel is a hefty 558 pages, and the story sweeps through time from the 1920s malaise

ability to travel through memory to revisit the past secures her a revered role in a counterculture 1950s

women scientists to join NASA’s space shuttle program, Joan becomes obsessed with being part of the 1980s The constricting social standards of the 1980s limit Vanessa and Joan's freedom to express their feelings

Pylväinen's novel explores the cooperation and conflict among cultures in a mid-nineteenth century community in the Arctic Circle, immersing the reader in a cold, unforgiving climate and in the long-held traditions of its varied characters. ...she wondered, was this what love was, to persist when you didn't want to, to try for patience another time.... In Hanna Pylväinen's The End of Drum-Time, it's 1851 in the Arctic Circle, and a small community of reindeer herders, a minister's family and his flock of followers, and a local shop owner whose greatest profit comes from liquor are all trying to get through the winter. In their remote location in the Scandinavian tundra, they're each carving out lives shaped by the unforgiving snow and cold. Their cultures are sometimes mysteries to each other, and at times conflict greatly with others' traditions. I was fascinated by Pylväinen's explorations of how the old ways and new ways pushed against each other, as did the Finn, Lapp, Sámi, Swedish, and Russian influences of the region. Religion is a particular conflict in the novel, with the Christian characters proving themselves to be naïve, rigid, judgmental, greedy, vain, and foolhardy. The men of the story are singularly focused on their livelihoods--they're capable of physical doggedness and of persistence. The reindeer herders, for example, hold immeasurable knowledge of the habits of their animals and of the weather and terrain around them. But the male characters are largely disappointments to the women, who wish they had actually earned the confidence they often exude; wish they were reliable and emotionally strong; and wish the men allowed for gray areas and were open to understanding nuances. The men abandon, bluster and condescend, are weak to temptation, plod along in the face of destruction, and wait too long to act. The women frequently see the clear way but are usually powerless to effect change, so the men's missteps and ineptitude are at the heart of each disaster in the book. The End of Drum-Time was intriguing and kept me interested throughout; it was brutal and frustrating (these men--!) but its setting was beautifully crafted. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? I read The End of Drum-Time as my March book club book. For more cold-setting stories, check out my Greedy Reading List Six Books with Cold, Wintry Settings to Read by the Fire.

In the 1950s timeline, Oscar Hammerstein is striving to bring Maria's story to life on the stage--but

Grey Dog begins as an immersive historical fiction story of a young teacher with a shocking past in 1900s You might also like my Bossy reviews of other historical fiction books set in the 1900s .

The gothic story King Nyx offers haunting imagery, sinister mysteries, unreliable memories, resurfacing past trauma, missing persons, unexplained deaths, and a children's fairy tale gone awry. Anna Fort has many reservations about her husband's outlandish theories, but she dutifully assists him with his research into unexplained meteorological phenomena in the hopes that his in-progress book will eventually be publishable--and will allow them to drag themselves out of poverty. Once Charles's family's house maid, Anna knows she is the reason he gave up his inheritance and any relationship with his cruel father. So when a reclusive, wealthy man invites Charles to spend the winter of 1918 on his remote, cold, private island writing his book, Anna is supportive and accompanies him. But a strange feeling pervades everything on the island. Their host is absent, and while they understand being required to isolate and quarantine to prevent the spread of the deadly flu, many odd occurrences and sinister-feeling goings-on are making Anna wonder if they should ever have come--and if it's even possible to escape. Meanwhile, flashes of her past seem to be resurfacing on this strange island, the other couple staying nearby seem to have dark secrets, the rumors they had heard on the mainland of missing young girls seem to possibly be true, someone has turned up dead--and they still haven't even seen their host. The imagery of King Nyx is striking, with (oddly specific and elaborate) automatons, gas masks, looming, mysterious buildings, and more. The tie-in to King Nyx for Anna seems beyond possibility, and the other links to her past seem far-fetched, until she realizes that all of the events on the island seem to be the mastermind of an unhinged puppet master. Meanwhile mysteries from Anna's experiences in the Fort household seem held together by crucial gaps in memory, and the framework is beginning to fall apart. I found myself wishing the various aspects of the story had held together a little more cohesively, but I enjoyed the dark, gothic tale of King Nyx and each of its elements, including the caged-bird metaphors, as well as the denouement. I listened to King Nyx as an audiobook. I received an audiobook version of King Nyx courtesy of NetGalley and RB Media, Recorded Books. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Kirsten Bakis is also the author of Lives of the Monster Dogs, a book I'd like to read.

The historical fiction story about the building of the Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina, had a romantic element that was bigger than I was anticipating, but I enjoyed Callaway's storytelling on building logistics, the power of class and society, complications of widespread TB infection, visionaries shaping the future, as well as the love story that for much of the book seems destined for failure. I love a North-Carolina-set story, and Joy Callaway's historical fiction What the Mountains Remember had me hooked: the novel traces the building of the famous Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. It's 1913, and Belle Newbold hasn't been into the mountains since her father died in a tragic West Virginia mining accident. In the seven years since, Belle's mother has reinvented herself as a society woman and has remarried, while Belle has learned to keep the family's past poverty, hunger, and struggles a secret. Belle is set up to marry an eligible (and wealthy) bachelor who's a stranger to her, Worth Delafield, and since she and Worth have each sworn off love, they're sure to keep their heads on straight as partners, without drama or heartbreak. But when they meet, sparks fly. Belle is fearful--particularly for her mother's sake--that her father's true origins may be uncovered and be their undoing. All of this, along with her pain at the loss of her beloved father, keeps her closed off emotionally. For Worth, his tragic family past and complicated present seem to be stumbling blocks that can't be overcome. Belle is determined to write the stories of the extraordinary everyday men who are building the Grove Park Inn, and her unwelcome, growing affection for Worth is distracting her. Meanwhile, he's finding himself overwhelmed by the magic of Belle and rethinking his own desire to stay distant. The Asheville of the novel is on the verge of becoming a city of tuberculosis sanatoriums; those behind the Grove Park Inn project are working furiously to shift the city's focus into tourism and, they hope, a brighter and stronger future. The tuberculosis situation is a tricky one: bosses are worried about the Grove Park Inn timeline and potential slowdown due to worker illnesses; Belle is set on protecting the workers' jobs by keeping their illnesses a secret from supervisors; and having men go to work sick is likely to infect others with the potentially deadly disease. The complex moral and practical aspects of the TB raging through the area are not fully resolved. The ins and outs of the Grove Park Inn's design and logistics of building were fascinating; Belle's research serves as an avenue for sharing this information, which feels thoroughly researched by the author herself. The romance aspect of the story became more of a focus than I was anticipating, and I enjoyed Callaway's realistically tangled obstacles that persistently thwarted the easy path to love. The meddlesome, shallow, foolish character who repeatedly threatens to undo all of the good things that are being built in the book is a source of tension for the story, and one whose comeuppance felt welcome when it came. I'd love to hear your thoughts about this book! For more North Carolina stories, check out the books on this Bossy list . I listened to What the Mountains Remember  as an audiobook. Joy Callaway is also the author of The Grand Design , The Fifth Avenue Artists Society , All the Pretty Places , and Secret Sisters .

Yet I loved the rich early-1900s San Francisco setting, the focus on the arts, the strong women characters

In this narrative nonfiction, Egan explores the Klan's explosive growth and power in the 1920s in states

The story shifts between events of 1912, 1946, 1950, 1951, and 1989.

ability to travel through memory to revisit the past secures her a revered role in the counterculture 1950s

The author build characters and events around some of her own ancestors in Colorado in the early 1900s Kate Manning's Gilded Mountain is set in early 1900s Colorado as Sylvie Pelletier leaves her family's

Blaylock's story centers around a packhorse librarian in 1930s Appalachian Kentucky and adds layers like In Bonnie Blaylock's Light to the Hills , it's 1930 in the Kentucky Appalachians, and Amanda Rye is a

Chakrabarti's A Play for the End of the World takes place in 1970s New York and in rural India, with

Atkinson's newest mystery is set in vivid Roaring Twenties London as Nellie Coker struggles to hold on to her empire of clubs while mysterious dark undercurrents threaten stability throughout the city. It's 1926 in London, and recovery from the Great War inspires many in the city to dive into the wild nightlife scene and revel in the frenzy of the Jazz Age. Nellie Coker is fresh out of jail and ready to jump back into the action, masterminding moves to increase her family's power, influence, and riches. But not everyone she's paying off can be trusted, some of her six children are undermining her, and goings-on in the dark undercurrents of Soho could shake Coker's hold on her empire--and upset her ambitious dreams. On the other side of the Shrines of Gaiety story line is Detective Frobisher, an upstanding outlier in the largely corrupt police force, and his unlikely assistant in investigating Ma Coker, former librarian Gwendolen Kelling. I was particularly hooked by the intersection of Gwendolyn and Ma Coker's golden child, her eldest son Niven--along with the mystery of missing girls across Roaring Twenties London, plus deadly high stakes, the dealings of various crooks, and significant double-crossing throughout the story. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Atkinson is also the author of Case Histories, Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Life After Life, Human Croquet, When Will There Be Good News, and many more books. If you like historical fiction mysteries, you might like the books on the Greedy Reading List Six Historical Fiction Mysteries Sure to Intrigue You.

It was founded in the early 1900s by Arthur Ellingham, a tycoon who wanted to encourage bright young

Kevin Wilson's wonderfully odd 1990s coming-of-age novel centers around teens Frankie and Zeke, their Sixteen-year-old aspiring writer Frankie is just trying to get through a late 1990s summer in Coalfield

In Blau's gleefully 1970s-set novel, Mary Jane doesn't merely shift from emotional innocence to young In Jessica Anya Blau's novel Mary Jane, we're in 1970s Baltimore (with all of the glorious, immersive

Kim Michele Richardson's historical fiction offers a 1936 Appalachian setting, the magic and unassuming power of a rural librarian, and the exploration of a rare genetic condition. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek was a winning read for me. Appalachian setting? Check. Tough female protagonist? Check. Rural librarian? Check. Fascinating implications of a rare genetic condition? Check. I'm not sure why it took me so long to read Kim Michele Richardson's The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, except for pre-reading anxiety that it might not live up to my sky-high expectations. But this is a solid historical fiction story that I loved. The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek is set in 1936 in the rural Appalachians, centering around the character of Cussy Carter, nicknamed Bluet. In this tale, Bluet is one of the rare, real-life "Blue People" of Kentucky (those with the blood disorder methemoglobinemia, which causes the appearance of blue-tinted skin). Bluet is a librarian through the Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky (side note: there is nothing about the setup for this book that I don't absolutely adore), and she rides her mule Eugenia through all the hollers and up through the mountains, delivering sought-after newspapers and practical and fanciful books to families who rarely emerge from deep in the woods and for whom the written word is a window to the greater world. Bluet's natural independence, her love of books and reading, her eschewing of marriage, and her blue-tinged skin collectively draw the wrath and disgust of some in her small community--those who are suspicious of any break from tradition or anyone who questions the status quo. Bluet faces racial discrimination, misogyny, and some cruel and creepy handling in the name of scientific exploration and understanding of her skin color. This last element is smoothed over by a trade of food for her hungry household (and those of local schoolchildren) by the local doctor and his colleagues, initially so insistent about studying every possible aspect of Bluet's anatomy and blood, and so inappropriate in their methods, that it haunted me for the rest of the book and as I think about the story now. Richardson offers a satisfying ending that's not without an edge or imperfections, and I found narrator Katie Schorr's reading of the story wonderful. Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? The book's sequel is The Book Woman's Daughter, published earlier this year. I can't wait to read that one as well. Kim Michele Richardson is also the author of Liar's Bench, The Sisters of Glass Ferry, and Godpretty in the Tobacco Field.

is trying to piece together the events surrounding the shooting of a man named Lloyd Wilson in his 1920s

xeno-pigsty in China, and a stem cell "hair nursery" in San Diego; spending time with an iron lung from the 1950s

Thief .   02 Bug Hollow by Michelle Huneven Bug Hollow tracks the Samuelson family from an idyllic mid-1970s Briar Club  employs nine points of view to tell the story of life in a female-only boarding house in 1950s Trust by Hernan Diaz This story-within-a-story-within-a-story reveals a clever woman working within the 1920s In 1920s New York, Benjamin Rask is a ruthless, outrageously successful Wall Street tycoon, and his beloved

ICYMI: This young adult historical fiction story was a five-star read for me. I adored it. “My books promised me that life wasn’t just made up of workaday tasks and prosaic things.” Laura Amy Schlitz's book The Hired Girl is fantastic young adult historical fiction written in diary form. It's 1911, and fourteen-year-old Joan's life is far from the romantic, sweeping novels she loses herself in. She's living a hardscrabble life on her family's Pennsylvania farm, working ceaselessly for her rough father and brothers--and dreaming of escape. When she runs away to the big city of Baltimore, she presents herself as an eighteen-year-old named Janet, and she is delighted to be taken on as a hired girl for the refined Rosenbach family. “In my new life I’m not going to be vulgar. Even though I’m going to be a servant I’m going to cultivate my finer feelings. I will better myself and write with truth and refinement.” Joan is desperate for knowledge, and the Rosenbachs encourage her growth. Mr. Rosenbach explains anti-Semitism, charming young Mimi shows Joan how to pin her hair and carry herself, and David halfheartedly attempts to woo her (which leaves Joan breathless, imagining Jane Eyre-worthy drama and desperate for an upheaval of her life worthy of that book). Meanwhile Joan is exploring her Catholic faith and questioning and recognizing the existence of God. She's growing up and growing into a calm assurance, finding her place in the world. Schlitz's novel, inspired by her grandmother's journal, explores art, faith, challenge, transformation, imagination, romance, growth, and wonderful humor. Joan is a funny, heartbreaking, meddlesome, irresistible main protagonist. I could have read about her for a full series of books, and I devoured The Hired Girl in twenty-four hours--whereupon I immediately wished I'd savored it more slowly. I loved Joan and I loved this book! Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book? Laura Amy Schlitz has also written the children's book Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village as well as Splendors and Glooms, a Gothic mystery about puppeteers that was a Newbery Honor book, among others.

man is trying to piece together the events surrounding the shooting of a man named Lloyd Wilson in 1920s

characters sometimes feel like caricatures of evil villains, his young characters and the vivid setting of 1930s I listened to Krueger's This Tender Land as an audiobook, and I was satisfyingly immersed in 1930s life

Now Zott is a chemist in 1960s California on an otherwise all-male staff at Hastings Research Institute

The book jumps between 1940, the beginning of the women's forays into their secret duties and responsibilities

These Mountains Burn, click here. 02 Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown Taylor Brown's five-star, 1950s He's running whiskey to juke joints, brothels, and other seedy spots in his 1940 Ford, driving fast, Blackburn Gant is the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery in 1951 Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

A book I loved, in case you missed it: Wood's memoir is captivating and lovely, poignant, sweet without being overly sentimental, and just all-around wonderful. In 1963 the Woods were a typical Catholic immigrant family in Mexico, Maine. Dad worked for the local paper mill alongside countless other immigrants, and the family had a steady life. But when Monica's father died suddenly, Monica and her three sisters began to drift. Father Bob, their mother's brother, tried to be the ballast the family needed. Then Monica's mother became inspired after the tragic death of John F. Kennedy, and she insisted on a family road trip to Washington, D.C. The trip was an initial, unexpected step toward the healing Monica and her family desperately needed. When We Were the Kennedys is about grieving deeply, leaning on family and community in a crisis and in common suffering, and figuring out the impossible: how to move on after devastating tragedy. Wood gorgeously evokes the many characters and unfathomable events that changed her family's existence--as well as that of her community and the entire country--in 1963. Oh, how I loved this book! Wood's memoir is heartwarming and funny and tragic and vivid. This memoir is fantastic. I ate it up in a single day. ICYMI: A Book I Loved I had to post about this book in case you missed it when it was first published. I'm also going to admit here that in the notes I made with my five-star rating just after reading this in 2012, I said "This memoir is the bomb."

The more modern timeline introduces Wendy, a NYPL librarian in the 1980s. Yet I loved the rich early-1900s San Francisco setting, the focus on the arts, the strong women characters In the 1950s timeline, Oscar Hammerstein is striving to bring Maria's story to life on the stage--but

ability to travel through memory to revisit the past secures her a revered role in a counterculture 1950s

In the 1950s timeline, Oscar Hammerstein is striving to bring Maria's story to life on the stage--but

ability to travel through memory to revisit the past secures her a revered role in a counterculture 1950s