The Calamity Club

 Fiction by Katheryn Stockett

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I languished over six months on the library waiting list for this book, so you'd better believe that I read it right away when I finally got it! (Not to mention it's a "seven-day-book" with no renewals.) It's 656 pages, so it took me more than one day to read, but it was worth it!

This story is set in Mississippi in 1933, and follows a young single woman named Birdie (considered an "old maid" ay 24!) and a eleven-year-old girl in an orphanage called Meg. It's a lovely story with great characters and some exciting plot twists!

I also read by this author: The Help

Out of the Easy

 Fiction by Ruta Sepetys

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Josie Moraine didn't choose New Orleans; her mother Louise dragged her there in 1940 when she was just a little girl. She certainly didn't choose to grow up there in the heart of the French Quarter with everyone knowing her mother was a prostitute. But now it's 1950, Josie is turning eighteen, and she's got big plans to leave the Big Easy and start fresh. Will she be able to break out of her mother's shadow and somehow gain respectability?

This was a good story with great characters.

I also read by this author: Ashes in the Snow

The Secret Book Society

 Fiction by Madeline Martin

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In nineteenth-century England, women had few choices. Even highborn ladies with access to fortunes were subject to the whims of their husbands and fathers, and could be forced to obey these men. A woman could legally be bound to accept abuse, loss of autonomy, or even imprisonment, if the male in charge of her deemed it fit.

In this story, the Countess of Duxbury wants to do her small part to change that. She initiates the Secret Book Society and invites a very few close friends to join her is reading books together, book written by women like themselves. 

This was a pretty good book.

Stay

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1969, fourteen-year-old Lucas Painter discovers several new things: that he loves running, that his best friend is severely depressed, and that he (Lucas) can make a difference in the lives of others.

This was a lovely story with beautifully-drawn characters.

I also read recently by this author: Don't Let Me Go

The Windy City Saga, Books 2 & 3

Shadows of the White City and Drawn by the Current
Fiction by Jocelyn Green

https://www.barnesandnoble.com  https://www.barnesandnoble.com

I read the first book in this trilogy (Veiled in Smoke) a while ago, and these books continue the story. All three books were good!

The first book was set during the Great Chicago Fire, and I liked how the author skipped ahead in time for the next two books to other significant events in Chicago’s history. The second book was during the World’s Fair and the third involved the Eastland tragedy, which l had never heard of. It was all interesting. 

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

 Fiction by Ellen Marie Wiseman

https://www.audible.com

I could not finish listening to this book because it was about a girl imprisoned in a mental institution and I can't handle that subject emotionally. (I should have realized it from the description, I know. Sometimes I don't read the descriptions.)

I'm logging it in as Did Not Finish because I like this author and have read other books by her; I don't want to find myself in the middle of this one ever again.

I also read by this author (and finished!!): The Orphan Collector

Murder in Disguise

 Fiction by Mary Miley

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This is a mystery set in the 1920’s. Jessie Beckett is a former vaudeville child performer and is now working as an assistant script girl for a Hollywood studio. When her friend Barbara’s husband is murdered, Jessie investigates. 

This was a lighthearted story with some surprises. 

Lady in the Lake

 Fiction by Laura Lippman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This was a slow-moving mystery story set in the late sixties. The characters were believable but not always sympathetic. It was okay but not great.

I also read by this author: Dream Girl

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

 Fiction by Fannie Flagg

https://www.audible.com

I had read this novel years ago, but I thought I'd try it on audio book. It was doubly good with the Southern lady narrator!

I also read by this author: The Whole Town's Talking

The Golden Hour

Fiction by Beatriz Williams

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1943 Lulu Thorpe travels to war-torn England from Nassau, the Bahamas, with one goal in mind: to get her husband back. Benedict Thorpe had been working undercover for the British government and had been captured by the Germans.

Lulu had met and married Benedict during her two years working as a magazine journalist in Nassau. She was specifically covering the society pages and focusing on the serving governor of the island: the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, who of course were formerly King Edward VIII of England and the divorcee Wallis Simpson. Lulu comes to England with inside information about the semi-royal couple that she hopes to leverage into her husband's rescue if possible. Her other idea is to contact Benedict's older sister for help. 

The story then goes back in time in two directions: to Lulu's 1941 arrival in Nassau, and to a Swiss asylum at the turn of the century where Benedict's parents met. It takes a rather convoluted journey through those timelines and finally returns to 1943, where Lulu is still holding out hope to get Benedict back.

This was a long book and it was somewhat confusing. I almost gave up in the middle. All in all it was a good story worth reading, but I think it might have been better if organized differently.

I also read by this author: The Summer Wives

The Mystery of Mrs. Christie

 Fiction by Marie Benedict

https://www.audible.com

In 1926, mystery novelist Agatha Christie disappeared for eleven days, sparking a huge scandal, only to return unharmed without much public explanation. This is a historical fact, but what actually happened to Mrs. Christie during that time is a mystery. 

In this book, author Marie Benedict puts forth her ideas about what really happened during those eleven days. It's pretty good.

I also read by this author: The Personal Librarian

Come to the Window

 Fiction by Howard Norman

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

It's 1918 in Nova Scotia. "Come to the window," says Elizabeth Frame to her new husband, as she stands in the moonlight looking from their honeymoon hotel room. She has seen a whale beach itself and finds the sight moving, but her husband doesn't come to look at it. So... she shoots him in the head.

Wait, what?

Yes, this is a weird book. I didn't really like it. 

Displacement

 Fiction by Justin Pick

https://www.amazon.com

This book is set in 1998; technically, I'd say that's historical fiction, although it pains me to admit it.

In the story an eighteen-year-old boy called Liam Donohue goes to the police station to confess murder, and insists on telling a long convoluted story about it. A long-suffering detective listens to the whole thing with measured skepticism. 

It's hard to tell what's real and what is imagined in Liam's recollections, so the detective isn't wrong to suspect his veracity. The reader also cannot be sure of the truth, and indeed the plot stretches believability quite a bit. The ending is definitely a surprise.

It was a pretty good story but I didn't love it.

Circle of Days

 Fiction by Ken Follett

https://www.audible.com

Ken Follet began writing about British history with the book The Pillars of the Earth, (set in 12th century) and continued in the rest of the Kingsbridge series to explore several other eras. Now he's going WAY back, to the time of Stonehenge.

It is a testament to this author's genius that he can write a story about primitive humans and make the characters just as compelling and real as modern people. This book is amazingly good.

I also read recently by this author: The Armor of Light

The Nickel Boys

 Fiction by Colson Whitehead

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

This book is a fictionalized account based on a real historical place: a juvenile detention facility in Mariana Florida called a "school for boys." This was a terrible place that remained open for over a hundred years for both white and colored boys, separately housed and very badly treated. Interestingly, I read another book on this subject recently, The Reformatory by Tananarive Due. That book involved the ghosts of dead boys telling the story, while this one  took a more realistic approach.

At the beginning of the story, a group of students from a Florida are digging up an archeological site on the grounds of the old school where hundreds of dead boys were apparently buried. The students are also gathering the stories of the boys who survived the place and are now old men.

This was a good story but very sad. It was well written but I can't say it was enjoyable.

I also read by this author: The Underground Railroad

Walter's Purple Heart

 Fiction by Catherine Ryan Hyde

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

Walter is a soldier killed on a Pacific island during World War Two; Michael is a pot farmer in the early 1980's. What could connect these two? It's definitely weird.

This was a strange story from an author I usually love. The characters were pretty good in this book, but it's not nearly as compelling as her other books.

I also read recently by this author: Pay It Forward

The Reformatory

 Fiction by Tananarive Due

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

It's 1950 in Gracetown, Florida, and 12-year-old Robbie is living with his older sister Gloria in the old shack on their family's land. There had been a house there, but the Klan burned it down after their daddy, Robert Stevens Senior, was discovered trying to unionize the Negros at the mill. The audacity he showed really riled the white folks in town, and a bogus criminal charge was quickly found to issue a warrant for the arrest of Robert Stevens, causing him to flee the area and leave his children behind. 

Then Robbie kicks a white boy who tries to put an arm around Gloria, and all heck breaks loose. The local authorities see this incident as a perfect pretext to catch Robert Senior, arresting Robbie for assault and sentencing him to six months at the Boy's Reformatory outside of town, a true horror of a place. (The ghosts that haunt it are probably the most benign problem. It's BAD.) There the story really begins.

This was an amazing novel with great characters and an affecting storyline. Real and imagined events mix together to give the reader an exciting ride through the past, and also inspires a lot of thought for the present.

More News Tomorrow

 Fiction by Susan Richards Shreve 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

On June 17, 1941, a group of nine people take three canoes along the Bone River in Wisconsin on the way to a place called Camp Mini HaHa. They stop on the shore along the way to camp, next to a sign that reads “Missing Lake.” The next morning Josephine Grove, one of the nine people, is found strangled to death underneath that very sign, and her husband William confesses to the murder. Four years later William Grove dies in prison. 

Over sixty-five years later, William and Josephine’s daughter Georgie (who had been only four years old at the time of the tragedy) goes on an odd quest to find out what truly happened that night. What she really wants to believe is that her father did not actually kill her mother; however, there is the irrefutable fact that he  said he had. And can anyone ever find out the truth of events that took place so long ago?

This was an interesting story. I categorized it as a mystery, but it’s more of a story about how the past affects the present, whether we know the truth about it or not. It has very good characters. 

I also read by this author: You Are the Love of My Life

Speak Softly, She Can Hear

 Fiction by Pam Lewis

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In 1965 Carole and her friend Naomi, a pair of private-girls'-school seniors, go on a spring break trip to Stowe, Vermont, together. They tell their parents --that is, they tell Carole's parents; Naomi's self-absorbed father and stepmother barely notice her absence-- that they are learning to ski. Really, however, they are on a mission to lose their virginities before they graduate with a guy named Eddie. YES they are planning on BOTH doing it with him. Wait, what?

This is a really weird premise to me, but since Carole is slightly overweight and insecure, and Naomi is an unconventional thrill-seeker, I guess it's possible. Then something very bad happens that will affect them forever, and Carole spends most of the rest of the book trying to get away from Naomi and Eddie in order to forget it.

This is a pretty good character story with a great ending. I don't think the title fits the book at all, however. The title suggests a completely different kind of story. It's not a creepy suspense tale, or even a mystery novel. I think I'd call it What Happened in Stowe, or something like that.

Not that anyone asked my opinion...

The Devil's Arithmetic

 Fiction by Jane Yolen

https://www.barnesandnoble.com

In this classic story, Hannah, a young Jewish girl in the early 1990's, is kind of dreading Passover. She's bored by all the history her parents and grandparents seem hung up on. But then she's mysteriously transported back in time to take the place of a girl her own age in 1942 Poland...

This was a well-written story that would really help a young person understand the Holocaust.