All Mabel MacGinnis has ever known is life in the Manzo Brothers Circus. In 1911, as the strongest woman in Europe, she has quite a reputation. Bram, her father, was a famous strong man. When he dies suddenly, her standing in the circus becomes uncertain. She learns that the mother she thought had died years ago has been alive the entire time. To make matters worse, the truth was hidden from her.
The Year of Jubilee
Grace Mockingbird is a teenager living in Jubilee, Kentucky, a coal mining town, with her parents and two siblings: Sissy and Isaac. The middle child in the family, she is often at odds with her prim and proper mother, whom she refers to as Virginia. Virginia’s great ambition is to ingratiate herself with the well-to-do ladies in town.
Banished
Banished, the first installment in “The Long Road Home” trilogy, is set in the early twentieth century. Life for orphans, Obadiah “Oba” and Merriweather “May” Miller, is anything but easy. After losing their parents, they are sent to Arkansas to live with distant relations, Uncle Melvin and Aunt Gertrude “Gertie” Amstutz, on their cotton farm. From the moment Oba and May arrive, they realize just how cruel Melvin and Gertie really are.
The Girl with the Silver Bangle
In London in 1910, Daisy Tucker is a young woman whose family has fallen upon hard times. When her father loses his job, she must do what she can to keep her family afloat. She enjoys her job working at the Fun Factory, where she is encouraged to use her talents and be creative. When tragedy befalls the family a second time, Daisy is forced to move to Devon to live with an uncle who is virtually a stranger. As she moves into her uncle’s tavern, little does she realize that she will have to work in order to live there. Even though she is abused by her uncle, she remembers her silver bangle and the handsome young lover who made it for her.
The Road East to India
Have you ever been fascinated by different cultures from all over the globe? Do you find the Counterculture of the 1960’s and 1970’s compelling? Are journal-type memoirs something that you enjoy? If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of the above questions then I suggest that you read Devika A. Rosamund’s “The Road East to India”. In this memoir, Ms. Rosamund shares with us what it was like to be a young 20-something woman travelling across the European and Asian continents in the late 20th century.
The Last Valentine
Felix Alexander’s The Last Valentine takes place in Old Sienna, Puerto Rico, in the year 1935. Olivia Villalobos, the protagonist, is a young lady who lives with her straitlaced aunt, Katarina and her father, Javier Villalobos, a police inspector and well-known alcoholic. As the story opens up, the body of an unidentified man is discovered in Old Sienna and the inebriated Javier brings home a bloodstained letter. Eventually, that very same letter ends up in the hands of his daughter, Olivia, and she consults with her good friend, Isaac Quintero.
The Daughter of Union County
Daughter of Union County is one of those books that I was beyond excited to read. The title, book cover, and the blurb really caught my attention. Little did I realize when I started reading that this book would be a struggle to finish and (even though the author admitted this to be a work of historical fiction) full of historical fallacies.
Two Suitors for Anna
The year is 1903. Anna Plank lives a charmed life in the small rural hamlet of Berlin, Ohio. Residing with her mother, Mrs. Plank and two sisters, Leah and Beth, she works devotedly at Grace’s Dry Goods Shop. For years she has been courted by none other than the handsome, fair-haired Noah Schwartz, a man possibly considers the love of her life. Unfortunately, Noah has different ideas from Anna and, when he constantly wants to change the way things are done, it unsettles her. He announces that he will be leaving Berlin to travel to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and that he wants her to accompany him. Not wanting to leave her beloved family behind, she is torn between the man she loves and those who need her.
The Nightingale
It is present day Oregon and an elderly widow lives alone. While we are not told her name, we find that she has just recently sold her house and that she is going to be placed in an adult care facility at the behest of her son, Julien. Just months ago, her own husband died and she discusses at length just how weak she feels herself to be. Her eyesight is growing weaker and she is not as strong as she once was. One day while in her attic she discovers something that reminds her of the past, of a life that once was and how it was a very different world. Discovering the name of Juliette Gervaise, our heroine slips back into the past, back into the world that once was…