I’m not sure what I just read, but I’m not sorry I read it. It was definitely strange reading about someone living through other historical pandemics while living through one in our own time, but I think that made it even better. Cora lives all alone on the abandoned North Brother Island, within view of Rikers Island, in rotting buildings that were part of the now abandoned Riverside Hospital, which historically held people with a … Read More “The Vines by Shelley Nolden” »
Category: Historical Fiction
As historical fiction, this was an enjoyable retelling of what became known as the Children’s Blizzard of 1888, which swept across the Dakota Territory and left at least 235 people dead, most of them schoolchildren trying to get home after school. This book centers around four main characters who find their lives permanently changed by the blizzard: Raina and Gerda Olsen (sisters and schoolteachers,) Annette Pedersen (a young girl sold by her mother to another … Read More “The Children’s Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin” »
This was an overall fun, sweet book, and I liked how it was narrated by the main character looking back over his life and telling his story to an unnamed (until the end) interviewer. If you’re looking for something fast, easy, and relatively feel-good, give this one a go. In some ways, it reminded me of Fannie Flagg’s books, but I think I liked these characters more than many of Flagg’s books. Set in 1938, … Read More “Better Luck Next Time by Julia Claiborne Johnson” »
This book received a lot of publicity, and I think I had it built up in my head more than was completely realistic. There’s a lot going on in this book, and I think it just got a bit bogged down. Cussy Mary Carter, age 19, lives alone with her father in Depression-era Kentucky, following the earlier death of her mother. While her father is a coal miner, she works as a Pack Horse Librarian, … Read More “The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson” »
For those who have read Lisa See’s The Island of Sea Women, you’ll be familiar with the haeneyo, the women who are deep sea divers in Korea. But, this is a very different story. Told in two parts, divided between post-WW2 Korea and present-day United States, we learn about Junja, a teenage girl who has become a successful haeneyo, following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother. She convinces her mother to allow her … Read More “The Mermaid from Jeju by Sumi Hahn” »