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All the Stars in the Heavens

October 14, 2015

all the stars

  After being a novitiate at a San Francisco convent for six years Alda Ducci is told that she is not suited to be a nun. Sent by her family from Italy to escape disgrace, returning home is not an option. Then, a friend of the mother superior gets her a job as a secretary to Loretta Young, the Hollywood star, and Alda’s life changes in ways she could never have imagined. ... Read More...

2 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1950s, Harper, historical fiction, Hollywood, pop culture

Under the Udala Trees

October 5, 2015

under the udala trees

  In Under the Udala Trees Ijeoma is only twelve years old when the civil war in Nigeria begins and her mother must leave her behind while she tries to establish a life for them in the north, a safer part of the country. It is 1968 and they live in Biafra, a southern state that has seceded from the nation. The war has already claimed her father and now her mother asks a ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Africa, book clubs, cultural, debut, historical fiction, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, literary, nigeria

The Marriage of Opposites

September 16, 2015

marriage of opposites

Beginning in 1795 on the island of St. Thomas The Marriage of Opposites is Alice Hoffman’s newest novel. It is the story of Rachel, a strong willed and intelligent woman, bound by the confines of the times but with dreams of traveling far away to Paris and living a life on her own terms. As the daughter of a wealthy Jewish businessman she is brought up as young ladies were but ... Read More...

5 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 19th century, book clubs, family saga, historical fiction, Paris

Circling the Sun: A Novel

August 10, 2015

circling the sun

I have a chart that traces my route over the Atlantic, Abingdon to New York, every inch of icy water I’ll pass over, but not the emptiness involved or the loneliness, or the fear. Those things are as real as anything else, though, and I’ll have to fly through them. Straight through the sickening dips and air pockets, because you can’t chart a course around anything you’re ... Read More...

6 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: book clubs, historical fiction, South Africa, women

Crooked Heart

August 5, 2015

crooked heart

  Noel is a ten-year-old who has been living with his godmother in London, until she dies. He moves in with her nephew and his wife but they are not well suited for a child of Noel’s personality and use the excuse of the impending war to send him to the suburbs to live with a foster family. Vera Sedge is the frazzled woman who sees Noel less as a child to be helped and ... Read More...

9 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: Harper, historical fiction, London, WWII

Girl at War: A Novel

June 24, 2015

girl

Ana is from Croatia but now lives in America and attends college in New York. Despite having been in the U.S for a decade she suddenly finds herself overcome by memories of her life in Croatia in 1991—the beginning of the Yugoslavian civil war. These memories increase in intensity until she can no longer sleep at night. In desperation, she decides to go back to Croatia to try ... Read More...

7 Comments
Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: cultural, debut, Eastern Europe, historical fiction, war

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