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The English Masterpiece

January 21, 2026

english masterpiece

I don’t listen to a lot of audiobooks so it’s a delight when I take the time and it works out. The English Masterpiece is set in 1970s London and Lily is the assistant to Diana Gilden, the director of the modern art collection at the Tate Museum. This job is Lily’s chance to prove herself in the art world and hopefully, to become known as an artist herself. As the novel begins ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, art, London, mystery

Bright Young Women

October 10, 2023

bright young

Pamela Schumacher is the president of her sorority at Florida State University, a job she takes so seriously she doesn’t go out with her friends one Saturday night because she has too much work to do. In the early hours of the following morning this same sense of responsibility will uproot her life from its carefully laid out path, depositing her in the dark swamp of one of ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, historical fiction, suspense

All That is Mine I Carry With Me

September 12, 2023

all that is mine

The scene is cleanly set when in the simpler times of 1975 10-year-old Miranda arrives home from school to find the house locked and, after she uses the hidden key to get in, empty. Her mother should be there. Her mother is always there to greet her after school. Her car, keys, handbag all in their proper place, but Jane Larkin is gone. And that’s the last of clean, simple ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, childhood, family, literary, marriage, mystery

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane

August 18, 2023

small mercies

He has no idea where it all comes from—the loyalty and the rage, the brotherhood and the suspicion, the benevolence and the hate. If you’re looking for refined forays into the more delicate human emotions in your reading than Dennis Lehane is probably not an author you read often or at all. He’s a bareknuckle bruiser who writes about a Boston unfamiliar to anyone whose ideas ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, historical fiction, New England, suspense

Shadows of Pecan Hollow

February 17, 2022

shadows

Kit is 13 when she decides to abandon being abandoned. She’s been in foster care since she was a baby, in more homes than she can remember, but none of them has been good. Or even decent. She’s starving in every way and so takes off for a town called Pecan Hollow where an overworked social worker let her know she has family. She has no plan except to run and hide so she doesn’t ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, coming-of-age, debut, historical fiction

The Mysteries by Marisa Silver

May 7, 2021

mysteries

Set in the early 1970s The Mysteries by Marisa Silver is about Margaret Ann (Miggy), the only child of Julian and Jean Brenneman. They married in their early 20s so he could avoid the Vietnam War draft and Miggy was born when Jean ran out of birth control pills. Not necessarily an auspicious beginning for a marriage or having children, but they’ve settled into their own version ... Read More...

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Filed Under: Book Reviews, Fiction Tagged: 1970s, book clubs, childhood, literary

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