The Boston Girl 

by Anita Diamant

 

Synopsis:

An unforgettable coming-of-age novel about family ties and values, friendship and feminism told through the eyes of a young Jewish woman growing up in Boston in the early twentieth century.

Addie Baum is The Boston Girl, born in 1900 to immigrant parents who were unprepared for and suspicious of America and its effect on their three daughters. Growing up in the North End, then a teeming multicultural neighborhood, Addie's intelligence and curiosity take her to a world her parents can't imagine - a world of short skirts, movies, celebrity culture and new opportunities for women. Addie wants to finish high school and dreams of going to college. She wants a career and to find true love.

Eighty-five-year-old Addie tells the story of her life to her twenty-two-year-old granddaughter, who has asked her "How did you get to be the woman you are today?" She begins in 1915, the year she found her voice and made friends who would help shape the course of her life. From the one-room tenement apartment she shared with her parents and two sisters, to the library group for girls she joins at a neighborhood settlement house, to her first, disastrous love affair, Addie recalls her adventures with compassion for the naïve girl she was and a wicked sense of humor.

Written with the same attention to historical detail and emotional resonance that made Anita Diamant's previous novels bestsellers, The Boston Girl is a moving portrait of one woman’s complicated life in twentieth-century America, and a fascinating look at a generation of women finding their places in a changing world.

My Review:

I am on such a roll with fabulous historical fiction books this month. I have yet to read one that has disappointed me. The Boston Girl is no exception. 

To put it plainly it is simply a beautiful story about the life of an Russian-American Jewish girl growing up at the beginning of the 20th century in Boston. The story is told by the Boston girl herself - Addie Baum. She is now 85 years old (in 1985) and she is telling her grand daughter Eva the story of how she became the woman she is today. We learn about the challenges of not only being a Jewish girl in the North East during a time of immigration to the U.S. from places like Russia and Europe but we also learn what it was like to simply be a girl in that time. The expectations to be married and to be seen but not heard. This posed to be a challenge for Addie as she was smart and she was inquisitive. 

The overall feeling I got from her story and from her as a character is that she absolutely loved life. It made me think about how important it is to listen to the stories of those who came before us. I know that growing up, I loved hearing my grandmother's stories and if my parents were living, I would want them to share their story with my kids. You can have all of the technology and science in the world and that is a good thing, but without those stories being passed down we as humans don't know who we are and why we are here. I loved the simplicity of Addie's story not just for its basic beauty and truth but because of its relevance and importance to every woman that came after her. I can't say enough about Anita Diamant's The Boston Girl. Throughout the book and through to the end I had a big smile on my face and that is something not every book can do.

All the Stars in the Heaven 

by Adriana Trigiani 

 

Synopsis:

 

A hypnotic tale, based on a true story—that dazzles with the signature elements of her previous work—family ties, artistry, romance, adventure—and introduces an unforgettable new heroine: Loretta Young, an ambitious starlet struggling to survive in Hollywood’s dream factory

In this spectacular saga as radiant, thrilling, and beguiling as Hollywood itself, Adriana Trigiani takes us back to Tinsel Town’s golden age—an era as brutal as it was resplendent—and into the complex and glamorous world of a young actress hungry for fame and success. With meticulous, beautiful detail, Trigiani paints a rich, historical landscape of 1930s Los Angeles, where European and American artisans flocked to pursue the ultimate dream: to tell stories on the silver screen.

The movie business is booming in 1935 when twenty-one-year-old Loretta Young meets thirty-four-year-old Clark Gable on the set of The Call of the Wild. Though he’s already married, Gable falls for the stunning and vivacious young actress instantly.

Far from the glittering lights of Hollywood, Sister Alda Ducci has been forced to leave her convent and begin a new journey that leads her to Loretta. Becoming Miss Young’s assistant, the innocent and pious young Alda must navigate the wild terrain of Hollywood with fierce determination and a moral code that derives from her Italian roots. Over the course of decades, she and Loretta encounter scandal and adventure, choose love and passion, and forge an enduring bond of love and loyalty that will be put to the test when they eventually face the greatest obstacle of their lives.

Anchored by Trigiani’s masterful storytelling that takes you on a worldwide ride of adventure from Hollywood to the shores of southern Italy, this mesmerizing epic is, at its heart, a luminous tale of the most cherished ties that bind. Brimming with larger-than-life characters both real and fictional—including stars Spencer Tracy, Myrna Loy, David Niven, Hattie McDaniel and more—it is it is the unforgettable story of one of cinema’s greatest love affairs during the golden age of American movie making.

My Review:

I loved The Shoemaker's Wife which Trigiani wrote a few years ago. The immigrant story that is full of romance, struggle, and tragedy. However, I have tried to read other Trigiani books and have not really enjoyed them as much. I was a bit reluctant to read this one so soon after it was published as there are so many others on my nightstand waiting to be read. But the fact that not only did Trigiani return to the immigrant story similar to The Shoemaker's Wife along but she incorporated another of my favorite subjects - The Golden Age of Hollywood and lives of the movie-stars of the times.

This novel focuses on the brief love affair between Loretta Young and Clark Gable which resulted in the rumored child the Young family spent most of their lives trying to keep secret. I have read many accounts of what the tabloids wrote about with regards to this very short affair between these two Hollywood greats. I think Trigiani painted Gable as much more likable than the other accounts I have read. Personally, I feel that Clark Gable was a total cad but Trigiani does tell the story in a very classy and respectful way.

Loretta Young is portrayed as the good Catholic woman she was so well-known for being and the whole sordid affair as simply that - an unfortunate love affair that was just not meant to blossom further. Fantastic book with a lot of intermingling stories to include some of Hollywood's greats - Spencer Tracy, Carole Lombard, Jean Harlow, David Niven, Don Ameche, Cary Grant, and the list goes on and on. If you love stories about the old Hollywood and its great love affairs, this is one you don't want to miss. 

The Martian 

by Andy Weir 

Synopsis:

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate the planet while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded on Mars' surface, completely alone, with no way to signal Earth that he’s alive — and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone years before a rescue could arrive.

Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark's not ready to quit. Armed with nothing but his ingenuity and his engineering skills — and a gallows sense of humor that proves to be his greatest source of strength – he embarks on a dogged quest to stay alive, using his botany expertise to grow food and even hatching a mad plan to contact NASA back on Earth.

As he overcomes one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next, Mark begins to let himself believe he might make it off the planet alive – but Mars has plenty of surprises in store for him yet.

Grounded in real, present-day science from the first page to the last, yet propelled by a brilliantly ingenious plot that surprises the reader again and again, The Martian is a truly remarkable thriller: an impossible-to-put-down suspense novel that manages to read like a real-life survival tale.

My Review:

One of the best books I've read my entire life. As a reader, this is the kind of book you hope to have the opportunity to come across once or twice in your life. So, so good. Did I say just how good this was? Well, it was even better than that. The story is suspenseful, action packed and the author adds just enough wit and sarcasm to make it humorous too. 

You definitely have to have an appreciation for science to get through this book as the book has a great deal of scientific information that is beyond the scope of most... Unfortunately, I do not have that appreciation but although I am an everything science dunce I clung to the plot and the fantastic dialogue and characters to carry me through. After a while of the scientific lingo, you do eventually catch on and you may experience what I experienced - although fleeting, a sudden and satisfying feeling that perhaps I am not as scientifically dense as I thought I was. All joking aside, this truly is a fantastic book deserving of all the great accolades it has received so far. Kudos to Andy Weir and if I ever get stranded in Mars for 18 months or so, I feel I now have a guide for survival. I hope to perhaps further enhance my newly gained scientific knowledge by reading his future works. Hopefully, there will be many more to come!!!

The Seven Sisters 

by Lucinda Riley 

Synopsis: 

Maia D’Apliese and her five sisters gather together at their childhood home, “Atlantis”—a fabulous, secluded castle situated on the shores of Lake Geneva—having been told that their beloved father, who adopted them all as babies, has died. Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.

Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.

In this sweeping, epic tale of love and loss—the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven novels—Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before. 

 

My Review:

 

Wow!!! 

 

FANTASTIC. And, what a cliffhanger at the end. Can't wait to read the next installment. 

 

This was historical fiction with a great deal of mystery, romance, and mystical intrigue. Six sisters, all adopted daughters to a Swiss magnate. Each has a unique background for why and how they came to be adopted by him. Upon his sudden death, they are each given a clue as to their origins. In this first book, we follow Maia's journey to find out about her past. Maia is the oldest of the six sisters and the one who inspired Mr. D'Apliese (known to the girls as Pa Salt because of his love of the ocean and sailing) to adopt her other five sisters. Maia leaves the comfort of the island estate (Atlantis) off the coast of Lake Geneva to travel across the world to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where she will learn her familial connection to the building of the iconic Christ the Redeemer statue atop Corcovado mountain. While in Brazil, Maia finds that her story starts in the 1920s and 1930s during the design and building of the Christ when her great-grandmother, Izabela, was a young high-society girl of 17. We learn about the love affair with the French sculptor Laurent Brouilly that turns her life around leading to the birth and adoption of Maia a couple of generations later. I have never read a book that took place in Brazil and this was an amazing experience. The descriptions of life and the scenery of Rio was incredible. This book was hard to put down as it was mesmerizing and the story and characters were so exotic. It has a great lead into the next book which tells the story of the second sister. Can't wait to read it! 

Go Set a Watchman

by Harper Lee

Synopsis:

 
Maycomb, Alabama. Twenty-six-year-old Jean Louise Finch--"Scout"--returns home from New York City to visit her aging father, Atticus. Set against the backdrop of the civil rights tensions and political turmoil that were transforming the South, Jean Louise's homecoming turns bittersweet when she learns disturbing truths about her close-knit family, the town and the people dearest to her. Memories from her childhood flood back, and her values and assumptions are thrown into doubt. Featuring many of the iconic characters from To Kill a Mockingbird, Go Set a Watchman perfectly captures a young woman, and a world, in a painful yet necessary transition out of the illusions of the past--a journey that can be guided only by one's conscience.

My Review:

I absolutely loved it and was never disappointed as I read many of the reviewers state. This story is so well written and does not rely on what we learn about Scout and Atticus in To Kill a Mockingbird (which, by the way, I absolutely loved and will remain one of my very favorite books EVER). This story stands alone and does so brilliantly. Go Set a Watchman is about what happens to us all as we get older and we are forming our own points of views and making sense of the world around us. Jean Louise (Scout) is no longer the little girl who views the world around her through her father's lessons about right and wrong. Now, she is a young woman (mid-20s) who has left Maycomb, Alabama and experienced life away at college and then established herself as an adult in New York City. Her views have broadened, but her resolve about the treatment of people as equals (regardless of race or color) is ever stronger. She is torn between a South that is still talking about blacks as "inferior" and willing to fight the efforts of the then newly established NAACP. 

One day, she finds that her father (whom she idolizes) is in attendance at a Council meeting directed at what she believes to be a rally in support of a racist agenda. Her father is likely to represent Calpurnia's (the black nanny that raised her in the absence of her own monther) grandson in a murder charge after he accidentally runs over a white man with his car. Jean-Louise starts to see that if Atticus is in support of those in the Council who want to oppose the NAACP, how could he fairly defend Cal's grandson without any racist motivations. This makes her question her own upbringing and the validity of the very lessons she felt he taught her and formed her way of thinking. She is seeing the reality of the Southern mentality first-hand, and as an adult. My favorite character in this book is Atticus' brother (Scout's uncle) who teaches Jean-Louise that to expect tolerance, one has to be tolerant of others' views even if they don't coincide with our own. Of course for the sake of keeping this review concise, I am certain I am not doing that very important interaction between Jean-Louise and her uncle the justice it deserves and the book is worth reading over and over again just for that fantastic chapter at the end of the book. 

For me, Harper Lee will forever be one of the most amazing writers of my lifetime. Not just because of To Kill a Mockingbird but because of Go Set a Watchman and the real characters she brings us in Scout, Atticus, Calpurnia and even Alexandra (a true Southern woman of her time). I would ask that when you read this book, don't hold it up to To Kill a Mockingbird. I've said this before, books are like children - they may come from the same person but they are unique and should stand alone and not be compared to each other. Each has their own merits and beauty to share with the world.

A Hundred Summers

by Beatriz Williams

Synopsys:

Memorial Day, 1938: New York socialite Lily Dane has just returned with her family to the idyllic oceanfront community of Seaview, Rhode Island, expecting another placid summer season among the familiar traditions and friendships that sustained her after heartbreak.

That is, until Greenwalds decide to take up residence in Seaview.

Nick and Budgie Greenwald are an unwelcome specter from Lily’s past: her former best friend and her former fiancé, now recently married—an event that set off a wildfire of gossip among the elite of Seaview, who have summered together for generations. Budgie’s arrival to restore her family’s old house puts her once more in the center of the community’s social scene, and she insinuates herself back into Lily's friendship with an overpowering talent for seduction...and an alluring acquaintance from their college days, Yankees pitcher Graham Pendleton. But the ties that bind Lily to Nick are too strong and intricate to ignore, and the two are drawn back into long-buried dreams, despite their uneasy secrets and many emotional obligations.

My Review:

Beatriz Williams achieves perfection once again. I just can't get enough of her wonderful characters and this book does not disappoint. Once again, it is the dialogue that drew me in and a fabulous plot that kept me reading. What I found really interesting about this novel is that I kept forgetting that it takes place in the 1930s. The situations and the drama of the story would translate equally well in a novel set in modern time. However, it is that romanticism of old times that gives BWs novels the charm and beauty which appeals to those of us who thoroughly immerse ourselves in historical fiction. This novel is about the secrets that do not evade us nor the drama we don't seems to associate with the seemingly idyllic lives of the upper crust. Summers in New Hampshire and winters in NYC is the life of privilege Lilly and her friends enjoy. But, even with great privilege and access there are the darker, not talked about situations (adultery, bigotry, debauchery, sexual abuse, black mail, manipulation, etc.) that make for gossip and drama. 

This novel has beautiful socialites, a famous Yankees player, a renown architect, rich lawyers and other very colorful characters that will keep you entertained from beginning to end. 

I am very anxious now to read The Infinite Sea and the many more (hopefully) novels Beatriz Williams will brilliantly pen.