The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray

 Quite a story about Bella da Costa Greene, the woman who worked as J.P. Morgan's personal librarian, taking over the acquisition of famous old books for his private library. An African-American, she passed as White in Racist America in order to be free to accomplish what her intelligence and talents supported. This narrative poignantly describes her daily fear of being exposed that she had to overcome to operate confidently in the male dominated, high stakes world of auctions, and to make essential contacts with the wealthy elites. Facts and fiction blend harmoniously to give the reader an appreciation for this incredible woman.

The Kitchen Front by Jennifer Ryan

Delightful, uplifting story about four women who start out as competitors and end up friends. World War 2 brings stringent food rationing to England. Learning to cook palatable food with limited ingredients is difficult so the Ministry of Food provides recipes for women on the "kitchen front". Competitions become a significant entertainment and this story describes in delicious detail, a competition to choose a co-presenter on a radio food show. Evocative descriptions of nature, honey extraction, preparation of food and scary recounting of war planes flying overhead provide the reader with a visceral experience of life in England on the home front.

Something Worth Doing by Jane Kirkpatrick

 An inspiring historical fiction about Abigail Scott Duniway, a strong accomplished woman who advocated for suffrage for women during the forty years leading up to the 19th Amendment. A pioneer, a teacher, a businesswoman, a writer, she did it all.

House of Sticks by Ly Tran

So disturbing and so poignant. This memoir of a Vietnamese refugee who arrived in New York as a three year old tells an excruciating story of a family struggling in poverty, living in an unheated apartment, and often experiencing hunger. Ly and her three older brothers attend school but then spend their evenings helping their parents produce clothing in an appalling home-based sweatshop operation. The father, a political prisoner for ten years, not infrequently lashes out at his family members which makes for additional difficulties. This story while not likely unique reveals an world of hardship and also achievement in a family sponsored to come to the United States, and then largely abandoned to pull themselves up by their bootstraps in a foreign country that makes that an onerous process. Ly Tran generously shares her childhood years with her readers in this heartfelt memoir.

 

Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira

 I did not realize this was second in a series until after I finished this absorbing mystery and provocative story. The reader can pretty soon guess who the culprits are but the gripping part of this book is the engaging backstory and  character development, and then the gripping courtroom drama that starts with one person on trial, and then eventually brings two more into the spectacle. The horrific crime is front and center, and as the full extent is revealed, the denouement becomes spellbinding. Recommended. 

Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini

 This is an incredible story featuring women belonging to the Rote Kapelle, a group resisting Nazism in the years leading up to World War 2. The book focuses on Intellectuals, some with pro-communism sympathies, who passed on information about the Nazi military buildup and intentions to the outside world, eventually sending significant information to the Soviet Union about Hitler's intention to invade. This is historical fiction at its very best because the women, only one of whom is fictional come across as developed characters that engage the reader while the historical events provide a context that is both gripping and horrific.

The Broken Circle: A Memoir of Escaping Afghanistan by Enjeela Ahmadi-Miller

This is a very heart-wrenching account of one family's multi-year escape from Afghanistan during the Soviet occupation and war. There are some lovely descriptive passages and references to the poetry this family share with so much pleasure. Unfortunately, it is narrated by an 8-10-year-old girl and appears at times to be too informed by adult perspectives to be natural and the very difficult journey through the mountains and weeks of enforced hiding in rural Afghan villages becomes somewhat repetitive. Nevertheless, there is a visceral experience for readers that provides an important understanding of the horrors that many refugees suffer escaping from the endless wars taking place around our world. 

The Puma Years by Laura Coleman

This memoir is a very graphic account of time spent working in an animal sanctuary in the Amazon jungle. The living conditions are harsh and primitive but the author conveys the passion she developed for a rescued puma she took care of in an intense daily regime for three months. The impact of this initial experience becomes a lifelong commitment to rescuing and protecting animal victims of the exotic pet trade. 

Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-first Century by Jessica Bruder

  I just finished reading this astounding story of a new group of Americans who roam our country in diverse types of RVs, converted vans, retired school buses, even a Prius, picking up seasonal work to earn gas money and purchase essential supplies, and developing an extensive network of online contacts and support systems, and forging new friendships in shared camping spots. Primarily in their fifties to eighties, these people jettisoned from the largely diminished Middle Class now maintain campgrounds by cleaning toilets, shoveling out firepits, and dealing with obstreperous campers, work for Amazon, walking easily fifteen or more miles on concrete floors while stowing, or retrieving products for shipping to the many consumers who power this mighty corporation or pick fruits and vegetables. The author does not present this story as a sad story. Instead, she introduces her readers to a truly amazing group of people who are creating a functioning lifestyle from the horrible consequences of greedy uncaring Capitalism.

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The Story of More by Hope Jahren

 The author of Lab Girl takes on the subject of Climate Change. She provides a detailed chronicle of the dire consequences the World faces as we continue our horrific consumption of fossil fuel and the conspicuous overconsumption of habitat and resources by the developed nations like the United States. I wish she had acknowledged more the impact of human overpopulation since that is also a dramatic contributor to the dire future she outlines so informatively. Fortunately, she ends with some very specific steps each individual can take to begin to change their consumption patterns. She claims she is hopeful and offers the students she teaches some of her hope. 

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Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar

 This story of an American woman who travels with her Kurdish partner to his homeland to attend a family wedding is painfully visceral. A photographer, she takes what she knows are poignant shots but she also misses other shots as she escapes dangerous incidents, and becomes immersed in observing and experiencing the daily fears and suffering of the family members she lives with on this eye-opening visit to a country beset by sectarian violence. She spends much time musing over her relationship with the man she loves and questioning their ability to remain committed given their significant cultural differences.

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The Exiles by Christina Baker Kline

  The story about the women who are exiled to the Australian continent for myriad infractions ranging from theft to prostitution even murder is interesting, poignant, and memorable. The horrible conditions they face during transport and subsequently in prison is sad but it is also very much an important part of the history of this continent. The inclusion of the side story of an aboriginal orphan seemed peripheral and incomplete and did not work for me as part of this story. The story of the horrific treatment of Aboriginal people is an important story that cannot be used as a side story or comparison to that of the "Exiles". 

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The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah

  

 

“The world can be changed by a handful of courageous people. Today we fight on behalf of those who are afraid. We fight for a living wage.” A character named Jack, a union organizer, speaks these words near the end of this poignant novel about the horrible advent of the Dust Bowl and the desperate migration of families to California. And this novel certainly describes the devastating consequences of greedy farm owners exploiting their impoverished workers, and with company stores further driving them into a form of slavery. Can the workers be galvanized into fighting for their rights? The main character however is a woman who was denied love by her horrible birth family and only finds love with her unexpected in-laws and her two children. She works fiercely alongside her in-laws to maintain their land and livestock during relentless years of drought and dust storms. Eventually, this love leads her to abandon her home state of Texas and travel to California, seeking a safer, healthier environment for her two children. The underlying theme for this narrative is the strength of this love that drives her life force and quietly impacts those around her. At times, the narrative is relentlessly sad and grim but it also conveys the power of love that drives people to keep struggling, to venture forth to an unknown future, and to embrace dangerous activities to seek justice for their children and in a larger context for others in similar circumstances. This story also represents a truth for today when the rich get ever richer while many workers struggle to raise families on stagnant minimum wages. Eighty years later, people still struggle to survive in a society weighted toward the wealthy. Words penned by the author stick with me as I bid this novel goodbye.  “The Four winds have blown us here, people from all across the country, to the very edge of this great land, and now, at last, we make our stand, fight for what we know to be right. We fight for our American dream that it will be possible again” A paean to the future.

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Paper Daughters of Chinatown by Heather B. Moore

 Poignant historical fiction that reveals the horrific sex slave trade by Chinese Tongs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Young women and even girls were kidnapped or bought from impoverished families that were assured their daughters would marry well but were actually brought to America to work in brothels. A young woman named Donaldina "Dolly" Cameron is seeking a way to engage in some meaningful activity since she has not yet married like her older siblings and accepts a job to teach young Chinese girls how to sew, with the intent that they can obtain secure employment. She soon learns about the terrible circumstances that have traumatized the young women and girls she encounters at the Occidental Mission House in San Francisco and begins to actively participate in their rescue. A fast, compelling read!

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The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles

Fascinating narrative describing the brave existence of the American Library of Paris during the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War 2. A diminished staff, as many of foreign origin, were forced to return to their home countries, worked hard to provide continued library service to their subscribers, including those who were Jewish and were no longer allowed access. Delivering books to those forbidden access was a dangerous act of resistance to the German occupiers. Horrible letters of denunciation by anonymous Parisians provided a revealing flavor of the bigoted greed that so often emerges during wartime and military occupation. A Jewish subscriber would be outed and arrested only to have their residence soon occupied by a collaborator. The main character is a young French librarian and reveals her story unfolding both in Paris during the war, and also as an older woman, now living in America. The author provides a note, detailing her research and also providing some follow-up to the lives of some of the significant individuals associated with the library. Wonderful historical fiction that is both informative and poignant. the definite article More (Definitions, Synonyms, Translation)

The Whispers of War by Julia Kelly

Three women became best friends while attending a boarding school in England, and this absorbing story looks back at their dramatic life-changing events and interactions at the beginning of World War 2. The surviving 103-year-old Nora relates them to the granddaughter of recently deceased German-born Marie, who faced bigotry and possible internment as Hitler marched across Europe and the British became increasingly hostile to German immigrants regardless of the longevity of their residence in England. This well written historical fiction imparts a vivid flavor of a horrible consequence of wartime fervor and fear for ordinary people suddenly made alien and unsafe in their adopted country.