The Chelsea Hotel is the spot for artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers, and poets. Hazel Riley, a scene playwright, and actress Maxine Mead can't wait to get started on something amazing. But they're learning that it's not their lack of talent that's getting them nowhere, it's politics. A Red scare is sweeping across America, and a witch hunt for Communists has begun. The pressure to name names is building, and it's more than their Broadway dreams that will shatter. The Chelsea Girls spans from the 1940's to the 1960's. I'm not sure what I can say differently about this book from her others. They're all consistently wonderful and solid and it's safe to say that this author will never disappoint, ever! The ability to take me back to a place and time I've never lived in and allowing me to experience it so richly just amazes me. As with her other books I had to look up pictures and people and there's a lot of fee...

Miranda Schuyler is eighteen years old when she arrives on elite, secretive Winthrop Island in Long Island Sound. Her beautiful mother is about to marry Hugh Fisher whose summer house on the Island overlooks the famous lighthouse. Miranda's new stepsister, Isobel, is eager to draw her into the customs of their society. The Fisher's fall into the wealthy summer families while the other clan on the Island are the working class Portuguese fishermen and domestic workers who earn their living on the water and from those who summer on the Island. Fast forward nearly two decades later to the first time Miranda has returned to the Island since a murder caused her to flee. She wants to clear the name of the man she met and fell in love with as a teenager even if it means uncovering all the messy secrets that bind the families of Winthrop Island together. I feel like my reviews of Beatriz Williams books are all the same. She's my favourite author and can do no wrong. Ev...

It's 1928 and twenty-five-year-old Clara Darden is teaching at the Grand Central School of Art. But it's not without its challenges as most people don't want to be taught by a woman. But Clara is fierce and determined and she isn't afraid to work hard for what she wants. Unfortunately Clara and her friends have no idea of what's to come with the Great Depression. Having no job, no money and no food won't be the worst things for Clara. Now, in 1974, Grand Central terminal is run down. It's dirty and dangerous, and it's at the center of a lawsuit - is the once-grand building a landmark to be preserved or is it to be demolished? Virginia Clay is a recently divorced mother whose last resort is to take a job in the information booth in order to support herself and her daughter Ruby. Taking a wrong turn, Virginia stumbles upon an old abandoned art school within the terminal. She finds a watercolour hidden under the dust which sets her on a quest t...

In war-torn London, 1941, fourteen-year-old Ruth Goldberg and her two younger siblings, Gabi and Hannah, survive the bombing of their family home but their parents are believed to be dead, buried under the rubble. They don't know that their father has been taken to the hospital with amnesia. Years later, Ruth stumbles across a newspaper photo of a celebrated pianist who looks exactly like her father. The only way to find out for sure is to write him a letter, and as the pianist's memories surface, his new life begins to fall apart. I didn't enjoy this as much as I thought I would. I did like the early days - with the Goldberg's as a whole, and as poor Ruth had to stay with aunt Fenella and uncle Harry while her younger siblings went to stay with aunt Betty. The characters were okay. The concept was interesting. I liked the setting. But I found it long and drawn-out. Once I put the book down I didn't really want to pick it back up. I'm happy it's...

Jakób Kowalski is planting a bomb on the train tracks shortly before the train passes by, his only problem is that it was the wrong train. Fighting with the Polish resistance against Germany and Russia, their intent was to destroy a German troop transport, not destroy a train going to Auschwitz. On that train was six-year-old Gretl Schmidt. Although she is spared from the concentration camp, she is now an orphaned German Jew who finds herself lost in a country hostile to her people. Jakób's guilt and compassion allow Gretl to stay with him for three years and the pair form a strong bond. But Jakób believes Gretl will have better opportunities in South Africa where German war orphans are promised bright futures with adoptive Protestant families - so long as her Jewish roots, Catholic education and connections to communist Poland are never discovered. Poor Gretl. She had been through a lot but she was determined and headstrong and I couldn't help but root for her to have some hap...

Twenty-three-year-old Tess DeMello is engaged to the love of her life. Their wedding day is getting close. So it doesn't make sense to her fiancé when she abruptly ends their engagement and runs off to marry a stranger. Tess leaves Baltimore and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Her husband, Henry Kraft, is secretive and distant and he often stays out late or doesn't bother to come home at all. She doesn't fit in with the people of Hickory. They all love and respect the Kraft's and view Tess as an outsider, someone who's after his money. Unhappy in Hickory and trapped inside a loveless marriage, Tess is desperate to get her old self back which happens when a sudden polio epidemic erupts and their small town is selected as the perfect spot for a hospital. Everyone in Hickory helps build this hospital in just over two days. Against her husband's wishes Tess begins helping out as a nurse and soon finds herself very happy to be of help to the young victims. But her ...

Sara Smyth is working her way up to head housekeeper in a posh London hotel when she's offered the opportunity of a lifetime. Theodore Camden, one of the architects of The Dakota - a new apartment house in New York - offers her a job. This is a big deal for a woman in 1884. It also gives her the chance to see more of Theo as he lives in The Dakota with his wife and three children. It's 1985 and Bailey Camden is fresh out of rehab and struggling to stay sober. The former party girl and interior designer is homeless, jobless and has no money. Her cousin Melinda offers to let Bailey oversee the renovation of her Dakota apartment as well as stay there for a while. Bailey doesn't agree with Melinda's vision for the old apartment that was once owned by Melinda's own great-grandfather Theodore Camden, the same apartment where he was stabbed to death by a madwoman and former Dakota employee named Sara Smyth.  Even though one hundred years separate Sara and Bailey, they ...

Headstrong Virginia Fortescue leaves her home and what's left of her family behind in New York City and begins driving an ambulance in France during World War I. While there she falls in love with a charismatic British army surgeon and as they begin a passionate love affair, she learns that Captain Simon Fitzwilliam is hiding secrets of his own. Five years later and newly widowed Virginia Fitzwilliam has just arrived in Cocoa Beach, Florida to settle her husband's estate. There was a house fire, and while his brother confirmed it was indeed Simon inside the house, Virginia has her doubts that he's really dead. After all, Simon was cunning and kept his share of secrets from her - secrets that ruined their marriage and had Virginia fleeing back to New York very early on. But now she needs to uncover the truth, not for herself, but for the sake of their daughter. I didn't find this one as good as her others. It goes back and forth between when Virginia met and fell in love...

Sixteen-year-old Ellie Baum and her classmates are visiting Germany. When she spots a red balloon, she tells her best friend to take a picture so she can show her grandfather when she returns to the United States. But by grabbing that red balloon Ellie is taken back in time to East Berlin in 1988. There she meets members of an organization who use balloons and magic to help people escape over the wall to West Berlin. But to the balloon makers, Ellie’s time travel is a mystery. Eventually it becomes clear that someone is using dark magic to change history and Ellie wants to do everything she can to stop them, even if it means never returning home again. There are three points-of-view: Ellie's when she briefly travels to Germany in present time then travels back to 1988 where the rest of her story is told, Kai's who is a Runner, someone who helps people get over the wall, and Benno's back in the 1940's in a Polish ghetto. This is such an interesting concept - using balloo...

A young boy named Dong-ho is one of many who have been killed in the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea. Interconnected chapters tell the stories of the victims and the bereaved - Dong-ho's best friend who has also been killed; Dong-ho's mother; an editor struggling against censorship; a prisoner; a factory worker. Each one of these people are suffering from their own traumatic memories. This is a fictional account of the 1980 Gwangju uprising. It is told in six chapters from six different points-of-view. I did not like how the first chapter was written. The second chapter was pretty good. I didn't make it all the way through the third chapter. I found this book jumped around too much and I wasn't interested enough to figure out what was going on. It was tedious and a chore to read.  DNF @ 44%. 1/5.

It's the late 1990's and Ella Hawthorne has just discovered her husband cheating on her and impulsively moves out of their home and into a tiny apartment in an old Greenwich Village building. After going down to do her laundry in the basement early one morning, her good-looking neighbour Hector advises her to stay out of the basement at night. The space next to the laundry room used to be a speakeasy in the '20's and laughter, clinking glasses, and jazz music can still be heard to this day. It's the 1920's and Gin Kelly, a saucy redhead, has moved from the hills of western Maryland to the Big Apple where she gets caught up in a raid at a speakeasy known as the Christopher Club. She also gets caught up in a love triangle between a rugged, strait-laced Prohibition enforcement agent and a Princeton boy from a well-known, well-to-do family. Prohibition enforcement agent Oliver Anson persuades Gin to help catch her stepfather Duke Kelly, one of Appalachia’s major alc...

Marvellous Ways is in her ninetieth year. For nearly all her life she has lived alone in a remote Cornish creek. She's been spending her days sitting by the river with her telescope, waiting for something but not yet sure what that something could be. Drake is a young soldier who has survived the Second World War. He has promised to fulfil a dying man's last wish to deliver a letter to his father. When that doesn't go exactly as planned, he finds himself at Marvellous Ways' creek where the two form an unbreakable bond. Because of the way it's written it took me a while to get into. But Marvellous is such an interesting woman with so many stories to tell. I loved the peaceful setting of the creek - the flowers and the creatures that lived there. I also loved how simple things seemed magical, like the sea or how memories go into making bread. Like her previous novel "When God Was a Rabbit" I don't find it a memorable book but I enjoyed it as I was readin...

The Barbizon Hotel in New York City is a glamorous place for women where models, secretaries, and editors live while trying to claw their way to success until they can find themselves a husband. The year is 1952 and Darby McLaughlin has arrived at the Barbizon Hotel to stay while she attends Katharine Gibbs secretarial school. But she doesn't fit in and the secretarial work is boring. Darby befriends a maid from the Barbizon and together they hang out in a seedy jazz club called the Flatted Fifth until all hours of the night. But it's not all fun and games for long. Present day - the Barbizon is no longer a hotel but a condo. Rose Lewin is a journalist living there. She's on the fifth floor while the old women who've lived there since it was a hotel live on the fourth floor. She becomes interested in one woman in particular after she hears a juicy story about Darby's involvement in a deadly skirmish back in the 50's. She becomes obsessed with uncovering this wom...

I would love to go to Italy. I thought this book might take me there, but it only put me to sleep. The story was soooooo slooooooow. I can't even tell you what it was about. I'd read a sentence several times - my mind was wandering. It didn't keep my interest at all. DNF @ 34%. 

Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is starting her new life in Ceylon with her new husband Laurence. He's rich - the owner of a tea plantation - and charming and Gwen is in love. But life in Ceylon isn't quite what she expected. The plantation workers aren't very nice and Laurence seems to be hiding a few things from her. And eventually Gwen will come to have a secret of her own - and it's a doozy. I feel like this book took forever for me to get through. There's too many words, it's overly descriptive, the characters aren't very interesting, and absolutely nothing happens! 

Ivy Baygren loves her husband, Adam, and their bungalow that's in one of the oldest neighbourhoods in Salt Lake City. She loves the quaint details and the rose bush called Emmeline Rose after one of the home's original inhabitants. When Adam would renovate their home and find treasures left behind from previous owners, he would call them "Easter Eggs" But Adam has unexpectedly died and it's up to Ivy to finish the home improvement projects they had planned. As she does so, she finds more Easter Eggs and uncovers clues about the women who have lived in the house throughout its one hundred years - the young Mormon torn between following her heart and her anti-polygamist beliefs, the Greek immigrant during World War II, a troubled single mother in the 1960's. As she learns about their lives, she also learns that there is a little sad in every story. The cover is beautiful. I loved the concept of the book and enjoyed learning about each of the five women connected...

It's 1926 and Canadian-born, American-raised Maisie Musgrave is living in London. She's very excited to land a job as a secretary at the British Broadcasting Corporation. Radio is still new and although some people don't like it, it is captivating the nation. Maisie falls in love with her job - the hectic pace, arranging broadcasts by the most influential people in Britain, working alongside smart minds of the BBC. It's here that she finds her voice and blossoms into a confident and capable young woman. But there is growing conflict between Maisie's two bosses. John Reith has a very different opinion than Hilda Matheson when it comes to what the BBC should be airing. But no matter what happens, Maisie is determined to let her work speak for her. The author makes you feel as though you're in London during the years after WWI when radio was just catching on but had to be censored, when women had just won the right to vote and had jobs other than secretarial ones. ...

Izzy Stone is seventeen. Her mother fatally shot her father while he slept ten years ago and she has refused to visit her in prison. She was living with her grandmother until she passed away and has been with several foster families. But her new foster parents seem great. They're curators at the local museum and have asked for Izzy's help cataloging the items found inside an old state asylum. The asylum makes her uncomfortable as it makes her think of her mother's "insanity." As she goes through one of the former patient's belongings she's taken to another time in search of answers. Clara Cartwright was eighteen years old in 1929 when she was sent away to a genteel home for nervous invalids; her overbearing father furious at her for rejecting an arranged marriage and falling in love with an Italian immigrant. But when he can no longer afford her care at the home after losing money in the stock market crash, Clara is committed to the asylum. This is a weird...

Cecily was only 13-years-old in the summer of '39. She was desperate to grow up and be like her older sister Rose. But something happened that summer that tore the family apart and it seemed that everyone blamed Cecily, including herself. Now, 29 years later, she has returned to the deserted family farm. She goes through her memories of that summer and remembers the good times and the bad, her innocence - bits and pieces of conversations that she was too young to fully understand. Her memories combined with things she finds in the old house finally let Cecily make sense of the past. It started off confusing and that confusion was sprinkled throughout the book - it jumped ahead or went back 29 years with no warning. I had a love/hate relationship with the writing - at times it was beautiful and at times it was way too much, unnecessary, repetitious and also confusing. It dragged in parts. But I couldn't put it down. I had to know what happened. And I loved the setting.

Young Pierrot has lost his parents, his best friend, and his dog. He must leave his life in Paris behind and start anew in Germany with his aunt Beatrix. Beatrix is the housekeeper in a wealthy household at the top of a mountain. It's not just any household, it belongs to Adolf Hitler. And the Second World War is about to break out. Over the years spent under Hitler's wing, Pieter (no longer Pierrot) is transformed from a naive little runt to a young man who worships Hitler and will do anything to please him.  This is a powerful, well-written story. Pierrot made me feel so many different emotions towards him - sympathy, disbelief, hope, disgust. He was at an impressionable age, had no other father figure, and was impressed by the uniforms then became so filled with hatred. Another great and memorable book from John Boyne.