I loved this book! A heartbreakingly beautiful story of love, loyalty, and survival told against the backdrop of two World’s Fairs in Seattle: the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific exposition of 1909 and the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair. Ernest, Fahn, and Maisie are three children who find their way to the Tenderloin – a high class brothel in Seattle’s red light district – in the early 1900s. Each has their own haunting back story but they are united by a strong drive to survive and a deep caring for each other. This is a coming of age story, told in alternating segments with Ernest’s story in 1962. The mood painted is wistful, a little sad, and replete with innocence slowly seeping away and being replaced by kindness, defiance, and determination.
Fans of historical fiction will enjoy the attention to detail Ford gives to the mood and surroundings of the two time periods. Events such as Halley’s Comet, the Panama Canal, the rights of women to vote, and the details of Seattle mayoral races and their impact on the moral structure of the city are sprinkled throughout the tale. Fans of literary fiction will enjoy the delicious writing which infuses mood and sentiment throughout a plot that describes historically accurate events and the impact on a diverse set of characters. Each character – from the primaries to the secondaries – are interesting, well drawn, and bring a unique perspective to the story. All and all a great read.
trying to save the world from falling apart but with very different views of what the end state should look like and how to get there. A great extrapolation from the current bay area residents! The stars of both camps happened to be miserable together as complete outcasts during middle school and may be falling in love even as it all comes to a head. Full of surprises, interesting characters, and tugs of familiarity. I didn’t really enjoy the first few chapters which focussed on the middle school start but loved it once they grew up and had lives and the real (to me) story started. Definitely worth a read.
The latest Maisie Dobbs book (the 12th in the series) is every bit as captivating as the earlier books, after a couple of somewhat disappointing titles. Maisie is back on her home turf, tackling a set of disturbing murders that are rooted in events from the first world war even as England declares itself at war with Germany on the eve of the second world war. Winspear perfectly captures the mood of the time – children being evacuated, schools converted to hospitals and barracks, gas masks always at the ready, and the younger generation excited about enlisting while the older generation, still recovering from the losses of the first war, despair. I love the way the series has progressed through history, drawing from historical events to provide the motivations for crimes and I love her characters who feel like old friends.
This book won the 
mystery from my ALA haul. Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall by Hannah Dennison. Readable, ok characters, a little stupid. It’s a little irritating that much is being made of a kind of connection to “Downton Abbey” but it’s really a tenuous connection at best. A manor house figures not too prominently in the story and a young girl takes a position as a maid in the house in order to better prepare herself for an audition for the Downton Abbey series. That’s it! Pleasant enough read if you like cozies. Didn’t stress me out before bedtime 🙂
el meanders from there – as life tends to do – exploring characters as they wander down surprising tracks, learning about themselves as they make do with what they have and the opportunities they create for themselves in their chaotic world. I hadn’t heard of Lissa Evans before – she has written books for both adults and children, some of which have been shortlisted for various prizes, but this is her first book to be published in the U.S. Thank you Harper Collins!
