The Book Whisperer RECOMMENDS The Phoenix Crown!

Authors Janie Chang and Kate Quinn

What happens when two bestselling authors team up to write historical fiction? The result is a rousing novel set in San Francisco before, during, and after the 1906 earthquake that rocked the city. Kate Quinn and Janie Chang, two authors I admire and enjoy, wrote The Phoenix Crown set in San Francisco.

Quinn and Chang bring to life many characters, particularly Gemma, a rising opera star from nowhere, and Suling, a Chinese American who is a talented embroideress. These two people would be unlikely to meet except for a series of circumstances that bring the two together. Along with these two main characters, readers will meet other important people in Gemma’s and Suling’s lives.

Gemma’s talent as an opera singer allows her to meet the wealthy and influential Henry Thornton. Suling’s family does the laundry for Thornton. As a result, Thornton becomes the conduit for the two women of such disparate worlds not only to meet but also to become allies and friends.

Gemma and Suling both suffer from abuses brought on by men in their lives. Too, they are both seeking to reunite with a friend they have in common. Alice Eastwood, another woman with a mission, is also in Thornton’s orbit. She is a curator of botany at the California Academy of Sciences. She is determined to identify plants and keep some from extinction; the earthquake only intensifies her desire to save the plants.

Readers know the earthquake is impending and that knowledge serves to heighten the tension in the novel. Along with the earthquake, tensions continue to grow for Gemma and Suling as they learn the truth about Thornton and their missing friend.

Surviving the earthquake itself is no small feat. Then escaping Thornton’s clutches becomes the next hurdle because he is ruthless and heartless, considering only his own needs and his survival. He doesn’t realize the ingenuity of the women he is trying to harm, however.

Read The Phoenix Crown for a bit of history and a rousing good story of women who seek justice after they have been badly wronged. Quinn and Chang do not shy away from tough topics: arranged marriage, racism, and sexism. Because of their tackling such topics, book club members will find much to discuss.

The Book Whisperer Enjoys a YA Novel & Recommends It!

I’m leading a Zoom book club with friends living in Texas and Oklahoma. Finding the right book for the monthly discussions is both a privilege and a joy, yet it is also work! I must read the book to determine if it makes a good fit for our group. Oh, dear! I must read the book! You can see that I jest since reading is a primary function of my life. Recently, I read The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee. I do think it is a good fit for our discussion and will choose it for the near future.

The Downstairs Girl has been a Reese’s Book Club YA Pick and a New York Times Bestseller. Those accolades were enough to persuade me to read the book. Still, the book had to stand on its own for me to choose it for one of our discussions. It does that—stand on its own.

Seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan is a talented hatmaker, but Mrs. English, her cruel employer, fires her without warning one day. Not only does Mrs. English fire Jo, but she tells Jo she has told the other hatmakers in town they should not hire Jo because she is Asian and because she is a “saucebox.” Old Gin, the man who has raised Jo, tells Jo she can return to the Payne household as a lady’s maid to Caroline, the Payne’s cruel and mean-spirited daughter. Jo grew up with Caroline because Old Gin works as a stable hand and horse trainer for the Paynes. Even as a child, Caroline was often cruel to Jo and frequently reminded Jo of “her place,” that is lower in status than Caroline’s.

Readers will sympathize with Jo and Old Gin because they encounter racial prejudice every day in Atlanta, GA, just as their Black counterparts do. Jo and Old Gin barely get by on their minuscule wages. In fact, they live under the Bells’ print shop, a fact known only to Jo and Old Gin. The Bells own and run a local newspaper. Where Jo and Old Gin live used to be a hiding place for slaves attempting to escape. There is a “listening tube” to the underground space from the print shop above.

Jo has used that listening tube to eavesdrop on conversations. Those conversations have helped her improve her English and understand the world around her. Now, she overhears the Bells talking about the need to raise their subscriptions by 2000 to stay in business. Of course, if the Bells close the newspaper and sell their property, Jo and Old Gin will be in jeopardy of losing their secret dwelling.

Jo hears Mrs. Bell and her son Nathan talking about ways to improve subscriptions. They believe adding an agony aunt column will help garner a larger readership. Jo, the saucebox, sees an opportunity to use her wit and opinions to help the Bells and thus keep her home. She writes a letter and slips it anonymously into the Bells’ letterbox. She says she would like to contribute regular letters but remain anonymous. She doesn’t even want to be paid.

Jo’s columns do begin to increase the subscriptions, and she also receives many letters in response to the column.  As Jo works for the Paynes as Caroline’s maid, she listens to conversations and uses some of what she hears in her columns for the Bells. Other problems arise when Billy Riggs, local criminal, begins threatening Old Gin and Jo.

Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that The Downstairs Girl offers readers several surprises that fit well into the story. It also has a satisfying ending that does not neatly tie up all the pieces, but it gives readers pleasure. Book club members will have much to discuss including racial prejudice and its terrors, education, what it means to be a “saucebox,” and genuine care for one another.

The Book Whisperer is Delighted With a Pastiche of Pride and Prejudice: Pride and Premeditation

Since I am always on the prowl for a new author to discover, I am delighted to tell readers that I recently discovered Tirzah Price, who writes for young adults. I read Pride and Premeditation, a pastiche of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. In Price’s story, readers will delight in the same characters that Austen created along with the same period in history.

Price has made Mr. Bennet a barrister, an expert in business law. Mr. Collins, set to inherit the business because the Bennets have only daughters, is a clerk, learning the law and expecting to be a solicitor some day with grandiose plans to become a barrister and eventually Queen’s Counsel. Lizzy longs to be a solicitor herself, but that dream is not likely to be fulfilled because of the restrictions on women at the time.

Price has made Mr. Collins as odious in Pride and Premeditation as he was in Pride and Prejudice. Early in the story as Mr. Collins tries to woo Lizzy, much to her mother’s delight, Lizzy quotes a line from Shakespeare to him: “I do wish that we could become better strangers.”

When Mr. Bingley is accused of murdering his ne’er-do-well brother-in-law, Hurst, Lizzy is determined to prove to her father that she is capable of working for his firm. She is also interested in seeing justice done because she quickly comes to believe in Bingley’s innocence after she does some sleuthing in Bingley’s and Hurst’s households. To muddy the waters, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy and his father’s law firm are representing Bingley in the pursuit of justice.

Darcy sees Lizzy as a buzzing fly in the ointment and resents her interference until she proves that she is more than an irritant and that she can help prove Bingley’s innocence. The story moves along quickly and offers readers some heart-stopping moments as Lizzy gets more than she bargains for and trusts one person she should not have trusted.

The story is delightful, and I highly recommend it. The second book in the series is Sense and Second-Degree Murder. In it, Elinor Dashwood and Marianne, her sister, work to solve their father’s murder. Manslaughter Park is the third book; it features Fanny Price at her uncle’s estate. Fanny decides to uncover the truth about the Bertram family business, blackmail, and more. In Manslaughter Park, Lizzy Bennet and Fitzwilliam Darcy also appear.

Reading Pride and Premeditation along with Pride and Prejudice would make a delightful book club discussion.

The Book Whisperer is Disappointed

Readers all know not every book is for everyone. For me, a recent book that has not appealed to me is Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal. The book is well-written, but I had trouble caring about the characters or understanding some of their motivation. Although Publishers Weekly indicates “Macneal successfully balances thrilling action sequences with poignant passages,” I did not find that to be true for me. Yes, there are some dramatic moments; since I had no investment in the characters and their lives, I did not find the action thrilling or dramatic. The reviewer at Publishers Weekly goes on to write that Macneal “brings her fully developed characters to life.” Perhaps that is true for other readers.

Macneal never makes it clear to me why Jasper Jupiter, the show’s owner and master of ceremonies, thinks Nell will make a good addition to his show. Macneal describes her minimally as having birthmarks. Nell recognizes that townspeople ogle her and talk about her birthmarks; is that enough for Jasper to add her to his “freak show”? Jasper builds a story around Nell and fits her with heavy metal wings for her flights above the crowd.

In the 1860s in England, there is an insatiable appetite for the unusual and the weird—some of which are manufactured. Even Queen Victoria is interested in such human oddities.

The story becomes more complex when Nell becomes so famous that Queen Victoria requests that Nell visit the palace after the Queen attends a performance of the Circus of Wonders. Jasper feels slighted and is angry that Nell is invited and yet he is not. That slight starts the characters on a path toward destruction.

Readers will have to determine for themselves if Circus of Wonders lives up to the Publishers Weekly’s hype. For me, the story falls short.

The Book Whisperer Enjoys & Recommends The Paper Girl of Paris

As the leader of a Zoom book club made up of women of various ages from Turkey, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and the US, I seek out books that that will engage us—at least most of us most of the time. I know every book is not going to appeal to the everyone in the group, but we can have a lively discussion even when we disagree about the value of the book itself. In March, we are discussing The Paper Girl of Paris by Jordyn Taylor.

Like many other authors, Taylor tells the story through the present day with Alice in Paris with her parents and the past through Alice’s great aunt’s experiences. Alice’s beloved grandmother, Chloe, left a Paris apartment to Alice in her will. Alice and her parents travel to Paris to see the apartment. To their surprise, the apartment looks just as it did when WWII ended except that everything is covered in dust.

After a cleaning company thoroughly cleans the apartment, Alice begins exploring to discover what she can about her grandmother’s past. Her grandmother had kept secret her life in Paris, so Alice is stunned to discover Chloe, her grandmother, had an older sister, Adalyn.

For years, Adalyn and Chloe have been very close. When the Nazis invade Paris and take over the city, Chloe and Adalyn grow apart because Adalyn is keeping a dangerous secret: she is working for the resistance. She fears that if she tells her parents or even her sister that she will put them in danger as well as herself.

Complicating Alice’s research is her limited knowledge of French and her mother’s mood swings. As Alice translates Adalyn’s journal, she learns of her great-grandfather’s similar mood swings and depression.

As she explores Paris, Alice discovers a coffee shop and bakery where she meets Paul, who is in the coffee shop. After meeting there several times, they begin talking to one another. Alice feels confident enough to tell Paul about her great-aunt’s journal. Alice tells him she wants to know more about her great-aunt and her grandmother. She fears from what she has read so far that Adalyn was a Nazi sympathizer, and she is upset and appalled to think that could be true.

Read The Paper Girl of Paris to find out the truth about Adalyn and learn more about Chloe, Alice’s grandmother. Readers will find the novel captivating. It will also make a good choice for a book club. Members will discuss the depression that plagues both the great-grandfather and Alice’s mother. Another discussion will center on Adalyn and her actions during the war.

The Book Whisperer Is Enthralled With a Debut Novel

I’m always looking for a good book to read. Recently, I picked up a copy of One Puzzling Afternoon by Emily Critchley.  When I read the quick note on the back of the book, I knew I wanted to read the whole story. Here’s part of what intrigued me: “I kept your secret, Lucy. I’ve kept it for more than sixty years.”

Be forewarned, Edie, the narrator, is now eighty-two and in the beginnings of Alzheimer’s. She tells readers two stories: present day as she tries to hold on to memories as well as knowing what is going on today and the past when Lucy and Edie were teenagers in school together. Lucy went missing in 1951; now, it is 2018, and Edie is determined to find out what happened to Lucy.

Readers will sympathize with Edie, her son Daniel, and her granddaughter Amy as they navigate this new world with Edie’s life-changing dementia taking hold. I found myself completely immersed in the story and eager to find out what happened to Lucy. Without giving any spoilers, I will say I was surprised by the ending.

The story is poignant, sad, and moving. I highly recommend One Puzzling Afternoon because it is the kind of book I longed to discover the ending, but I also hated to finish the story.  Book club members will have much to discuss: aging, dementia, poor parenting, mystery, bad teachers, and good teachers.

The Book Whisperer Read Kristin Hannah’s Latest Book: The Women

I have read several of Kristin Hannah’s books. The Nightingale remains my favorite. Hannah tackles difficult subjects in her stories. She writes of war, PTSD, abuse, and relationship woes. She also provides her characters with resilience, determination, grit, and resolve, particularly her female characters. The Women, Hannah’s latest release, is no different.

In The Women, readers will learn about how hard the female nurses worked alongside doctors, medics, and soldiers in Vietnam. The trauma the women endured certainly equaled that the men experienced. Frankie McGrath signs up to join the Army as a nurse and go to Vietnam even though she is fresh out of nursing school. She hopes to make her father proud the way he is proud of her brother who graduated from the Naval Academy and went to Vietnam.

Unfortunately, Frankie finds her father is incensed that she has joined the Army and is going to Vietnam. The wall of honor in his office is for the MEN in the family, not for Frankie. Still, Frankie has made a commitment, and she leaves for Vietnam. Frankie is naïve; while she has had good training in nursing school and has had high marks, she is not prepared for what she encounters once she is in-country.

The story chronicles Frankie’s time in Vietnam and the strong friendships she develops with Ethel and Barb, two other nurses. The story leaves little to the imagination as Hannah describes the horror everyone there sees on a daily and nightly basis.

Once Frankie and her nurse friends return home from their stints in Vietnam, they face the divisiveness in the nation. Frankie is suffering from PTSD, a condition not yet fully defined or identified. When she seeks help at a veterans’ center, the doctor there tells her, “There were no women in Vietnam.”

The first half of the book deals with Frankie’s time in Vietnam and the friendships she makes there. The second half of the book takes readers through Frankie’s adjustment to civilian life along with the horrors she suffers. The battles she faces once she is home are just as real and traumatic as the ones she faced in Vietnam; they are simply less bloody.

Many reviews will be posted about The Women. Suffice it to say, that readers must read for themselves. They will surely feel sympathy for Frankie and the other women like her who DID serve in Vietnam. Certainly, book clubs will find much to discuss. Those topics will include family dysfunction, redemption, betrayal, and recovery.

The Book Whisperer Rediscovers Another Old Favorite

Recently, I reread another book for a book club discussion. Such is the case for The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali. I read the book some time ago. I found on rereading it that I noted points I had forgotten or overlooked the first time. I don’t often reread books because there are so many I haven’t read that I want to read. However, I can say that I am glad I reread The Stationery Shop.

Kamali tells the story of enduring young love with the lovers torn apart by forces they don’t recognize until they are both in their seventies. Each thinks the other broke off the engagement of their youth. They both go on to marry other people and have successful lives.

The story begins in 1953 in Tehran. Political upheaval creates tensions and dangers. Those who turn out to be on the losing side face many dangers. Roya and Bahman meet quite by accident in Mr. Fakhri’s stationery shop. Mr. Fakhri sells beautiful writing materials, paper, pen, and ink. He also stocks books. Both Roya and Bahman are interested in poetry, especially the poetry of Rumi. When the two meet, they find an instant attraction despite their young ages.

When Roya and Bahman are poised to elope, they fail to meet one another. Why? That is the crux of the story. Why do the two not find each other at the appointed time and at the appointed place? It will take years for both of them to know the truth.

Read The Stationery Shop because it is a good story. Read it for your book club because it will create a lively discussion about love, loss, and betrayal.

The Book Whisperer Recommends The Fallen Woman’s Daughter!

For those looking for a gripping story of loss and redemption, look no further than The Fallen Woman’s Daughter by Michelle Cox. Nora, 8, and her sister Patsy, 5, are removed from their mother’s care by the state because she is a “fallen woman.” The girls go to Park Ridge School for Girls where their nightmare begins. Nora continues to hope her mother will find her and Patsy and that they can be a family again.

The story is told in two time periods by Nora and Gertie, her mother. It begins with Nora’s story as the girls are taken from Gertie in Chicago. It’s 1932. Gertie’s story begins in 1923 in rural Iowa. Gertie’s family is large and poor.

Gertie desires to see the world and feels constrained by her family. She particularly resents the fact that she is expected to marry and settle like her sister into being a farmer’s wife and produce a brood of children. When her family attends a local, traveling carnival, Gertie is bewitched by the colors, the sounds, and a barker, Lorenzo.

Lorenzo persuades Gertie to marry him, promising her travel across the US and possibly to Europe. Sadly, Gertie soon discovers Lorenzo is a liar; he takes her to a house in town where he expects her to care for his disagreeable mother. Before the wedding, Lorenzo’s cousin Roman, a seer, tells Gertie, “There’s a man in your life. He will promise you things, but you must not listen. You must run away from him before it is too late.” Of course, Gertie dismisses this prediction and listens to Lorenzo’s wild promises.

Readers can expect that soon Gertie will be pregnant and stuck in the little town instead of traveling the world. As he follows the carnival, Lorenzo leaves her with his mother who finds fault with everything Gertie does.

The story is gritty and hard to read at times, but there is forgiveness in the end. The story also takes an unexpected turn when Gertie does locate her daughters after a long period of separation. As Nora learns of her mother’s past, their relationship improves. The Fallen Woman’s Daughter is well worth a reader’s time. Book club members will discover many topics of conversation. As a bonus, book club members can schedule a Zoom meeting with Michelle Cox. The story is compelling.

The Book Whisperer Recommends The Mitford Affair

After reading The Glorious Guinness Girls by Emily Hourican and learning a bit about the Mitford sisters, I was eager to read The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict. The book did not disappoint! The Mitford sisters are beautiful, eccentric, and bright. They differ from one another in their talents and in their interests. David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale and his wife Sydney Bowles had seven children: Nancy (Nuance), Pamela (Woman), Thomas (Tom), Diana, Unity (Bobo or Boud), Jessica (Decca), and Deborah (Debo).

I’ve listed the pet names the children called each other because knowing them can help readers. I had to make the list for myself because I would sometimes forget who was being referred to. The only one without a pet name as far as I could tell was Diana.

Diana became a fascist, leaving Bryan Guinness, her husband, for Oswald Mosley, a Fascist leader in Britain. Diana made many trips to Germany and became personal friends with Hitler. In fact, Diana and Mosley were secretly married in Goebbels’ home with Hitler present. Diana introduced Unity to Hitler in 1935 where Unity became smitten with the dictator. She began stalking him until he noticed her, the pretty blonde English woman. They became personal friends. Both Diana and Unity along with their mother bought into Hitler’s propaganda. They hoped Hitler would rule Britain—without war.

Benedict has chosen to tell The Mitford Affair in alternating chapters by Nancy, Diana, and Unity. Readers do receive a picture of the whole family through the eyes of the three sisters. I found it horrifying that Diana and Unity fell so completely under Hitler’s spell and believed he would save Europe from economic depression and other woes.

Unity becomes so enmeshed in Hitler’s propaganda that she tells Diana if war erupts between Germany and England that she will kill herself. Diana chooses to keep this information to herself and returns to England when Hitler tells her and Unity that they should return to England for their own safety. Diana does go home, but Unity refuses. She continues to live in an apartment Hitler stole from a Jewish family and gave to Unity.

When war is declared between England and Germany, Unity takes a pearl-handled pistol Hitler had given her “for protection” and shoots herself in the head. She does not die, but she is forever changed by the attempted suicide and becomes childlike. Her family refuses to call it a suicide attempt, but instead, they refer to it as “self-harm.” Unity remains in Germany for two months before she is sent to Switzerland where her mother and one of her sisters go to take her home.

Meanwhile, at home, Diana continues to help Mosley with the fascist cause, hoping that Hitler will succeed in taking over England. She is incredibly bright and uses her ideas to further the cause.

Nancy, the writer, observes her sisters and begins to learn some of Diana and Mosley’s plans even though Diana keeps her secrets closely guarded. Occasionally, she lets something slip in front of Nancy, and Nancy guesses more. She also goes to Diana’s home when Diana, Mosley, and the children are in the countryside. There, she finds incriminating evidence of a radio station Diana and Mosley are trying to set up in German to broadcast into England.

Benedict writes a compelling story, using her research to back up this engaging historical fiction. Book club members will have much to discuss after reading The Mitford Affair. One discussion will certainly center on what Nancy chooses to do with the information she discovers. Another could well be how did Diana and Unity become so involved with Hitler and his cause? The story will keep readers turning pages.