Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips follows a family though the American Civil War from its start to tenuous post-war reconstruction. The novel begins in 1874 West Virginia with young ConaLee and her mute mother Eliza being taken to the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum by a man known only as "Papa," but who is not, in… Continue reading Review: Night Watch by Jayne Anne Phillips
This Savage World by Anna Housego opens in 1770s London where young Maggie Bloodworth is trying to make her way in a city unforgiving to the poor. She is taken on as an apprentice midwife and eventually learns her trade with enough skill to stand on her own two feet. As Maggie's life progresses, she… Continue reading Review: This Savage World by Anna Housego
TW: This book has depictions of physical and sexual abuse Hearty of Cruelty by Maybelle Wallis follows 20-year-old Jane Verity, reduced to a Birmingham workhouse in 1840 after a scandalous affair with an actor, Edmond. While Edmond has gone off to seek his fame and fortune in the theatre world, Jane has been cast out… Continue reading Review: Heart of Cruelty by Maybelle Wallis
The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue takes place 1895 and centers around the famously photographed Montparnasse train derailment. As such, the book has a compressed timeline of events in which the entire story unfolds over the course of six hours. I'm pretty sure this is the first time I've read a book that takes place… Continue reading Review: The Paris Express by Emma Donoghue
The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling is not your typically structured historical novel, but rather a mix of narrative poetry and prose. Sacajewea is introduced to the reader as the pre-teen and we follow her until about the age of seventeen. While most only know about Sacajewea through the context of the… Continue reading Review: The Lost Journals of Sacajewea by Debra Magpie Earling
A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power recounts a family saga through the generational trauma of "Indian Boarding Schools." The book follows three woman from each generation, starting with Sissy in 1960s Chicago. Her parents are both boarding school survivors and have effectively been forced to move to a city for jobs and resources.… Continue reading Review: A Council of Dolls by Mona Susan Power
Oliver Fischer, a self-styled bohemian, boardwalk caricaturist, and student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, enrages his banker father and earns the contempt of Philadelphia’s foremost realist painter Thomas Eakins when he attempts to stage Manet’s scandalous painting The Luncheon on the Grass. Soon after, he is ensnarled, along with Mark Twain and Andrew… Continue reading Review: The Caricaturist by Norman Lock
Freeman's Challenge is an informative and educational piece of historical work that explains the one of the first for-profit prisons and a brutal murder of a family that shook the town of Auburn in New York. I greatly appreciated Robin Bernstein's opening chapter regarding the contextual history of the land that would become Auburn. Bernstein… Continue reading Review: Freeman’s Challenge by Robin Bernstein
Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese weaves a backstory for a woman who (in this version) provided the inspiration for The Scarlet Letter's Hester Prynee. Young Scottish woman Isobel marries an apothecary whom she believes will provide for her a stable future. Isobel soon finds, however, that her husband has debts and is addicted to laudanum.… Continue reading Review: Hester by Laurie Lico Albanese
The Fascination by Essie Fox follows twins Keziah and Tilly Lovell in Victorian England. Identical in countenance, except Tilly stopped growing as a child. Marketed as a traveling "freakshow" by their own abusive father to sell his snake oil cure-all, the twins soon draw the attention of the mysterious Captain and the curious Theo Seabrook.… Continue reading Review: The Fascination by Essie Fox
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