Read it or Weep

In the middle of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, sisters Helen and Lutie (Lucretia) sell their family home in Iowa and move to Denver. They buy a home with a basement apartment. Maud, Ronald, and 10-year-old Dorothy Streeter are their tenants. Maud dies from the flu; Ronald disappears; and Dorothy is left alone. Helen and Lutie want to adopt Dorothy.

Helen is a nurse, and her boyfriend Gil is a doctor. Lutie works as a fashion illustrator for a downtown department store which caters to wealthy customers. Lutie is engaged to Peter Howell, a seminary student, who enlists. When Peter is killed his parents are very supportive of Lutie, Helen, and little Dorothy.

When Ronald Streeter reappears to retrieve Dorothy, he is stabbed to death and Helen is left holding the bloody ice pick. Helen confesses that she killed him. Gil helps Helen dispose of the body. They leave the body on the side of the road assuming a “death wagon” patrolling the streets will pick it up.

There is so much more to the story. It is an emotional novel full of love, loss, and family support.

~Emma

The family had been hiding in the backwoods of the Kentucky mountains all of Honey Lovett’s life. Now it is 1953 when 16-year-old Honey’s parents are in jail for intermarrying between blue and non-blue folk. (The blue condition is called methemoglobinemia. It is a blood disorder in which an abnormal amount of methemoglobin is produced. This causes the skin to show blue tones.) Honey needs to marry or find a guardian. If not, Honey will be taken to the Kentucky House of Reform until she turns twenty-one.

Sadly, Honey’s guardian passes away and she is alone again. A very independent Honey takes on her mother’s old packhorse librarian route delivering books to isolated people in the county. She even rides her mother’s ornery but protective mule, Junia. Most people are happy to have the book delivery service again, but a couple of individuals make her life miserable. To avoid trouble with the state and social service officials, lawyer Bob Morgan offers to represent her in a bid for legal emancipation. Despite lies told in court, friends come to Honey’s aid to testify to her character and to her ability to be independent.

This is a terrific book for readers of historical fiction. You will want to start with the first title in the series – The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek published in 2019.

~Emma

After her mother dies, Hanna Rombauer is sent to live with wealthy Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Otto in Berlin. Their goal is to find her a high-ranking SS officer to marry, and Hanna soon learns that she has no choice in the matter. Klara Schmidt, Hanna’s friend, is also expected to marry an SS officer.

Gifted seamstresses Mathilde Altman (Tilde) and her Jewish mother run a fabric shop. Tilde who looks Aryan waits on customers while her mother hides upstairs. Tilde’s Aryan father left his family when it became dangerous for Jews in Germany. Eventually Tilde’s mother immigrates to the United States.

Hanna and Tilde are barely aware of each other, but their lives soon become entangled. Hanna is sent to a “Nazi Bride School” to learn to become the proper Nazi wife. Tilde is pregnant, her Jewish husband has disappeared, and she needs a safe place to give birth. Klara, one of Tilde’s customers, is also attending the school and is aware of Tilde’s predicament. Klara discovers an abandoned cabin near the school where Tilde can be relatively safe. Both Hanna and Klara take extraordinary risks when Tilde and her newborn are discovered.

For fans of historical fiction, this is a tale of love, loss, and survival.

~Emma