City of Light by Lauren Belfer

Buffalo, New York - 1901.  Electricity is stilled viewed as scary magic by some and a possible economic boon by others.  The city is preparing for the Pan American Exposition and there is a environmental controversy brewing about the affect of power generating plants on the free flowing waters of Niagara Falls.  The drama in the story centers around Louisa Barrett.  As head mistress of a well regarded private school for girls, a confirmed spinster, and a significant figure in the intellectual life of the city, Louisa has access to some of the most powerful political and business circles in Buffalo.  But Louisa has secrets to keep - some her own and some of the students she teaches.  The book is 689 pages but there are many different layers to this story - life at the beginning of the 20th century - the role of women - the beginning of the electrical age - so it's a big story to consider and worth the read.

News of the World by Paulette Jiles

Jiles is known as a poet and a memoirist and draws on both talents to tell this story of an unlikely friendship in Texas in 1870. Captain Kidd earned his rank in the Civil War but at the age of 70 he earns his living reading the news to small towns around Texas.  When he is asked to return a ten year old girl who was captured by the Kiowa four years earlier, he isn't sure he is up to the long journey from Wichita Falls to San Antonio.  Although there are many adventures along the way, the bigger story is Kidd's understanding of Johanna and the many children like her.  Conventional wisdom then said that they were brutally treated by "savages" but Kidd sees something very different.  Johanna is a clever, free spirit and as they begin to form a bond, Kidd begins to think that returning her to her rigid aunt and uncle might not be what is best.  Jiles did a lot of research on both the times and the real truth of captive children.  The story rings so true and the idea of a time when the news would only be shared by a rich voice bringing news from places the listeners could only imagine sounds so much better then the information overload of today.

a piece of the world by Christina Baker Kline

Almost everyone is familiar with the painting Christina's World by Andrew Wyeth.  A young woman lying in the grass (Is she able to walk?) gazing at an old house in the distance (Is it hers?).  The painting was intended to create thoughts and questions in our minds but there was a real Christina.  A young woman who struggled with physical challenges and life choices.  Wyeth knew her.  She was the inspiration for the painting.  Kline has added fiction to fact to create what that experience might have meant to both of them.  This fictional memoir may not answer all the questions raised by this enigmatic painting but it may change the way you see the woman in it. 

When we were Strangers by Pamela Schoenewaldt

At 16,  Irma Vitale fears there is nothing for her in her small Italian village. But as her mother is dying,  she warns Irma that leaving the village would mean she would die among strangers.  Finally a few years later, Irma knows she must leave so embarks on a late 19th century immigrant journey.  Hoping to locate a brother who left years ago, she makes the hazardous ocean voyage to America with only her seamstress skills to support her. The search for the brother proves hopeless but, starting in the garment industry, she encounters both horror and the kindness of strangers in Cleveland, Chicago and eventually San Francisco where she finds an opportunity to use her intelligence and new found confidence.  Many of the details of this coming-of-age story were researched by the author in the village that Irma left which gives the story an authentic if a little melodramatic feel.  Book club members of a certain age would be able to compare Irma's story with stories told in their own family history.

First Impressions by Charlie Lovett

The subtitle is A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love and Jane Austen.  I'm not a Jane Austen fan so it was a bit of a slow start but once the mystery, revealed in parallel and alternating chapters, kicked in, I was hooked.  One story begins in 1796 with a young Jane Austen as the central character.  The other is a contemporary story in the English countryside where the young book lover, Sophie Collingwood, is grieving the loss of her favorite uncle and the further loss of the family's extensive library. The object at the center of attention in both is the one and only copy of a little book written by the Rev. Mansfield, close friend of Jane.  The book was once in the Collingwood library.  In the book was  a story that would grow up to be Pride and Prejudice.  Did Jane Austen steal her most famous novel from her elderly friend and is this mystery somehow connected to her uncle's mysterious death? The fact that Lovett moves so easily between the style of the Victorian novel and contemporary writing was one of my favorite parts of this book - one every bibliophile would enjoy.

The Paris Architect: A Novel by Charles Belfoure

It was 1942 and, in Nazi occupied Paris, architect Lucien Bernard would do anything to get a chance to build the many buildings he imagines.  Soon he finds two clients. One, a powerful member of the Nazi occupation, offers him the chance to help built the new Germany in France.  Lucien only needs to betray his country.  The other offers a great deal of money for Lucien to design secret hiding places in Jewish homes.  If caught, he would be killed.  What motivates a person? Money? Loyalty? That which is right? And what are each of us prepared to sacrifice for any of these?  Many stories of personal choice were a part of this horrible history.  This is one of them.

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

Someone suggested this book as an insight into "red" America.  Born into a hillbilly culture and raised in the Rust belt by a single, often drug dependent mom and multiple father figures, Vance's Mamaw and Papaw where his strange but consistent source of security.  But he got out.  Now a happily married Yale Law School graduate, he looks back at how he got out.  What were the road blocks?  What things provided a way up and out?  Given my introduction to the book, I expected some blame to be placed securely at the feet of he government.  Not so. Vance examines ACEs - adverse childhood experiences - as the greatest barrier.  Actual abuse and neglect are easy to identify as ACEs but it is the lack of family support, all the constant reminders that you are part of a loser culture that are just as devastating.  It was not knowing what fork to use or when a suit was required that got in the way of his climb out.  It is a reminder that we need to acknowledge our own history and focus on the changes required for a different future - the changes we must make for ourselves.  Not sure how "red" America sees his own personal rise.