Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg

In the first half of the twentieth century, homeless men were called bums and a movie patron bought a ticket from a woman who sat in a booth outside the theater. These two facts are the building blocks for Jami Attenberg’s Saint Mazie, a book based on a real person, Mazie Phillips Gordon.  

Mazie was an ordinary New Yorker but she was also a ticket seller with a heart of gold. She sold tickets from the booth in her brother-in-law’s movie theater in The Bowery, home to many poor and disadvantaged people. As part of her job, she sold movie tickets to bums who wanted to get out of the cold, rain, heat and other unpleasant aspects of a New York slum. To some, she sold ten cent tickets; others would be given a bar of soap from her supply in her booth and a ticket on the promise that each would wash his face. She would also give dimes and quarters to her needy customers. Mazie was non-judgmental. She freely gave small change to these men, unconcerned that they would spend the coins on drink. After work, in the wee hours of the morning, she would walk the streets of The Bowery, calling ambulances for men in distress and again passing out small change. Although Jewish, she teamed up with the Catholic nuns who served the poor in the area, united by compassion and empathy.

Jamie Attenberg was inspired to write this book by an old New Yorker article by Joseph Mitchell. Mazie is included in his collection Up in the Old Hotel, and this short essay is also well worth reading.

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

The first in this historical fiction trilogy by Kate Kerrigan follows young Ellie Hogan as she comes of age, goes to boarding school, and marries her first love. Set in the 1920s, Ellis Island tells the tale of a young couple, so in love, trying to live their lives amid war torn Ireland as the Irish battle the British for Hole Rule (or the right to rule Ireland by the Irish). When Ellie's husband is injured in battle, and times get exceptionally tough, Ellie receives a letter from a friend in New York offering her a job as a lady's maid for a wealthy woman.

Promising to send money back to Ireland to pay for her husband's medical care, Ellie takes the job, setting sail for New York. After seeing the beckoning Statue of Liberty and making it through Ellis Island, Ellie realized just how different New York is. Having never been this far away from home before, Ellie starts to miss home, her "normal" life, and her husband, John.

Once she's finally settled into life in New York, this book follows the story of what it was like to be a young woman in the 1920s. Filled with 1920s fashion and cultural references, read along as Ellie encounters all of the new, exciting, and often overwhelming things that are changing in her life. While she starts to assimilate in New York, she can't help but feel like a piece of who she is was left behind in Ireland.

Kate Kerrigan writes this book in a way that makes you feel as if you're living in lush, green Ireland and traveling aboard the crowded RMS Celtic with Ellie. When she finally makes it to New York you can't help but relate to the awe-inspiring sight of  Statue of Liberty and the great hall of Ellis Island (especially if you've been there to see such an amazing, humbling historical sight). Be sure to read Ellis Island and the other books in this trilogy.

Check out Ellis Island @ the library today!

Some Luck by Jame Smiley

Jane Smiley’s newest novel is the first in The Last Hundred Years trilogy.  The Pulitzer prize winning author intends to cover 100 years in the life of an Iowa farm family and the first novel, Some Luck, covers the years 1920-1953.  Smiley follows the Langdon family of Denby, Iowa through childbirth, death, the Great Depression and World War II in a unique fashion.  Not only does the author write from many of the different characters points of view, but each chapter itself represents one year. 

We begin with Walter, the 25 year-old father and owner of the farm.  His wife Rosanna is about to give birth to their first child, Frank, and he is ruminating on all of the things that farmers think about: which crops to plant this year, how many animals are there to take care of and can I really afford to farm all of this land? As the years move forward, Smiley introduces us to all of the Langdon children: Frank, Joe, Mary Elizabeth, Lillian, Henry and Claire and their unique personalities.  We see Walter struggle with changing technologies (horses vs. tractors) and Rosanna has her own challenges with loss and religion. 

Each of the Langdon children is different than the last, and we hear a lot from the point of view of Frank, the handsomest and, arguably, the most cunning Langdon child.  When the US gets involved in World War II, he joins the army and becomes a sniper while his sensitive younger brother Joe stays home on a II-A deferment and takes care of the family farm.  Lillian falls in love with a handsome stranger and Henry devours books as fast as he can get his hands on them.  The reader is quickly absorbed into the world that Smiley creates and is soon laughing and crying along with the family. 

Some Luck has been shortlisted for the National Book Award and is a profound family saga.

So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell

An older book and a well-written classic, So Long, See You Tomorrow by William Maxwell paints a picture of life in the Midwest in the 1920s. It is the story of two thirteen-year old boys who become friends when each is drawn to spend time at a home-construction site after school. Each boy is experiencing upheaval in his life and seeks a release from family distress at the half-built home.  The house is to be the home of the story’s narrator, a middle-class town boy.  He had lost his mother to the flu epidemic of 1919. His father, after remarrying, wanted a new home for his new wife and so contracts for the building of the new house. The other boy, Cletus, is the son of a tenant farmer. He spends time at the house to escape the palpable tension between his mother and father. Every afternoon the boys meet and climb on the frame of the house. They become friends although they scarcely exchange a word. Then Cletus’s world is destroyed by a murder and he disappears from the narrator’s life. The power of this book lies in the author’s ability to create a sympathetic inner life for each of his characters. Although the book is peopled with stoic, taciturn Midwesterners, the reader is easily able to empathize with everyone in this book as they deal with pain, confusion and loss, even the family dog. 

Check out So Long, See You Tomorrow @ the library!

The Other Typist by Suzanne Rindell

Rose Baker is a young woman in the typing pool of the New York City Police Department during Prohibition. She is plain, quiet and prudish about life.  However, she is also lonely. So when Odalie, a glamorous flapper with bobbed hair and expensive clothes and jewelry, joins the clerical staff and reaches out to Rose for friendship, Rose is intrigued. Like a moth to a flame, Rose is drawn into Odalie’s dangerous life, becoming her roommate, sharing her clothing and jewelry, accompanying her to speakeasies and parties and running spurious errands on her behalf.  Odalie is mysterious, with more than one version of where she and her wealth came from: perhaps prostitution, bootlegging or a family inheritance.  Whatever the source, she lives well and is generous in sharing her comfortable life with Rose. But she also exacts payment for her generosity, expecting Rose to blindly do her bidding. And Rose, having been drawn in by Odalie and unable to return to her old life, cannot deny her.  How much will Odalie ask of Rose? How far will Rose be willing to go on Odalie’s behalf? Tension builds throughout the entire book and these questions are not answered until the last page. 

Check out The Other Typist @ the Library!

The Maid's Version by Daniel Woodrell

In 1929, a dance hall in a small Missouri town exploded, killing forty-two people.  One of them was pretty Ruby DeGeer, who, although poor and poorly educated, easily attracted the attention of wealthy men.  One of these men was banker Arthur Glencross, who employed Ruby’s older sister, Alma Dunahew, as his maid. Alma had good reason to believe that Glencross was responsible for the explosion and made herself few friends in town by saying so. Although there were others who could be suspected, Alma was unyielding in her certainty of his guilt.  Her fight for justice eventually turned into what was considered bizarre behavior.  Finally, practically catatonic, she was committed to the Work Farm. Her disappearance into her own misery left her youngest son, John Paul, motherless at an age when he still needed his mother. Dependent on odd jobs and the kindness of neighbors for most of his childhood and youth, John Paul resented his mother’s obsession and the loss of his family. The rift these hard times created between mother and son lasted into John Paul’s adulthood and Alma’s old age. In The Maid's Version, Alma tells her story to her grandson with hope of healing the rift. Author Daniel Woodrell is a well-respected author whose last book, Winter's Bone was made into a successful movie. In this book he draws a vivid picture of small town life in depression-era Middle America, clearly depicting the great divide between rich and poor, weak and powerful. 

Check out The Maid's Version @ the library! (Check out the new version of County Cat too!)

The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig

On the eve of the 21st century, Clementine Evans's life is falling apart.  Her engagement has just been broken off, her very proper and conventional mother is horrified, her step-cousin, the irksome Jon, is back in town, she's a slave to her law firm in a desperate race to make partner, and her beloved Granny Addie is seriously ill.  When Addie confusedly calls Clemmie by the name Bea, a whole closet full of skeletons and dark family secrets is cracked open.

In 1926 Africa, Addie is taking the train to see her once-favorite cousin Bea at her coffee farm in Kenya.  Engaged to be engaged, Addie isn't even sure why she has come all the way to the sun-soaked African savanna from the foggy streets of London to see Bea, who she hasn't seen or spoken to in years.  Cut off from the aristocratic family that took her in as an orphaned, poor cousin after the epic scandal of Bea's marriage to Frederick Desborough, Addie knows she must see the woman who was once her best friend before she marries the scholarly (and, quite frankly, boring) David.  And, even though she has quite firmly told herself otherwise, she knows she has really come to see Frederick again - Frederick, who once held all her hopes and her heart, and is now her cousin's husband.

From the author of the Pink Carnation spy novels comes this lavish period drama that fans of Downton Abbey will love to while away a weekend with!  Clemmie and Addie's stories are a tangled web of secrets, lies, and family drama that unfold in chapters alternating between 1999 New York and London and the champagne-soaked 1920s London and colonial Kenya.  With a dash of humor and quick wit, star-crossed romance that's absolutely worth the wait, and a generous dose of crazy family, anyone who loves a good generational saga will want to add The Ashford Affair to their spring reading list!

The Ashford Affair will be published on April 9, 2013.  The library received its advanced reader's copy from the publisher.  Watch CountyCat for this great read to be added so you can place a hold!

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

When respectable wife and mother Cora Carlisle agrees to go to New York as chaperone to 15-year-old Louise Brooks in the summer of 1922, Louise is not yet the famous silent film actress she is destined to become. Impetuous, stubborn, combative, arrogant, and an unapologetic flirt, Louise is still just an enormously talented young dancer auditioning to join the Denishawn dancers.  Cora more than has her hands full keeping Louise in line.  But chaperoning an impossible, clever teenager is not the only reason Cora has come to New York.  Leaving her handsome, much older lawyer husband and twin sons at home in Wichita, Kansas, Cora is desperate to unlock the secrets of her past.  Raised in the New York Home for Friendless Girls, Cora was put on an orphan train at the age of six and taken in by a Kansas farm family.  With only a brief memory of a dark-haired woman with a shawl, Cora has no idea who her parents were, how she ended up in an orphanage, or even if she may still have living relatives.  The answers, she is sure, lie in New York - which is why she must keep headstrong Louise in check long enough to find the answers she seeks.  The clashing mores, bright lights, busy streets, dance halls and rising hemlines of 1920s New York come alive in The Chaperone, an engrossing read that fans of Boardwalk Empire and the Oscar-winning film The Artist will love to curl up with this fall!