Tag: 1920’s

May is Mystery Month!

- Michelle Leave a comment

One of my favorite months of the year is May, which is Mystery month!  With dozens and dozens of new releases out this spring, below are a few noteworthy releases.  As this is just a sampling, visit Reading Recommendations on the library’s website for many more mysteries.  This is the perfect time to check in with your favorite author and see if a new title is on the horizon.

Close to Death by Anthony Horowitz – In this novel, the fifth installment of the Hawthorne and Horowitz series, Detective Hawthorne is called on to investigate the apparent murder of an unpopular resident who resides on a quiet street inside a gated community.   The residents of the community have paid large amounts of money to feel safe and secure, seemingly protected from the outside world.  The murder victim was a known troublemaker and strayed from the strict community rules which made him very unpopular with his neighbors.  Was someone mad enough with him breaking the rules to resort to murder?

 

Clock Struck Murder by Betty Webb – Expat Zoe Barlow is at it again in 1920s Paris in the second book in the Lost in Paris series.  During the weekly poker game hosted at her apartment, a fellow player accidentally breaks Zoe’s beloved vintage clock.  On a quest to find a replacement in the Montparnasse neighborhood flea market, Zoe finds the perfect replacement clock and purchases it immediately from her favorite shopkeeper, Laurette.  Upon arrival at home, Zoe discovers her clock is wrapped in the most beautiful Chagall canvas, which Zoe recognizes immediately.  Almost more impressed with the artwork, Zoe is desperate to find out more about the paintings and tracks down the vendor only to find her murdered!  With police resources scarce, Zoe turns into an amateur detective and finds out the paintings are stolen and may have been played a role in the murder of Laurette.

 

Death in the Details by Katie Tietjen  – A historical mystery based on the life of the “mother of forensic science”, Katie Tietjen has written a unique mystery where a skilled creator of doll houses uses her talent to recreate crime scenes in miniature.  In the years after WWII Maple Bishop is still learning to live without her husband, Bill, who was killed in the war.  She soon learns that he has left her with no income and she risks losing their family home in Vermont.  Maple has no choice but to turn to her natural talent to earn a living – making miniatures for dollhouses.  On her way to make a delivery to her first customer, she discovers his lifeless body in a barn.  She decides to make a miniature of the crime scene in the hopes of putting the pieces together as an amateur sleuth.  She teams up with a new police officer to get to the bottom of the crime before she risks becoming a victim herself.

 

Locked in Pursuit by Ashley Weaver  – Electra McDonnell’s safecracking skills have made her indispensable to the British Government in this fourth installment of Ashley Weaver’s Electra McDonnell series set in WWII London.  Electra gets wind of a series of burglaries carried out by expert thieves and contacts her elusive handler, Major Ramsey, who just happens to be a member of the British government in order to garner more information. The two of them start on a journey that leads to Portugal and includes the delivery of a mysterious package that could break the case wide open.  As the group of thieves grow bolder, Electra and Ramsey hope to outwit the thieves with their own game.

 

Other exciting mystery titles coming out this spring :

Murder in Rose Hill By Victoria Thompson

Patchwork Quilt Murder by Leslie Meier

Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra

The Last Hope by Susan Elia MacNeal

The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear

Dead Tired by Kat Ailes

 

 

Online Reading Challenge – March Wrap-Up

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Hello Fellow Challenge Readers!

How did your reading go this month? Did you read something set in the 1920s & 1930s that you enjoyed? Share in the comments!

I read our main title: The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. This is the author’s debut novel published in 2012.

Needing a change, Jack and Mabel move to Alaska in 1920. It’s a rough life, full of long days, loneliness, and despair. The move pushes the two further apart as Jack works long hours on the farm and Mabel is left alone in their cabin. Wanting some normalcy during the season’s first snowfall, the two craft a child out of snow, both adding bits of themselves to their creation. The next morning, they are shocked to see that their snow child has been destroyed with a trail of tiny footprints leading into the forest. They glimpse a young, blond-haired girl flitting through the trees, wearing the hat and mittens that they decorated their snow child with. The girl named Faina inserts herself more and more into Jack and Mabel’s life, becoming part of their family. She never seems to truly belong with them though, instead preferring the snow and woods and life beyond their homestead. She has survived alone all these years, but that doesn’t stop Jack and Mabel from worrying. The more comfortable the three become with each other, the more they realize just how much they don’t know about Faina. Alaska may be beautiful, but the land holds violence right alongside that beauty. Their peace could shatter at any moment, something they would be wise to remember.

I procrastinated starting this book and honestly, I’m not sure why. It was such an easy, beautiful read. The Snow Child is a love story to Alaska and to the people living there. It’s full of immense joy and devastating sorrow. Eowyn Ivey is a master storyteller, weaving magic and realism together in such a way that at times I couldn’t tell the difference between the two. I felt like I was in Alaska with Mabel and Jack, struggling alongside them as they worked to get their homestead functioning and sustainable. The winters were breathtakingly cold and sparkling while the summers were sticky, clouded with mosquitoes, and full of their desperate attempts to prepare enough for the coming winter. The mountains towered over all with lush trees and wildlife running through, full of danger and promise. Ivey doesn’t shy away from showing the cruelness of Alaska and the hardness of life for people who choose to live there. It’s important not to forget the pockets of beauty that can be found though. All in all, this was a magical read full of wonder – one I’m glad I chose to read for this month’s challenge.

Next month, we are traveling to the 1940s.

Online Reading Challenge – March

- Stephanie Leave a comment

Welcome Readers!

This month the Online Reading Challenge travels back in time to the 1920s & 1930s. Our Main title for March is The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. Here’s a quick summary from the publisher:

In this magical debut, a couple’s lives are changed forever by the arrival of a little girl, wild and secretive, on their snowy doorstep.

Alaska, 1920: a brutal place to homestead, and especially tough for recent arrivals Jack and Mabel. Childless, they are drifting apart — he breaking under the weight of the work of the farm; she crumbling from loneliness and despair. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning the snow child is gone — but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees.

This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods. She hunts with a red fox at her side, skims lightly across the snow, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place things are rarely as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them. – Back Bay Books

Looking for some other books set in the 1920s & 1930s? Try any of the following.

As always, check each of our locations for displays with lots more titles to choose from!

Bix by Scott Chantler

- Beth Leave a comment

Despite living in the Quad Cities nearly 20 years I have only a rudimentary knowledge of local jazz legend Bix Beiderbecke. I feel like I am missing out on an important part of local lore.

In the graphic biography Bix by Scott Chantler, the musician’s story is illustrated rather than told. With the use of wordless, static, straight panels we get a sense of Bix’s confining young life when in school and interacting with his parents, particularly his father. As a reader, I can feel the panels trying to fit him into a box, making me feel claustrophobic for the protagonist. Finally the panels begin to float and dance on the page whenever music is in the scene — whether hearing it pass on a riverboat, trying the trumpet for the first time or upon entering a Chicago jazz club.

Once Bix makes the decision to leave Iowa and dedicate his career to music he leads a life typical of young adults: work, good times, and romance. Just when I started to think of Bix as a nice guy who got swept up in talent and fame come scenes that show an in-demand, cocky musician willing to lie and manipulate. In this graphic biography, we don’t hear Bix speak until this part of the book — about a third of the way through. His first conversation? A lie he tells his girlfriend. Bix becomes difficult to work with and unreliable. Static panels return to show drinking as a default reaction to everything — both good and bad. As his drinking spiraled out of control, my heart broke for the lost talent.

I was pleased to catch the familiar scenes of Davenport in the early pages. It took me the better part of an afternoon to read, but the time was spent getting a better sense of of who Bix was beyond his connection to the Quad-Cities. The life of Bix Beiderbecke doesn’t fit neatly into a box. He wasn’t just a ground-breaking, successful jazz soloist. He wasn’t just a wide-eyed innocent guy in over his head. This graphic novel treats its subject with compassion and care while not forgiving him for his self-destructive behavior. Through artful storytelling I have a better understanding of Bix’s multilayered life.

Bix is available on Overdrive as well as physical format.

Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell

- Stephanie Leave a comment

After someone dies, loved ones are left to pick up the pieces. That usually means sorting through personal possessions and reading through the will. Secrets can be revealed during this time leaving loved ones to wonder who exactly the deceased was in life and why they were hiding some things. Lisa Jewell discusses the topic of secrets in her 2013 novel, Before I Met You.

Before I Met You  by Lisa Jewell tells the story of two women growing up decades apart. In 1990s grungy London Soho, Betty Dean has arrived to find the mysterious Clara Pickle. Clara was listed as the main beneficiary in her grandmother Arlette’s will. No one in her family has ever heard of Clara Pickle. Arlette never mentioned her. Going through her grandmother’s possessions, Betty finds hints tucked in coat pockets and hidden in books. Betty has always dreamed of getting out of Guernsey and moving to Soho. Trying to find Clara provides Betty with the perfect reason to head to Soho and begin a new glamorous life filled with excitement and hope.

In 1920s Jazz Age London, Arlette finds herself on the doorstep of her mother’s childhood best friend. Becoming friends with the woman’s daughter, Arlette quickly becomes drawn into the bohemian lifestyle of the Bright Young People. Arlette is beautiful and charismatic, but a bit sheltered since she spent all of her life before London growing up on the quiet and secluded island of Guernsey. Arlette is looking for love, a change, and acceptance now that the war is over. Two years later, Arlette’s new life is on course to give her what she wants. Right when she is ready to settle down, tragedy strikes and Arlette heads back to Guernsey where she stays for the rest of her life.

Betty searches high and low for Clara. While doing so, she learns even more secrets about Arlette’s life in London during the 1920s. Glamour, fashion, and music all played major roles in both women’s lives. Betty uncovers photographs and stories about Arlette’s life. She soon realizes that Arlette had major reasons for keeping her past firmly in her past.

While this is an older book, I enjoyed the topics discussed throughout. The parallels between Betty’s life in Guernsey and London in the 1990s as compared to Arlette’s life in the same places in the 1920s were so striking that I was left to wonder continuously throughout whether Betty would make the same life choices as Arlette. Betty’s journey to find Clara was fascinating because she kept searching for answers even when people told her to give up.  Read the book and let me know what you think in the comments below!

This book is also available in the following format:

Flappers by Judith Mackrell

- Ann 1 Comment

flappersBy the 1920s, women were on the verge of something huge. Jazz, racy fashions, eyebrow-raising new attitudes about art and sex – all of this pointed to a sleek, modern world, one that could shake off the grimness of the Great War and stride into the future in one deft, stylized gesture. The women who defined this age – Josephine Baker, Tallulah Bankhead, Diana Cooper, Nancy Cunard, Zelda Fitzgerald, and Tamara de Lempicka – would presage the sexual revolution by nearly half a century and would shape the role of women for generations to come. In Flappers, acclaimed biographer Judith Mackrell renders these women with all the color that marked their lives and their era.

Both sensuous and sympathetic, her biography lays bare the private lives of her heroines. These women came from vastly different backgrounds, but all ended up passing through Paris, the mecca of the avant-garde. Before she was the toast of Parisian society, Josephine Baker was a poor black girl from the slums of Saint Louis. Tamara de Lempicka fled the Russian Revolution only to struggle to scrape together a life for herself and her family. A committed painter, her portraits were indicative of the age’s art deco sensibility and sexual daring. The Brits in the group – Nancy Cunard and Diana Cooper –  came from pinkie-raising aristocratic families but soon descended into the salacious delights of the vanguard. Tallulah Bankhead and Zelda Fitzgerald were two Alabama girls driven across the Atlantic by a thirst for adventure and artistic validation.

But beneath the flamboyance and excess of the 1920s lay age-old prejudices about gender, race, and sexuality. These flappers weren’t just dancing and carousing; they were fighting for recognition and dignity in a male-dominated world. They were more than mere lovers or muses to the modernist masters – in their pursuit of fame and intense experience, we see a generation of women taking bold steps toward something burgeoning, undefined, maybe dangerous: a New Woman. (description from publisher)

Get Ready to Shake your Beaded Tassles!

- Ann Leave a comment

When I grow up I want to be a Lady Detective just like Miss Fisher—elegant, scrappy and clever (words that also describe my other favorite Lady Detective, Jessica Fletcher!) Phryne Fisher has been dancing around the book world for a while (see my review of the first in that series here: Phryne, Rhymes with Briney), but now we can actually see her shake her beaded tassels in a new gorgeously filmed television series by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, shown in the United States on PBS.

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries begins just as Kerry Greenwood’s book series does, with the Honorable Phryne Fisher, played by the seductive Essie Davis, returning to 1920’s Melbourne after being away for a decade or so. While she was away in Europe, Miss Fisher had modeled nude for artists, partied with dancers, worked as WWI nurse, and suddenly came into a title and money. Now that she is returned, Phryne decides that her charm and intellect are perfectly suited to solving murder mysteries around her old hometown. She enlists the help of her gentle butler, her communist chauffeurs/handymen, and her new maid, Dot, who finds herself constantly struggling between good Catholic values and the not-quite-legal-or-virtuous things that Miss Fisher persuades her to do. And of course, the local Detective Inspector Jack Robinson does not find Phryne’s frequent interference in his work amusing (even if he does find her annoyingly companionable.) I loved every episode of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries, but what most puts a sparkle in my eye is Phryne’s marvelous wardrobe! The silk kimonos! The slinky wide-legged pants! And the hats oh THE HATS!

Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries is so charming, fun and sexy while still addressing many historically controversial issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and terrorism—all while giving us a cracking good whodunit. I highly recommend this series to fans of Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife, and those who love history and mysteries 😉

The Chaperone by Laura Moriarty

- Ann Leave a comment

The Chaperone is a captivating novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in 1922 and the summer that would change them both.

Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.

Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s,’30s, and beyond–from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers, and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women–Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them. (description from publisher)

The Paris Wife by Paula McLain

- Ann Leave a comment

I went into reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain with a blank slate.  I had never read any of Ernest Hemingway’s novels, and I knew only the bare minimum of biographical information about his life.  This book is a fictionalized account of Hemingway’s first wife Hadley.  It details all of the highs and lows of their complicated relationship, from their first meeting in Chicago in 1920 and subsequent whirlwind marriage to their years of living in Paris and the unraveling of their once happy life together.  Their lives seem glamorous on the surface: spending time with the Fitzgeralds and Gertrude Stein, writing in chic Paris cafes, and taking extended vacations to exotic locales around Europe.  But boiling below the surface is a host of problems.  As attentive and accommodating as Hadley tries to be, she simply cannot contend with Ernest’s ambition, neediness, and thirst for the drink.

The story is told through Hadley’s point of view.  She grew up in a very different setting, much more conservative and traditional than the Jazz Age Paris of the 1920s, so we’re learning about this time and place through brand new eyes.  The writing is lovely and McLain is very successful in making the time period come alive.  Plus, the English major in me got giddy every time a different historical figure popped up in the story.  I actually listened to the audio version of The Paris Wife and it was very well done.  Even though anyone who knows even a little bit about Hemingway has an idea of how this story ends, it’s still a compelling and engaging read that I would recommend to fans of historical fiction, novels about love and marriage, and Ernest Hemingway.

Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter by Simon Brett

- Lynn 1 Comment

If you enjoy P.G. Wodehouse, you will love Simon Brett’s newest mystery, Blotto, Twinks and the Ex-King’s Daughter.   Blotto is even more clueless than the aristocratic Bertie Wooster.

While Wooster has his butler, Jeeves,  Blotto is also lucky enough to have a  much smarter sidekick.  In this case, the handsome son of the Duke of Tawcaster (pronounced taster) is guided by his sister, Twinks. She is not only smart, but beautiful and loves to use her analytical skills to solve mysteries. In this book, she feels fortunate to have a dead body right in her own home, Tawcaster Towers. Her mother, the Duchess, forces the local constable to spirit away the dead body before her dinner party adjourns for cigars.

Britain’s ruling class is parodied in a cheerfully absurdist writing style, and the time between the two world wars seems refreshingly innocent.