Category Archives: Historical (50s)

Review: The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich

Title: The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Genre: Historical (’50s), Fiction
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Beloved writer Sean Dietrich—also known as Sean of the South—will warm your heart with this rich and nostalgic tale about community, kindness, and the meaning of the everyday incredible.

In the small, sleepy town of Moab, Florida, folks live for ice cream socials, Jackie Robinson, and the local paper’s weekly gossip column. For decades, Sheriff Winston Browne has watched over Moab with a generous eye, and by now he’s used to handling the daily dramas that keep life interesting for Moab’s quirky residents. But just after Winston receives some terrible, life-altering news, a feisty little girl with mysterious origins shows up in his best friend’s henhouse. Suddenly Winston has a child in desperate need of protection—as well as a secret of his own to keep.

With the help of Moab’s goodhearted townsfolk, the humble and well-meaning Winston Browne still has some heroic things to do. He finds romance, family, and love in unexpected places. He stumbles upon adventure, searches his soul, and grapples with the past. In doing so, he just might discover what a life well-lived truly looks like

Review:

The Incredible Winston Browne by Sean Dietrich is a heartwarming novel which takes places in the mid-1950s.

Fifty-two-year-old Winston Browne is the beloved sheriff in his hometown of Moab. He is more than just a lawman; he is caretaker for its residents. Winston does everything he can to keep the town’s boys out of trouble and he assists in forming a Little League team.  After having his heartbroken, Winston has no interest in getting hurt again. But after escorting Eleanor Hughes to a town social, the two begin spending time together (much to the dismay of his best friend Jimmy Abraham). When nine year old runaway Jesse finds her way to Moab, Eleanor and Winston offer her a place to stay.  Jesse remains tight-lipped about her past until it catches up with her. With danger coming their way, will Winston, his deputy Tommy Sheridan and Eleanor keep Jesse safe from the people searching for her?

Winston is a warm-hearted, compassionate man who spends long hours keeping Moab safe. He also delivers groceries to the elderly and takes fourteen-year-old Buz Guilford under his wing. After receiving unexpected news, he is a little more willing to give love a chance. Winston reassesses some of his life choices and with a newfound perspective, he decides to take a few more risks than he normally would.

Eleanor has been going out with Jimmy for most of her adult life.  But she is growing tired of his unwillingness to marry her. After an evening of dancing with Winston, Eleanor resolves to make changes in her life. So, when Winston continues to visit her, she decides to see where their relationship takes them.  When Jesse initially comes to live with her, Eleanor is definitely out of her element. But she allows the young girl to keep her secrets and Eleanor discovers how much she likes caring for her. With Jesse spending a lot of time with Winston, she despairs of the girl’s tomboy ways.

With a hint of mystery and a dash of danger, The Incredible Winston Browne is a captivating novel that is very touching. The characters are wonderfully developed with an array of flaws and strengths. Moab is an idyllic setting and springs vividly to life. The storyline is well-developed and thought-provoking.  Sean Dietrich brings this heartfelt novel to a poignant yet gratifying conclusion.

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Filed under Fiction, Historical, Historical (50s), Rated B+, Sean Dietrich, The Incredible Winston Browne, Thomas Nelson Publishing

Review: Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer

Title: Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer
Publisher: Graydon House
Genre: Historical (50s & 90s), Women’s Fiction, Mystery
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

From the bestselling author of The Things We Cannot Say comes a poignant post-WWII novel that explores the expectations society places on women set within an engrossing family mystery that may unravel everything once believed to be true.

With her father recently moved to a care facility, Beth Walsh volunteers to clear out the family home and is surprised to discover the door to her childhood playroom padlocked. She’s even more shocked at what’s behind it—a hoarder’s mess of her father’s paintings, mounds of discarded papers and miscellaneous junk in the otherwise fastidiously tidy house.

As she picks through the clutter, she finds a loose journal entry in what appears to be her late mother’s handwriting. Beth and her siblings grew up believing their mother died in a car accident when they were little more than toddlers, but this note suggests something much darker.

Beth soon pieces together a disturbing portrait of a woman suffering from postpartum depression and a husband who bears little resemblance to the loving father Beth and her siblings know. With a newborn of her own and struggling with motherhood, Beth finds there may be more tying her and her mother together than she ever suspected.

Review:

Truths I Never Told You by Kelly Rimmer is a touching novel that also features a slight mystery element.

In 1996, Beth Evans, her sister Ruth Turner, and their brothers Tim and Jeremy Walsh are devastated that their beloved father Patrick’s health problems have drastically deteriorated. After moving him into hospice care, Beth volunteers to pack up the house so they can decide what to do with it. Shocked by a discovery in the attic, Beth becomes obsessed with learning the truth about their long deceased mother Grace.

In the late 1950s, Grace is a young wife who dearly loves her husband. Already struggling financially, the birth of four children in quick succession is taking a huge mental toll on Grace. Left on her own to care their kids, Grace battles deep postpartum depression that worsens with each subsequent baby.  With Patrick failing to understand how deeply hopeless and lonely she feels, Grace puts her dark thoughts to paper hoping for relief. But becoming increasingly desperate, she turns to her older sister Mary Ann for help.

After years of infertility, Beth and her husband Hunter are now parents to five month old Noah.  Beth is still on maternity leave and she keeps her doubts and insecurities to herself.  But it is soon apparent to Hunter and the rest of her family that Beth is dealing with something much worse than new parent anxieties and  exhaustion. Although Beth tries to convince them she is just trying to traverse the intricacies of new motherhood while preparing to lose her beloved father, will she accept that she needs professional help?

Grace’s portion of the storyline is told through the letters she writes that her children later unearth.  They are confronted with a very different portrait of the father they adore.  Beth is also troubled by conflicting information she discovers that leads to a bit of a mystery about those long ago events.  Can the siblings uncover the truth about what happened to their mother?

Truths I Never Told You is an engrossing novel with a storyline that deals with postpartum depression in two different time periods.  The story also touches on women’s expected roles, their limited choices and lack of autonomy during the late 1950s. The characters are three-dimensional and while it is easy to empathize with their circumstances, some are more likeable than others. Kelly Rimmer delicately broaches difficult subject matter with a great deal of sensitivity.  The novel comes to a satisfying and uplifting conclusion. A well-written story that is quite thought-provoking. Highly recommend.

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Filed under Graydon House, Historical (20s), Historical (50s), Historical (90s), Kelly Rimmer, Rated B+, Review, Truths I Never Told You, Women's Fiction

Review: The Operator by Gretchen Berg

Title: The Operator by Gretchen Berg
Publisher: William Morrow
Genre: Historical (50’s), Fiction
Length: 352 pages
Book Rating: C

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

A clever, surprising, and ultimately moving debut novel, set in a small Midwestern town in the early 1950s, about a nosy switchboard operator who overhears gossip involving her own family, and the unraveling that discovery sets into motion.

In a small town, everyone knows everyone else’s business . . .

Nobody knows the people of Wooster, Ohio, better than switchboard operator Vivian Dalton, and she’d be the first to tell you that. She calls it intuition. Her teenage daughter, Charlotte, calls it eavesdropping.

Vivian and the other women who work at Bell on East Liberty Street connect lines and lives. They aren’t supposed to listen in on conversations, but they do, and they all have opinions on what they hear—especially Vivian. She knows that Mrs. Butler’s ungrateful daughter, Maxine, still hasn’t thanked her mother for the quilt she made, and that Ginny Frazier turned down yet another invitation to go to the A&W with Clyde Walsh.

Then, one cold December night, Vivian listens in on a call between that snob Betty Miller and someone whose voice she can’t quite place and hears something shocking. Betty Miller’s mystery friend has news that, if true, will shatter Vivian’s tidy life in Wooster, humiliating her and making her the laughingstock of the town.

Vivian may be mortified, but she isn’t going to take this lying down. She’s going to get to the bottom of that rumor—get into it, get under it, poke around in the corners. Find every last bit. Vivian wants the truth, no matter how painful it may be.

But as Vivian is about to be reminded, in a small town like Wooster, one secret usually leads to another. .

Review:

The Operator by Gretchen Berg is a character driven novel set in 1950s Wooster, OH.

Vivian Dalton is a thirty-eight year old switchboard operator whose eavesdropping on people’s phone calls is about to rock her world. Frenemy Betty Miller learns some hot gossip from a conversation with an unknown caller about Vivian. Absolutely furious over the revelation, Vivian is determined to unearth the truth. But will learning whether this information is true or not have any effect on Vivian’s decisions about her future?

Vivian is from very humble beginnings and she is quite envious of Betty’s well to do life. The two women are in  bit of a competition and things take an ugly turn due to the malicious gossip.  In the course of investigating the  scandalous news that affects her life, Vivian also discovers shocking information about another family in Wooster. Revealing these details would satisfy her need for revenge, but will Vivian go through with her plans?

The storyline is interesting but the pacing is somewhat slow. The narration meanders quite a bit and the significance of other events occurring in Wooster do not become clear until the novel’s end. None of the characters are particularly likable and the women are rather catty and vindictive. Vivian does grow and evolve through the story which does help redeem her.

The Operator is an entertaining novel that is a little superficial despite touching on serious subject matter such as racism and bigotry. With some unexpected plot twists very late in the story, Gretchen Berg wraps up the novel with a satisfying conclusion.

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Filed under Fiction, Gretchen Berg, Historical, Historical (50s), Review, The Operator

Review: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

Title: Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown
Publisher: Dutton
Genre: Contemporary, Historical (’50s), Mystery, Women’s Fiction
Length: 335 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

In this captivating dual narrative novel, a modern-day woman finds inspiration in hidden notes left by her home’s previous owner, a quintessential 1950s housewife. As she discovers remarkable parallels between this woman’s life and her own, it causes her to question the foundation of her own relationship with her husband–and what it means to be a wife fighting for her place in a patriarchal society.

When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home’s basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner–1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life–including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.

Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie’s secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister–even dangerous–side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.

Review:

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown is an insightful novel with a dual timeline and a slight mystery element.

In 2018, Alice Hall reluctantly leaves the city for the suburbs when husband Nate finds the house of his dreams. Alice is less than thrilled with their new life, but she hopes to take advantage of the opportunity to start writing her novel.  But she is not making much progress as she whiles away her time reading through the 1950s cookbook, magazines and letters  left behind by the previous owner, Nellie Murdoch. Alice is fascinated with Nellie’s life and begins to feel a kinship with her due to her growing dissatisfaction with her life and marriage. Both Nellie and Alice are hiding secrets but will Alice’s marriage fare better than Nellie’s?

Alice is keeping some important information from Nate, but she easily justifies her choices. She is also not all ready for the changes Nate is hoping for but she keeps her doubts to herself.  With Alice’s misgivings growing, she is soon immersed in Nellie’s life.  Intrigued by the recipes in Nellie’s family cookbook, Alice begins to dabble in preparing home cooked desserts and meals. She also truly immerses herself in the ’50s as she begins dressing in vintage clothes and trying her hand at gardening. She also makes a huge decision that is directly at odds with Nate’s wishes. When carefully crafted lies, secrets and decisions begin to emerge, will Alice’s and Nate’s marriage survive in the aftermath of shocking revelations?

Nellie is just starting married life with her older husband Richard in their new home. She is quite young but hopeful for her future. Nellie creates a beautiful garden and forms an unexpected friendship with her elderly neighbor, Miriam.  Eager to begin a family, Nellie and Richard are both disappointed when a baby proves elusive. But, as her cookbook and letters reveal, all is not happy within the Murdoch household. Richard is controlling and abusive but Nellie is no shrinking violet. With few options available to women, will Nellie escape from her increasingly violent husband?

Recipe for a Perfect Wife is a riveting novel with a delightfully unique storyline and colorful characters. Alice is not exactly a sympathetic character and many of her problems are of her making. Nate is charming man but as their once happy marriage begins to deteriorate, Alice realizes her husband is keeping a few secrets of his own.  Nellie is an extremely likable woman and she quite inventive as she stealthily handles her problems on her own. With some shocking twists and very unexpected turns,  Karma Brown brings the novel to an exceptionally surprising conclusion. A very clever novel that I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend.

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Filed under Contemporary, Dutton, Historical, Historical (50s), Karma Brown, Mystery, Rated B+, Recipe for a Perfect Wife, Review, Women's Fiction

Review: The Accidentals by Minrose Gwin

Title: The Accidentals by Minrose Gwin
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Historical, Women’s Fiction
Length: 402 pages
Book Rating: C+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss

Summary:

Following the death of their mother from a botched backwoods abortion, the McAlister daughters have to cope with the ripple effect of this tragedy as they come of age in 1950s Mississippi and then grow up to face their own impossible choices—an unforgettable, beautiful novel that is threaded throughout with the stories of mothers and daughters in pre-Roe versus Wade America.

Life heads down back alleys, takes sharp left turns. Then, one fine day it jumps the track and crashes.”

In the fall of 1957, Olivia McAlister is living in Opelika, Mississippi, caring for her two girls, June and Grace, and her husband, Holly. She dreams of living a much larger life–seeing the world and returning to her wartime job at a landing boat factory in New Orleans. As she watches over the birds in her yard, Olivia feels like an “accidental”—a migratory bird blown off course.

When Olivia becomes pregnant again, she makes a fateful decision, compelling Grace, June, and Holly to cope in different ways. While their father digs up the backyard to build a bomb shelter, desperate to protect his family, Olivia’s spinster sister tries to take them all under her wing. But the impact of Olivia’s decision reverberates throughout Grace’s and June’s lives. Grace, caught up in an unconventional love affair, becomes one of the “girls who went away” to have a baby in secret. June, guilt-ridden for her part in exposing Grace’s pregnancy, eventually makes an unhappy marriage. Meanwhile Ed Mae Johnson, an African-American care worker in a New Orleans orphanage, is drastically impacted by Grace’s choices.

As the years go by, their lives intersect in ways that reflect the unpredictable nature of bird flight that lands in accidental locations—and the consolations of imperfect return.

Filled with tragedy, humor, joy, and the indomitable strength of women facing the constricted spaces of the 1950s and 60s, The Accidentals is a poignant, timely novel that reminds us of the hope and consolation that can be found in unexpected landings.

Review:

The Accidentals by Minrose Gwin is a family saga that spans several decades.

In 1957, Olivia McAlister lives in a small Mississippi town with her husband Holly and their daughters June and Grace. Olivia wants nothing more than to move back to New Orleans and return to work, but Holly cannot find a job that pays as much as his current position. When she discovers she is pregnant again, Olivia makes an ill-fated decision that changes the course of her family’s lives for years to come.

In the aftermath, Holly is devastated and with the threat of nuclear war a real possibility, he begins preparing to build a bomb shelter. He is also drinking too much and ignoring June and Olivia.  The girls are left to fend for themselves until Olivia’s unmarried sister Frances swoops in to help them.  But her attention is short-lived and the girls are again neglected after their aunt returns to New Orleans.

Fast forward a few years and Grace is happily involved in an unusual romance.  After a  shocking discovery, she begins making plans that will hopefully provide her with the chance for happiness. But once June becomes involved, Grace has no choice over what happens next. This unfortunate series of events leaves Grace unable to forgive June and their once close relationship remains fractured over their lifetime. June also makes decisions that take her life down an unhappy path that she might not have necessarily chosen under different circumstances.

Perhaps the most tragic person whose life is touched by the McAlister family is African American care worker Ed Mae Johnson. A situation out of her control and a moment of inattention on her part culminate with devastating consequences.

Although the storyline is interesting, the pacing is slow and a bit disjointed. Some of the passages are a little vague which makes it difficult to understand what exactly is going on. Several paragraphs are long and rambling and do not add much to the unfolding story. The storyline covers several decades but readers must decipher the time period from  vague mentions of cultural events. The chapters alternate between several characters’ points of view but these transitions are clearly marked.

The Accidentals is an intriguing novel that is quite thought-provoking. The characters are interesting but not always easy to like.  Minrose Gwin deftly handles difficult subject matter with sensitivity. While the majority of the novel is overshadowed by sadness, the conclusion is surprisingly uplifting and wraps up all of the various story arcs.

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Filed under Historical, Historical (50s), Minrose Gwin, Rated C+, Review, The Accidentals, William Morrow Paperbacks

Review: Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood

Title: Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Genre: Historical (40s & 50s), Crime Fiction
Length: 368 pages
Book Rating: B+

Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through NetGalley

Summary:

Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11 year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth’s, she has no way of knowing that 52 year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he’s an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute—unless she does as he says.

This chilling novel traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends, and those she meets along the way.

Based on the experiences of real-life kidnapping victim Sally Horner and her captor, whose story shocked the nation and inspired Vladimir Nabokov to write his controversial and iconic Lolita, this heart-pounding story by award-winning author T. Greenwood at last gives a voice to Sally herself.

Review:

Set in 1948, Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood is a heartrending fictionalized novel based on the real life kidnapping of Sally Horner.

After seeing a group of girls become “blood sisters”,  shy and friendless eleven year old Sally Horner agrees their “initiation” to their club. Despite her qualms about getting caught, Sally steals a composition notebook from Woolworth’s. She is caught leaving the store by a man claiming to be an FBI agent who tells her she is under arrest. Unbeknownst to Sally, he is in actuality, a recently released ex-convict  named Frank LeSalle. In an effort to spare her widowed mother, Ella, the truth about her “crime”, Sally convinces her mom that Frank is taking her on a family vacation to Atlantic City with her daughter’s classmate. Ella has no reason to doubt the veracity of his story and she leaves Sally with Frank at the local bus station. Thus begins Sally’s harrowing ordeal at the hands of a skillful manipulator who is also a child predator.

Sally is a lonely young girl who does not want to upset or disappoint her mother after Frank catches her stealing. She naively believes everything he tells her and although she picks up on puzzling inconsistencies in his explanations, she blindly follows his instructions.  When she does ask questions, Sally’s punishment is swift and violent. In a desperate attempt to return home, she inadvertently sets in motion their relocation to Baltimore.

In Baltimore, Sally continues to suffer horrific abuse yet Frank inexplicably enrolls her in school. He frightens her into keeping silent about their home life and she follows his order to the letter. Sally’s teacher, Sister Mary Katherine, instinctively realizes something is amiss with the young girl and she keeps a close eye on her new student. Yet when she finally decides to take action, Frank once again evades capture as he escapes with Sally and moves to Dallas, TX.

Now living in a trailer court, Sally remains firmly under Frank’s control while she forms a close bond with their neighbor Ruth. Unable to have children, Ruth spends many hours with Sally. It does not take long for suspicions to arise about what is going on in the trailer next door, but will Ruth be able to save the frightened young girl?

Rust & Stardust  is a truly captivating novel that deals with some very difficult subject matter. The dark and distressing storyline is relieved by genuine moments of true compassion and caring from the people whose lives are touched by Sally’s plight. This intricately plotted novel is loosely based on real life events and T. Greenwood brings this long forgotten crime vibrantly and sensitively to life. I highly recommend this tragic yet fascinating re-imagining of a horrific crime.

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Filed under Crime Fiction, Historical, Historical (40s), Historical (50s), Rated B+, Review, Rust & Stardust, St Martin's Press, T Greenwood