Summer is officially over, and now it’s the season to fall in love with books. This month’s Book Report takes us to three different eras from the past with books that have flown under the radar.
If you just can’t let go of summer, Suzanne Rindell’s sweet “Summer Fridays” will keep the summer vibe going. The novel takes place in 1999 New York City, when AOL was the hot thing.
Sawyer works as an assistant at a publishing house and is planning a wedding to her live-in college boyfriend, Charles, who is beginning his career as a lawyer. She is not so much planning a wedding as allowing her future mother-in-law to completely take over the wedding planning.
Charles is working long hours with his attractive colleague Kendra. This doesn’t really bother Sawyer until Kendra’s boyfriend Nick sends her an email insinuating that Charles and Kendra are having an affair.
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Nick and Sawyer strike up an online email friendship, which leads to Nick joining Sawyer on her summer Friday lunches in a local park. Sawyer and Nick have a platonic relationship, but could it be more? Does Sawyer have more in common with Nick than Charles? You’ll have to read “Summer Fridays” to find out. Fans of the movie “You’ve Got Mail” will be delighted.
I liked the New York City setting here, and the characters are interesting. I read Suzanne Rindell’s historical novel “The Other Typist” and loved it, and “Summer Fridays” is very different from that book but just as wonderful.
Madeline Martin takes the reader to World War II England in “The Booklover’s Library.” In Nottingham, England, Emma is a young widow with a 7-year-old daughter, Olivia. The war against Germany is just ramping up, and Emma is having a difficult time finding a job, as widows and married women are discouraged from working.
While Emma is able to secure a position at the booklover’s library in a chemist shop, she must hide the fact that she has a child. They live in an apartment building, and we meet some of the other tenants, including a grumpy older man and an older widow who is willing to care for Olivia part-time.
As Germany begins to bomb England, a program begins where people are encouraged to send their children to the countryside because it is thought they will be safer from the bombing that is happening in the cities.
Since Emma must work at her job to support herself and Olivia, she makes the difficult decision to send Olivia to the countryside to a family she doesn’t know. Olivia sends Emma letters begging to come home, and Emma struggles with the decision she made.
Martin does an incredible job putting readers in the shoes of Emma. As we read, we wonder what would we have done in Emma’s place. The author also paints such a vivid picture of life during war in England.
The author did a great deal of research into the lending libraries found in chemist shops at this time. I was fascinated by Emma’s job and found myself wanting to learn even more about them than I found in the author’s notes at the end of the book. If you like historical fiction, “The Booklover’s Library” is one you will definitely want to read.
For the nonfiction fan, Scott G. Shea’s “All the Leaves Are Brown” shares the true story of the rise and fall of the 1960s super group The Mamas and The Papas.
Diane LaRue
Shea traces the beginnings of the group, starting with a detailed biography of the group’s leader and songwriter, John Phillips. We follow John’s story from his childhood as the son of a military man, through his troubled teen years, and his love of music.
Along the way, John (who was already married) falls in love with a much younger Michelle Gilliam, and eventually they end up with Canadian folk singer Denny Doherty and the vivacious and amazing singer Cass Elliot to become the Mamas and the Papas.
Shea shares the ups and downs, the love triangles, the rampant drug use (that part just astonished me — so many drugs!), the talent and the incredible music they made during the last part of the 1960s. The Monterey Pop Festival that John Phillips created with others is described in great detail, and I found that very interesting.
After reading “All the Leaves Are Brown,” I immediately put on a Mamas and Papas playlist and wow, they were fantastic. This one is for fans of 1960s music, Fleetwood Mac and Taylor Jenkins Reid’s “Daisy Jones & the Six.”
Diane LaRue is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and blogs about books at http://bookchickdi.blogspot.com. She is president of the Friends of Webster Library and manages the Book Cellar, a nonprofit used bookstore that benefits branch libraries of the New York Public Library in New York City.
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