Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini

September 8, 2023

Canary Girls by Jennifer Chiaverini

At the outset of World War I, three women from different backgrounds all sign up for war work at a munitions plant just outside London. Two are assigned to shell assembly while the third carves out a place in administration as welfare supervisor. Shell assembly involves handling TNT which turns the women's skin yellow and their hair orange (hence the name canary girls). To keep up morale, the munitionettes form a football (soccer) team and compete against teams from other plants.

This has been described as Rosie the Riveter meets A League of Their Own, and I think that's a fair description. It's a look at the home front during World War I: doing war work, coping with rationing, trying to keep up morale while worrying about loved one serving at the front. The story was slow moving. I'm not really into sports (especially not soccer), so I skimmed over the parts of soccer matches and plays. Also, I think I could assemble an artillery shell from the repeated descriptions of the work. I think one of the reasons that I didn't love this more is that I'm tired of World War I and World War II fiction. Recommended for readers who enjoy historical fiction or fiction about women's lives.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Two canary girls

Little Souls by Sandra Dallas

December 28, 2022

Little Souls by Sandra Dallas

Denver, 1918 - as World War II is winding down and the Spanish flu epidemic is ramping up, sisters Helen and Lutie Hite are coping the best they can. Helen is a nurse, caring tirelessly for influenza victims while Lute works as a graphic artist for one of Denver's leading department stores. Both sisters are engaged to be married. But their pleasant lives are shattered when Lutie returns home from work to find Helen crouching over a dead man with an ice pick in her hand. More disasters await them as they struggle to hide the man's murder.

I have mixed reactions to Dallas' historical novels. I have really enjoyed some of them, others not so much. This is one of the not so much novels. It's not terrible but the characters didn't engage my interest. I figured out the romance angle way in advance of when it actually happened. Also, the child abuse storyline is difficult to read. "Little souls" was a slang term for child prostitutes. Not recommended unless you are a die-hard historical novel fan.

A warning sign from the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic, much like the advice we received in 2020-2021

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

December 16, 2021

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

Evie, her brother Will and Will's friend Tom have been friends since childhood. When Will and Tom are shipped off to serve in France during World War I, Evie promises to write to both of them. Evie is a prolific letter writer, and she also writes to her BFF Alice. Both Alice and Evie want to do more for the war effort than knit socks for the soldiers (despite the protests of their families). Evie gets a job delivering mail and the dreaded telegrams to her community, and she also begins to write a column for the local newspaper about life on the home front and the hardships that the soldiers are enduring in France. Along the way, she and Tom realize that their feelings for each other are stronger than just friendship.

Told through letters between the characters, the book's themes focus on the roles of women during wartime, PTSD (or "shell shock" as it was called then), and the realities of trench warfare. I usually enjoy epistolary fiction (who doesn't like reading someone else's letters?), but this had a little too much romance for me and I found the storyline predictable. But romance readers will love it, especially if they like historical romances.

Epistolary fiction has been around for a long time. Dangerous Liaisons was one of the very early books written in this style. If you want to try another epistolary novel, try The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which is set during and just after World War II and is a much better book, IMHO.

Sprinting Through No-Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France by Akin Dobkin

August 18, 2021

Sprinting Through No-Man's Land: Endurance, Tragedy, and Rebirth in the 1919 Tour de France by Adin Dobkin

In 1919, close to 70 soldiers-turned-cyclists gathered to hold the Tour de France, which had been suspended for four years because of World War I. They rode down the west coast of France and along the country's borders, through much of what was no-man's land during the war. Their persistence helped reunite a country torn apart by war.

This should have been a lot more interesting than it actually was. I enjoy narrative nonfiction, but the writing was really dry and boring, and I ended up skimming the last half. Too bad, because it could have been an exciting book.

No Man's Land - World War I

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC.

I Stopped Time by Jane Davis

March 14, 2020

I Stopped Time by Jane Davis

Sir James Hastings grew up without a mother – she abandoned their family when he was a baby.  So imagine his surprise when dozens of boxes of photographs are delivered to his house, his mother’s legacy of a lifetime of photography.  With the help of a local woman who is an art student, Sir James starts to go through the boxes and unravel the true story of his mother’s life.  Lottie, James’ mother, was a very modern woman for her time.  She not only abandoned her family to pursue a career of her own as a photographer, she also moved in with a man she was not married to and lived with him for over 50 years.  As James goes through his mother's photographs, he slowly realizes that they had more in common than he thought, and that the villain of his life wasn't so evil after all.

Jane Davis has written a remarkable piece of historical fiction that includes not only memorable characters, but wonderful descriptions that really evoke the time and place for the reader.  The story moves between two points of view and two eras, but since chapters are clearly labeled with the date and character, it is easy to follow and the two personal narratives are entwined seamlessly, right up to the satisfying conclusion.  Commonalities gradually emerge between the two main characters, such as not knowing much about their mothers, having unconventional lifestyles for their time, and unrelenting pigheadedness.

“Stopping time” refers to capturing a moment in time with a camera.  This is good escape fiction for the turbulent times that we are living through.  If you are interested in fiction about photographers, you might also like Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg.