America has the bloodiest labor history in the industrialized world, along with the lowest level of unionization. THE MAN WHO NEVER DIED tells the story of Joe Hill, an IWW organizer and songwriter, who was convicted of murder (probably wrongly) and executed by a Utah firing squad. What most inspired me was the courage and sacrifices ordinary men and women made in order to create a better world for the masses--many who didn't appreciate it. It is also a sad reminder that the more things change, the more they remain the same. A continued war against organized labor--now at its lowest level of unionization ever--and the backsliding of laws, such as child labor and safety--that so many fought and died for. Joe Hill's story particularly resonated me with because my own grandfather, a recent emigree from Bulgaria, would have been in Utah at precisely this time--along with a wife and four little boys--and would have inhabited the same world brought so vividly to life by William Adler's fine book.
In 1914, Joe Hill, the prolific songwriter for the Industrial Workers of the World (also known as the Wobblies), was convicted of murder in Utah and sentenced to death by firing squad, igniting international controversy. In the first major biography of the radical historical icon, William M. Adler explores an extraordinary life and presents persuasive evidence of Hill's innocence. Hill would become organized labor's most venerated martyr, and a hero to folk singers such as Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan. His story shines a beacon on the early-twentieth-century American experience and exposes the roots of issues critical to the twenty-first…
THE SOLDIER'S WIFE is a perennial favorite for me. Margaret Leroy portrayed life on the isolated island of Guernsey so exquisitely I felt as if I was experiencing this small slice of WWII along with the characters. I was particularly struck by Leroy's intricate knowledge of the island's plant life--especially since I can't tell a dandelion from a buttercup. Her writing style is lush, and she perfectly captures the time period in exquisite detail, but never enough to become boring. I appreciated her portrayal of the German occupiers, reminding me that they were complicated human beings rather than cardboard villains. It's very easy to judge others from the distance of time and historical perspective, but under the same circumstances would we have behaved any differently from Vivienne and Gunther, her German lover?
A novel full of grand passion and intensity, The Soldier's Wife asks "What would you do for your family?", "What should you do for a stranger?", and "What would you do for love?"
As World War II draws closer and closer to Guernsey, Vivienne de la Mare knows that there will be sacrifices to be made. Not just for herself, but for her two young daughters and for her mother-in-law, for whom she cares while her husband is away fighting. What she does not expect is that she will fall in love with one of the enigmatic German soldiers who…
Once again Ian Mortimer makes my list. Because I am not a historian, I have a hard time researching when the prose is so dry it puts me to sleep. Mortimer really does make me feel like a time traveler. In every chapter I find myself in a medieval inn; enjoying a shave or suffering a bloodletting; dancing carols and playing strange musical instruments; marveling at the big, bad knight who rhapsodizes over the fragrances of his favorite flowers. (A detail I used in one of my historicals.) I particularly love Mortimer's chapters dealing with the medieval character--yet another reminder that the past really is a foreign country--and that they indeed do things differently there.
The past is a foreign country. This is your guidebook. Imagine you could get into a time machine and travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see? What would you smell? More to the point, where are you going to stay? Should you go to a castle or a monastic guest house? And what are you going to eat? What sort of food are you going to be offered by a peasant or a monk or a lord? This radical new approach turns our entire understanding of history upside down. It shows us that the past is not…
Bel Lucy might be the wildly successful owner of Bella Publishing, specializing in romances, steamy and sweet, but she doesn’t believe in love. Bel certainly doesn’t believe in love after a wrong turn in the haunted Castle by the Sea lands her in fourteenth-century Ireland where she is forced to endure the company of the musclebound—not to mention poorly groomed—knight, Alaric DeLaMer.
In a time of famine and civil war, Alaric proves to be Bel’s protector and ultimately her beloved. When Bel is returned to the 21st century by a duplicitous alchemist, she risks everything to battle her way back to Alaric. But will her eternal beloved be waiting in his Castle by the Sea?
