There’s something about summer that makes me think of sipping mint juleps on
the front porch swing
under a lazy fan, lush ferns in pots, and the sound of bees buzzing in the
hydrangea bushes. For this
column, we’ll visit Roaring Twenties-to-World War II-era fiction set in the
South, New York and
Seattle.
In honor of that front-porch swing (it’s my
great-aunt’s house
overlooking a slow-moving creek outside Annapolis that I’m remembering from
childhood—minus the
mint juleps, of course) our first choice is Duncan W. Alderson’s debut
novel, MAGNOLIA
CITY.
About: "Love, oil and
family” sum up the themes in this book set in 1920’s Houston, Texas.
Inspired by seeing a picture of
his mother dressed as a flapper, native Houstonian Alderson creates a world
of cotton kings and
newly-rich oil barons. Born into this world is Hetty Allen, daughter of the
grandson of the Allen
brothers who founded Houston. Her father wants her to marry Lamar Rusk,
heir to the Splendora oil
fortune. But a chance meeting at carnival draws Hetty to Montana wildcatter
Garret MacBride.
Marriage to Lamar would establish her in the wealthy world of Houston’s
privileged. But ambitious
outsider Garret offers the lure of adventure, with secret meetings in jazz
clubs and nights of stolen
passion. Rumors of a major reservoir of oil in East Texas set the two men,
competitors in love and
business, on a reckless, high-stakes gamble to lose—or win—it all.
From Houston, Suzanne Hayes & Loretta Nyhan
take us to 1920’s
New York in EMPIRE
GIRLS.
About: Upon the death of
their father, Rose and Ivy Adams discover that, not only has he left the
estate in financial ruin, he has
also willed their family home to a brother they didn’t even know existed.
Armed only with a
photograph but determined to hang on to what is theirs, the sisters travel
to New York City to find the
missing heir.
Spirited, would-be actress Ivy revels in the intoxicating world of Roaring
Twenties Manhattan, while
her domestically inclined elder sister Rose tries to keep them out of
trouble as they find rooms at
Empire House, a boarding house for women, and begin jobs at a boutique whose
owner who also
runs a speakeasy. To survive the city and find the stranger who is their
brother, the sisters must
overcome their differences, strengthen the bond between them, and learn to
trust each other.
Another story set partly in New York but
ranging to London and
Paris is THE BEAUTIFUL AMERICAN by Jeanne Mackin.
Blending fictional
characters and real
people, the novel begins just after World War II, as expatriate American
Nora Tours leaves her home
in Southern France for London, searching for her missing sixteen-year-old
daughter, worried that her
efforts to survive the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter’s life. In
London, she encounters an
old acquaintance, model and photographer Lee Miller, who is still
traumatized by the horrors she
witnessed as a war photographer.
About: The two women
connected years earlier in 1920’s Paris, where quiet, reserved Nora was in
love with her childhood
sweetheart, aspiring professional photographer Jaimie, and beautiful,
sensual Lee just beginning her
rise to fame as the mistress of celebrated photographer Man Ray. The two
women are drawn into the
world of working artists in Paris, a setting the author enriches with
vignettes of artists of the period
(Man Ray and Lee Miller are real people as well.) But their relationship
goes back even further, to their
childhood in New York, where Nora’s father was the gardener for Miller’s
wealthy family. When Lee
offers to help Nora in her search, old silences are slowly ended and old
betrayals healed.
The final selection shifts focus from east coast to west, in BENEDICT HALL by Cate Campbell.
About: Set in Seattle in
the 20's, the novel explores the lives of the wealthy Benedict family of
Benedict Hall and their
servants. Like every city, Seattle is reeling from the societal changes set
in motion by the maelstrom
of World War I. In this time of rapid change, Margot, the family’s forward-
thinking daughter, fights
prejudice to make a career for herself as a physician. Drawn to her, Boeing
engineer Frank Parrish
pursues a relationship, but Margot’s vindictive brother Preston has other
plans for thwarting his sister.
Against the background of Pike Place Market, the Alexis Hotel, Frederick &
Nelson and including
copy from real Seattle Times columnist C. B. Blethen, this richly-textured
novel brings a Downton
Abbey focus to the upstairs-downstairs of Roaring Twenties Seattle.
After twelve years as a vagabond Navy wife, an adventure that took her from
Virginia Beach, VA, to
Monterrey, CA, to Tunis, Tunisia to Oslo, Norway and back, Julia
Justiss followed her
husband to his family's East Texas homeland. On a hill above a pond with a
view of pasture land, they
built an English Georgian-style home. Sitting at her desk there, if she
ignores the summer heat, she
can almost imagine herself in Jane Austen's Regency England.
In between teaching high school French and making jaunts to visit her three
children (a Seabee in
Gulfport, MS, a clothing buyer in Houston and a mechanical engineer in
Austin, TX) she pursues her
first love—writing historical fiction.
Dominic Ransleigh lost more than his arm in battle—he lost his reason for
living. Returning to his
family seat, he shuns all society. If only his beautiful, plainspoken
tenant, Theodora Branwell, wasn't
so hard to ignore-
Since her fiancé's death on the battlefield, Theo's devoted herself to
caring for soldiers' orphans.
She's powerfully attracted to Dom, but knows all too well the consequences
of temptation. Is Theo,
who's survived so much, brave enough to reveal her secret to her handsome,
wounded neighbor?
The books that you chose are wonderful, and I've already made note of them. I love books from that era, since they remind me of when my Parents were toddlers. The outfits they wore were so flashy, yet beautiful, and it was a turbulent time in History, as time went on. Who wouldn't want to read these books?? Your latest book is nothing to sneeze at, either!! The story line tore at my heart, and I can't wait to get my hands on a copy to find out how it all plays out. Thank you so much for stopping by today, to let us know about all of this great reading material!! You've just tied me up for at least a good month!! ha (Peggy Roberson 10:30am August 21, 2015)
Thanks, Peggy! I hope you enjoy some of these pics. They are all on my TBR list! (Julia Justiss 4:53pm August 22, 2015)