“From the New York Times bestselling author of The Bookshop at Water’s End, here is a lush, heart-wrenching novel about the power of memory, the meaning of family, and learning to forgive.”

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/242179/patti-callahan-henry/

Coming June 2019

“Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author whose novels include The Bookshop at Water’s End, The Idea of Love, The Stories We Tell, and Driftwood Summer. As Patti Callahan, she’s the author of the USA Today bestseller Becoming Mrs. Lewis. Short-listed for the Townsend Prize for Fiction, and nominated multiple times for the Southern Inde­pendent Booksellers Alliance (SIBA) Book Award for Fiction, Patti is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs, and women’s groups.”

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“All that had seemed real was illusion…” It’s been ten years since Colleen Donahue experienced the worst day of her life: On her wedding day a family betrayal sent her fleeing to New York City to reinvent herself. Only the devastating news of the dreaded “Alzheimer’s” word could bring her back to Watersend, South Carolina. Lena has become a well-known travel journalist, but the place rarely on her travel itinerary is “home.”

Alzheimer’s or some stage of dementia has affected many families today. Each person affected and their families deal with this devastating disease in different ways. The Favorite Daughter highlights the siblings’ efforts to come together for their dad; needing to squash years of heartache and feelings of betrayal in order to preserve their precious dad’s memory-all the while finding breaks and twists in the family timeline that surprise them all.

This family’s journey is not as long as some I’ve known. Patti Callahan Henry has a way of entreating the reader to stop and think along the way and come to grips with “what if’s” in your own family. Sorting out family dramas can be difficult; finding your way “home” to love and forgiveness can be a life-long journey. I recommend that you put The Favorite Daughter on your reading itinerary and see where it takes you.

www.goodreads.com/review/show/2664707939

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

COMING NOVEMBER 2019
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40024145-across-a-broken-shore

Amy Trueblood grew up in California only ten minutes from Disneyland which sparked an early interest in storytelling. As the youngest of five, she spent most of her time trying to find a quiet place to curl up with her favorite books. After graduating from the University of Arizona with a degree in journalism, she worked in entertainment in Los Angeles before returning to work in Arizona. 

Fueled by good coffee and an awesome Spotify playlist, you can often find Amy blogging and writing. Nothing But Sky, a 2018 Junior Library Guild selection, is her first novel .

“The Golden Gate Bridge is an iconic structure connecting the city of San Francisco to Marin County, California. It spans almost two miles across the Golden Gate, the narrow strait where San Francisco Bay opens to meet the Pacific Ocean. The dream of connecting San Francisco to its northern neighbors became a reality when construction commenced in 1933. Given the chance for steady employment amid the Great Depression, construction crews braved treacherous conditions as the roadway and towers took shape over open water. The Golden Gate Bridge, opened to the public in 1937, has endured as a picture-perfect landmark and an engineering marvel. ”
https://www.history.com/topics/landmarks/golden-gate-bridge

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

It’s 1936 and Willa MacCarthy is certain she has no options. She’s known since she was 12 that she would become a postulate at the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Spirit and take her vows. The only girl in this Irish Catholic family, her Mam & Da and four protective brothers expect her to become a nun.

San Francisco is coming back to life as the building of the Golden Gate Bridge is bringing the citizens hope with so many construction jobs. Even though dangerous, the lure of steady paychecks is worth the risks involved. The MacCarthy boys are willing to wait to be chosen to work on the bridge, while Willa, now 18, secretly reads Grey’s Anatomy in her bedroom and attends parties with her somehow wealthy high school friend, Cara Reilly. Willa and her brothers face the same decisions as youth do today: respect parental expectations or follow your calling? Willa’s chance meeting of Dr. Katherine Winston certainly seems to acknowledge the peace she finds when “doctoring,’ as opposed to the deep fear that envelops her in the pew at church. Finding her voice, coping with guilt, confession & forgiveness and allowing for failures to become achievement, are just some of the issues dealt with by Willa and her family.

Mam & Da’s life long dream of having her enter the Convent of the Sisters of the Sacred Spirit has a profound impact on Willa. Dr. Katherine Winston, who mentors and encourages Willa, Sam Butler, whose transient life Willa changes, and the struggling Cleery family at the Hooverville camp, all play important roles in Wilhelmina MacCarthy’s decision to take her vows and enter the convent or follow her heart to become a doctor.
Willa’s dilemma of choosing between honoring her parents and the women of her past by entering the convent or following her call to be a doctor, the “hand of God in the world,” will keep you “praying and hoping” until the final page.

Kim Michele Richardson lives in Kentucky and resides part-time in Western North Carolina. She has volunteered for Habitat for Humanity, building houses, and is an advocate for the prevention of child abuse and domestic violence, partnering with the U.S. Navy globally to bring awareness and education to the prevention of domestic violence. She is the author of the bestselling memoir The Unbreakable Child, and a book critic for the New York Journal of Books. Her novels include, Liar’s Bench, GodPretty in the Tobacco Field and The Sisters of Glass Ferry. Kim Michele currently finished her fourth novel, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek about the fierce and brave Kentucky Packhorse librarians. Coming May 7, 2019.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Courage. Perseverance. Bigotry. Dedication. Love. This novel will make you “sit up and think!” This is the story of the librarians known as “Book Women” during Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration ( WPA) . These women, and a few men, traveled by horse, mule, boat, or even by foot to reach their devoted patrons in the woods, coves, and up the creeks of Kentucky. The Pack Horse librarians were paid $28 a month and depended on donations for books, magazines, and newspapers for their deliveries.

Cussy Mary Carter, the Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, is one of the Blue People of Kentucky. She lives with her father who works in the coal mines. Cussy Mary’s dad tells her she is the last of the blue mountainfolk. Any emotion turns her skin “as blue as the familiar bluet damselfly skimming Kentucky creek beds,” so the doctor has nicknamed her Bluet.

All the book lovers who have ever tried so hard to find a book to match a reader’s interests will identify with Cussy Mary and her absolute determination to find the perfect “read” for each of her patrons. This reader was enthralled by Cussy Mary’s courage to endure persecution and bigotry as she carries on with her deliveries; overcoming physical attacks, weather related storms and those human ones caused by fellow mountainfolk due to her color. Do the doctors find a cure for her color through their experiments at Saint Joseph Hospital? Will that really bring her happiness and a marriage? You’ll find yourself loving, hating-crying, cheering- all at the same time. Do yourself a favor and put The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek on your “to be read list.” You’ll thank librarians everywhere!

Available NOW

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40640862-american-princess

Stephanie Thornton is a writer and history teacher who has been obsessed with forgotten women from history since she was twelve. She lives with her husband and daughter in Alaska.

“Merry H*ll!” What a character Alice Roosevelt turned out to be! The bold, brash, beautiful eldest daughter of Theodore and Alice Lee Roosevelt said this about herself at 86 years old,”I miss the hedonistic hellion who smoked foul-smelling cigarettes on the roof of the White House, feted mustachioed German princes and an iron-fisted Chinese empress, and inspired the rage for the color Alice Blue in the spring of 1902!”

From Washington D.C. and the White House to jaunts in the Far East to the Adirondack Mountains and Sagamore Hill, this reader thoroughly enjoyed the wild, emotional ride through the whole 96 years of Alice’s personal and political life. Stephanie Thornton, author & history teacher, takes the reader inside the workings of political campaigns, the elation and celebrations of victorious elections, and then those that ended in “agony and defeat.” The love/hate relationship that Alice endures with Nick Longworth and the gut wrenching empathy that is evoked from her desperate pleas for the love and attention of Theodore Roosevelt, left this reader needing an emotional break-but for just a quick breather, and then to return to the global impact of WW l, the fight for the League of Nations, the Depression, and many more presidential elections. Alice eventually authors her memoirs and a syndicated column for newspapers; including her views on the rise of Hitler, Edward Vlll’s abdication in Britain, and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal-“hitting them between the eyes just as her father had.”

Such a long life -in Alice’s later years she chats with Eleanor about the United Nations and even presidential hopefuls Nixon and John F. Kennedy- who she says no one had ever heard of!

American Princess-“Daughter of one of America’s most beloved presidents, cousin and antagonist to another, wife of the most debonair Speaker of the House, mistress to the most famous senator of the century, mother and grandmother…. the other Washington Monument.”

Lovers of American history will relish these Theodore Roosevelt quotes: “When you’re at the end of of your rope, Sissy, tie a knot and hang on.” “Soldier on with a stiff upper lip.” And, one of Alice’s favorite’s from her cousin, Eleanor, “A woman is like a tea bag. You never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water. ”

Alice, the avid reader, reflects on how Voltaire had once mused “that life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.” Alice Roosevelt Longworth did endure many “shipwrecks” in her life, but then she did always remember “to sing in the lifeboat.”

“KRISTINA MCMORRIS is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author. Her novels have garnered more than two dozen literary awards and nominations, including the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, RWA’s RITA® Award, and a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Historical Fiction. Inspired by true personal and historical accounts, her works of fiction have been published by Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and Kensington Books. Her forthcoming novel, Sold on a Monday (Sourcebooks Landmark, 8-28-18), follows her widely praised The Edge of Lost, The Pieces We Keep, Bridge of Scarlet Leaves, and Letters from Home.”
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4384611.Kristina_McMorris

In her latest novel, Kristina McMorris tells the story of Ellis, the unconventional newspaperman assigned to the women’s pages- a “sob sister.” This was a humiliating assignment for Ellis, on several accounts, but also led the author to read about the first “real” male editor of the women’s page at the Toronto Star- he was nicknamed Nellie, as in Nellie Bly. This tidbit led the Grateful Reader to her own research and so I have included a link for you to read more about this famous woman journalist.

Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

“In 1887, Nellie Bly stormed into the office of the New York World, one of the leading newspapers in the country. She expressed interest in writing a story on the immigrant experience in the United States. Although, the editor declined her story he challenged Bly to investigate one of New York’s most notorious mental hospitals. Bly not only accepted the challenge, she decided to feign mental illness to gain admission and expose how patients were treated. With this courageous and bold act Bly cemented her legacy as one of the foremost female journalists in history. “
By Arlisha R. Norwood, NWHM Fellow | 2017

Nellie Bly 1864-1922

Do you believe that one single decision in your life can spur a series of significant unforeseen effects? As in a “domino effect?” Whether you agreed yes, immediately, or the question gave you “pause to ponder;” after reading Sold on a Monday, you may think differently. The Depression era setting and the newspaper copy room as a backdrop make for a compelling tale involving the photograph of dirty, hungry looking children slumped on the steps of a rundown dwelling with the mother on the porch behind them; seeming to shield her face in embarrassment. What glues the readers’ eyes to the newspaper is the sign that says,”Children For Sale!” The woman in the picture is Geraldine Dillard; she makes some gut wrenching decisions regarding her children, the kind which no parent should face. The paths of reporter Ellis, assigned to the “women’s pages,” and Lilly, a single career woman cross, and together, they get themselves involved in some harrowing, edge of law breaking experiences. The journey of these three characters all started with the picture in the newspaper. Kristina McMorris will take the reader on quite a ride of emotions; dealing with guilt, grief, and decisions and judgments based on morals and “what’s right.” Be ready for reflection on the choices and actions of Geraldine, Ellis, and Lilly; and then perhaps some grappling and realizations regarding some of your own choices. The Grateful Reader appreciates books with characters and situations that resonate and linger for a lengthy time. This novel earns all the stars!

” Camille recently left an award-winning real estate career in San Antonio to become a full-time writer. Along with her husband of twenty-one years, she enjoys raising their four children. She has a bucket list that is never-ending, and uses her adventures to inspire her writing. She’s lived in Texas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and California, and spends enough time in Hawai’i to feel like a local. She’s traveled to four continents (so far), and met Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II. She just about fainted when she had a chance to meet her musical idol, Paul McCartney, too.”

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

Kate Morgan left her family’s struggling restaurant in San Francisco to follow her grandfather’s daily request,”Find the beautiful stranger!” After overcoming several “road blocks,” Kate follows her dreams to “work around the glamour of Hollywood and under the beauty of palm trees.” She heads south and finds the “white as a cake” Hotel del Coronado perched on an island, connected by ferry boat. Her goal is to land a job on the set of a movie being filmed at the hotel. Kate meets a young man, Sean, on the ferry crossing. She reveals her name and he “looked ashen. The ghost. The Hotel del Coronado has a ghost. And her name is Kate Morgan.” Thus begins the unraveling of “the beautiful stranger!”

If you love the beach, with its palm trees, sun, and sand; a mystery, iconic Hollywood movies and stars; and a love story-on many levels- read The Beautiful Strangers; preferably while sitting with a view of the ocean!

Review Coming Soon:

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor & Heather Webbhttps://www.hazelgaynor.com/news/introducing-meet-me-in-monaco/

Susan Meissner is a former managing editor of a weekly newspaper and an award-winning columnist. She is the award-winning author of A Bridge Across the Ocean, Secrets of a Charmed Life, A Fall of Marigolds, Stars Over Sunset Boulevard, and As Bright as Heaven, among other novels.

There are mirrors of two kinds; the kind you look into to see what you look like, and the kind you look into to see what other people think you look like. This is how the teenage girls, Elise and Mariko, felt in The Last Year of the War. The two became friends at an internment camp in Crystal City, Texas, of all the unlikely places. Elise, the daughter of German immigrants who came to America in 1925, had grown up in Davenport, Iowa. Mariko, the daughter of Japanese immigrants, who found their way to Los Angeles and then to Little Tokyo, lived above the family’s vegetable and herb shop, went to school, spoke Japanese and English and dreamed of going to a university and becoming successful. This American dream changed drastically for both girls on the morning of December 7, 1941, with the surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The Last Year of the War is a deeply emotional and mindful accounting of the fear and heartbreak that the families of German and Japanese heritage endured during World War ll, here in the U. S. and abroad. The vivid description of the repatriation of the families of Elise and Mariko and so many others, aids the understanding of what was happening to our friends and neighbors, as they simply disappeared from schools and communities. The girls and their families were given very little information regarding the war while in Crystal City. Later, after crossing the ocean and learning of what had happened in Europe, Elise is still writing to Mariko and hoping to one day be united in New York City, as they had planned. What a journey these girls and their families survive; the deprivations of war, and the realization that love “bears all things.” This Grateful Reader gained so much insight from this novel; I highly recommend it!

ABOUT MELANIE BENJAMIN

Melanie Benjamin is the New York Times bestselling author of The Aviator’s Wife, The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb, and Alice I Have Been. Benjamin lives in Chicago, where she is at work on her next historical novel.

The Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab

The Mistress of the Ritz will lure you in, just as Blanche and Claude lured the elite, wealthy, and well known, into the posh Ritz Hotel; with “her” tapestries, works of art, chandeliers, sumptuous dining, and decadent decor. The Ritz holds her own place in the cast of characters in this revealing tale of love and war. Because where else would the duchesses and princesses find bathrooms in each suite, and telephones and electricity throughout ?

“No one knows anything, while seeing, hearing everything. This is how it is in Paris these days. ”

The lives of the French people became divided into two distinct sections: how they lived and saw people and situations before the German invasion, and how this all changed after the invasion in 1940. This same distinction was evident in the life of the Ritz, her guests and the debonair French manager, Claude, and his wife, Blanche, the American actress & flapper.

As history unfolds with the 1942 tragedy of Vel d’Hiv, the lives of the Parisians and especially, the Jews, change forever. Blanche and Claude are living out their marriage in the Ritz, surrounded by Germans. Relegated to the far side of the hotel, they must live under the constant surveillance and scrutiny of the German officers and the hotel staff, as they continue to host guests and serve the Germans; never sure who’s who.

With the daily disappearances of staff, familiar faces of guests and friends; Blanche and Claude must each find a sense of purpose in this new life. Claude and Blanche love each other,madly, but can they trust each other, implicitly? With the help of friends like Blanche’s Lily and Claude’s contact, Martin, and the dependable barkeep, Frank, the bonds of marriage are stretching quite thin as the Parisians wait and watch for the coming of the Americans and always, always, counting on the Resistance.

The love and life of Blanche and Claude on full display at the Ritz; along with the daily developments of the war will keep you aching to know who merely survives the war, who lives and dies, but mostly how do they “go on with life?” What purpose can war serve?

So many believed, “Nothing bad can happen at the Ritz. The Ritz will provide. The Ritz will protect…. But will it now? Now that its famous front door is manned not by a top-hatted doorman in a black overcoat, but a Nazi soldier? “

The Mistress of the Ritz is highly recommended; a 5 Star hotel and a 5 Star read.

Reviews Coming Soon:

The Last Year of the War by Susan Meissner https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/572987/the-last-year-of-the-war-by-susan-meissner/9780451492159/

The Beautiful Strangers by Camille di Maio https://www.camilledimaio.com/the-beautiful-strangers