The Year 1000 by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger

This is the first nonfiction book I'm reviewing so bear with me. I'm a history dork and enjoy books like this every once in a while.

This book is separated into 12 chapters, one for each month of the year according to the Julius Work Calendar. Each month's description is accompanied by a drawing that was engraved on the calendar. Now, these calendars obviously weren't in many places. Most were in monasteries, but I think Kings and Queens had them.

Life in England at the turn of the century was part Christian/Roman and part Saxon. Kings picked their religion based on how well things were going in their kingdom. Switch to Christianity only to have widespread famine a few years later? Time to start worshipping the old gods again. Get invaded by Danes/Vikings/Normans the next year? Mix Christian and pagan traditions, starting the foundations of modern Christian holidays!

I really learned a lot from this book, and the most surprising thing I learned is that while people starved in winter due to bad harvests, many more starved in Midsummer, before the harvests even started.

The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin

Frances Marion and Mary Pickford were best friends who helped shape Hollywood in its infancy. Mary was the face, the perpetual little girl, while Frances worked behind the scenes as a scenarist (writer). The book follows both women from their beginnings with “flickers” to wondering what kind of future they'll have when the “talkies” become popular. Their friendship, like most, has it's ups and downs, but they eventually fracture in a way that neither thinks can be repaired. 

I enjoyed this story because it taught me a lot about the early days of Hollywood, however, I felt at time that the conflicts between Frances and Mary were insanely petty. I felt like a story about women who were pioneers in the film industry was basically boiled down to arguments about men and who's trying to upstage who at work. The book was a quick read and kept me interested. 

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Who is May Ling? Who is Mirabelle? 

Elena Richardson grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio: a Cleveland suburb. In 1997, she has 4 high school children and the perfect lawyer as a husband. Elena's life is her own perfect plan, and 3 of her children easily fall into her cookie-cutter family recipe. Her youngest, Izzy, has always been a wild card.

When Mia and Pearl Warren move to Shaker Heights, the 2^ndfloor apartment they rent is owned by Elena Richardson, who has a soft spot for Mia. Elena offers Mia a job before digging into Mia's personal history. Under normal circumstances, Elena and Mia may have been friends. If only Elena hadn't hired Mia to clean and cook for her teenage children. 

Pearl and Mia attract all four of the Richardson children: Lexie, Trip, Moody, and Izzy. And each of these teenagers reacted differently to the mother/daughter family. When Shaker Heights is thrown into an adoption scandal that attracts media attention, everyone takes sides. When Elena realizes that Mia is intimately involved with the “other side” she pushes Mia and Pear right out of her family's life, which has dire consequences for her perfect little life.

This book is wonderfully written and every character feels like a real person. This story brought me back to 1997 and my sophomore year in high school, and I loved it.