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. 

My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie

My Dear Hamilton is the story of Eliza Hamilton, one of the Founding Mothers of the United States and wife to Revolutionary War hero and Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. This is an historical fiction novel, not a biography, so not all of the details are accurate. However, there seems to be a consensus among writers that the craziest parts of historical fiction novels are the true parts. With that in mind, Eliza tells her story in relation to her husband, “the $10 Founding Father without a father.” (Hamilton: An American Musical, Lin-Manuel Miranda)

Betsy Schuyler was the daughter of General Phillip Schuyler of the Continental Army. She met Alexander Hamilton during the winter of 1780, in an under-provisioned Continental camp in New Jersey. Betsy worked with her uncle to help as many American soldiers as possible. After Betsy and Alexander married they lived in a simple home near General Washington so Hamilton could continue his work as aide de camp. After the war, the couple moved back and forth between New York City and Philadelphia, depending on where Hamilton was needed. 

Eliza (still going by Betsy, her childhood nickname) gave birth to nine children. Because of her husband's history as an orphan, she agreed to adopt a friend's daughter and foster another's son during difficult times for her family, both emotional and financial. She watched her husband make questionable decisions and was publicly humiliated by her husband's affair, which is considered the first sex scandal in American politics. She lived for almost a hundred years but she lost three children, two sisters, both her parents, and her husband within a decade. 

Eliza Hamilton was a strong woman who we don't know nearly enough about, but this book is a start. Thanks to Ron Chernow's Alexander Hamilton and Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton: An American Musical, everyone knows who Eliza was, but we still don't know who she really was, at the core of her being. This book is obviously well-researched and extremely well-written. I enjoyed seeing what I know from Miranda's musical from Eliza's perspective. I also liked the personal spiritual crises Eliza found herself in throughout the novel; whether it was her views on slavery in her own life versus the country as a whole or coming to terms with her husband's betrayal of their marriage vows, I felt like I was right there feeling everything she may have felt. 

I was excited to read this book for three reasons. I read America's First Daughter, the first novel co-authored by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, and loved it. I'm also a huge musical theatre geek and I know all of the lyric's to Miranda's musical. (My 4yo knows a few lyrics himself!) I've already recommended this book to five people and I'm sure I won't stop there. My final reason is the American Revolution has always been the only war I've ever been interested in. 

Caleb's Crossing by Geraldine Brooks

Caleb Cheeshahteaumauk, a Native American of the Wampanoag tribe of Martha's Vineyard, was the first Native American to graduate from Harvard. This fictional account of his life is told by Bethia Mayfield, the daughter of the pastor who educates Caleb on Martha's Vineyard. Both Caleb's and Bethia's lives are marked by death when they are still teenagers. Bethia feels like Caleb is her brother and she stops at nothing to save his life. 

Bethia is a wonderful narrator, showing us exactly what life was like on the island in the mid-17^thCentury. As the daughter of a Calvinist minister, Bethia is torn between her religion and the Wampanoag beliefs she learns about from Caleb. Her home life is disrupted when Caleb comes to live with her family after the deaths of most of his tribe. This is exacerbated by the jealousy and hatred of Caleb by Makepeace, Bethia's older brother, because he believes a “salvage” shouldn't be smarter than an Englishman. 

As with Brooks' other novels, this is a beautifully written story of love, family, and hope. 

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles

Many members of the Russian aristocracy were executed, banished, or fled under cover of darkness. This is the (fictional) story of one under house arrest in the Metropol Hotel in Moscow. Count Alexander Rostov cannot step outside of the hotel without fear of being shot on sight. He meets many interesting characters, both long-term workers at the Metropol and regulars at the Boyarski, the high-end restaurant in the hotel. His sudden adoption of a young girl changes everything and he uses his Bolshevik and resistance friends to change his circumstances. 

I almost stopped reading this book because Towles takes too long to convince us why we should like his Count Rostov. Once he hooks us, we're in and desperate to figure out how he can live within the confines of a hotel, in a tiny room in the attic. His relationships (and eventual job) are the meat of the story. I mean, really, how could someone live in the attic of a hotel without making friends with everyone?

From Sand and Ash by Amy Harmon

Eva and Angelo are best friends, they grew up together and know everything about each other. But in Italy during World War II life becomes dangerous for them both. Eva Rosselli is Jewish and Angelo Bianco is a Catholic priest who is working with the local resistance (some inside the Vatican) to rescue and hide Jewish people being hunted for by the Fascist Italians and then by the German army in Rome. Eva refuses to hide and poses as Angelo's sister so she can work with the resistance to help her people. Will they get away with it?

From Sand and Ash is a moving historical novel focusing on Italy during World War II. The best part of the story is the relationship between the Catholic Church, specifically the Vatican, and the Roman Jewish population. The priests go above and beyond to help the most marginalized citizens without caring about religion. Too bad that would never happen in America today, instead we have Christians attacking anyone and everyone who doesn't believe their narrow-minded view of Christianity, people who wouldn't help their fellow neighbor for fear of being “tainted” by outside beliefs. (Such is life in the Bible Belt, at least.)

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

Alias Grace is the semi-fictionalized story of Grace Marks, Canada's most notorious murderess of the 19^th Century. Her story was sensationalized at the time, and Atwood takes this sensationalism to explore a supernatural explanation to Grace Marks' loss of memory during the murders of her master Thomas Kinnear and his housekeeper Nancy Montgomery. Atwood digs into her fictional Grace through a psychologist, Dr. Simon Jordan, after Grace has been in prison for fifteen years. She tells her story while we see how she lives in prison while working the Prison's Governor's home. Dr. Jordan's story is also told, and we see how desperately he wants to believe that he can figure her out and fix her so that he can legitimize his work. The key to unlocking Grace's memory is Mary Whitney, an old friend who died too young. But how can a dead girl answer questions? In ways you couldn't imagine.

I'm still new to Margaret Atwood, but I was pretty disappointed in her storytelling here. Maybe it's because this wasn't the usual dystopian I'm used to from her, or maybe it's because I was expecting a bigger, better explanation. It took forever to get through the first 100 pages, but after that the story moved quickly. Without adding any spoilers, I'd just like to stay there was a specific (and obvious) scene where I feel like I figured it all out. I know why Grace did what she did, even if she couldn't remember. And while I don't have a problem with that type of storytelling, I tend to see Atwood as wanting to keep her readers in the dark as much as possible, or at least as much as her characters.

I loved the story and I'm looking forward to watching the mini-series on Netflix, which was my main motivation for reading this. I will post a link to my review of the mini-series once I watch it. 

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

Min Jin Lee's Pachinko is the story of one Korean family in 20^th Century Japan. Sunja is brought to Japan from Korea in 1933 as the wife of a Korean Christian minister. Her story, along with her children's and grandchildren's, are shown through hardship, war, and racism. The 2^nd class status Koreans held in Japan is explored alongside the 2^nd class status of women in both Korean and Japanese cultures. The tragedies that befall this family over four generations are the same as many, if not all, people who have been relegated as 2^nd class citizens throughout history, stretching even to today.

This is a story about suffering. Many of the characters we meet have secrets that would not only destroy them, but their entire family. One of the main themes in this book is the belief that women must suffer. They must suffer more than men and they must suffer in silence. This is not a new concept, it's been repeated and reinforced in cultures all over the world. It's a belief that has been so ingrained in women that many of them still believe it to this day. But the larger story in Pachinko is the suffering this Korean family faces while living in Japan. At this point in history, Japan was an occupying force in Korea and Koreans in Japan were Korean citizens, not Japanese citizens. We recognize the prejudices faced because many of us have faced them too, here, in America. 

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This multi-generational family saga begins in Ghana in the mid-18^th Century and ends at the beginning of the 21^st. Effia and Esi are half sisters who have never met and don't know the other exists. Effia is married to Ghana's British Governor while Esi is kidnapped and sold into slavery, bound for America. Following seven generations, Homegoing tells the untold story of Africa and America through slavery and war. The similarities and differences between Africans and African-Americans are explored through each generation.

Homegoing is the story we didn't realize we needed. Too many African-Americans don't know their heritage and too many white Americans don't care. We don't want to be reminded of what our ancestors did to their ancestors. The beauty of this novel is it's simplicity. Each chapter follows a different character, starting with Effia and then Esi. We follow their children through life in Ghana and life in America. We see how they struggle with trying to fit in; because Effia's husband was white her family was marked as different and Esi's descendants were slaves, then free, then slaves again. Each chapter is only about 20 pages but Gyasi packs so much depth and history into each character that you feel like you know them. 

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

It's 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. The white folks want nothing to do with Civil Rights and some of the black population are too scared to fight for them. When Skeeter, a white woman who recently graduated from Ole Miss, asks Aibileen, her best friend's black maid, if she wants to change how things are in Jackson, she's immediately shut down. It's not only dangerous, but illegal, to talk about integration, and Aibileen knows her life would be at risk if she tried to change anything. But Skeeter just wants to tell stories about what it's like for black women working as maids and nannies in white families, and she eventually convinces Aibileen to write with her. Aibileen convinces her best friend Minny and ten other maids to share their stories with Skeeter in the hopes that the country will know what life is really like in the segregated South. Skeeter is ostracized by her friends, the same women who appear in the maids' stories, as Aibileen and Minny fear for their jobs and their lives.

The lives of southern white women and their “separate but equal” black maids are laid bare in this novel about Civil Rights in the 1960s. The author weaves actual historic events, like the murder of Medgar Evers by the KKK, Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington D.C., and the assassination of JFK, into the fictional people of the real Jackson, Mississippi. Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter are brilliant narrators, each with her own unique voice. Aibileen and Minny show us the love-hate relationship between white families and the black women they let raise their children, even if they aren't allowed to use the same bathroom or eat at the same table. Skeeter shows us that sometimes it just takes one privileged person who's willing and able to say, “This is wrong; we shouldn't be doing this; it needs to stop.” Lives are destroyed and redeemed many times over in this instant classic.