Emmaline Nelson is an 18 year old, naïve small town girl whose mother has planned for years for her her to marry a local farmer six years her senior. At first Emma accepts this,going along with the plans until second thoughts cause her to wonder if there are other options. Some under handed activities of her fiancé and his friends worry her.

She meets a handsome young man her age and falls for him, but later realizes he will probably not marry her.

Her family puts a great deal of pressure on her until she moves to another relative's home.

Getting a job at the local newspaper office may be her salvation.

Good story with enough twists to pique your curiosity.

At age 7 William (illegitimate child from rape by his mother's uncle) is taken from his young Chinese mother, who has been badly beaten, and put into "care". Even though he has been told his mother is dead, he has never believed it and holds on to the hope of seeing her again.
On William's 12th birthday (all the childrens' birthdays are celebrated on the same day each year) the boys are given money for treats and a movie. William sees a beautiful oriental performer named Willow Frost. As he watches her, he suddenly is very, very sure....... Willow Frost is his mother. He vows to find her, not an easy task.
This is an incredible story, both heartfelt and rending and very heart warming.

What a terrific read! I expect very few of today's readers had any knowledge of an around - the - world race between two young women working for competing newspapers in late 1800's New York City.
Each competitor is followed with alternating chapters, detailing her incredible journey and the marvels she encountered.
This is a great story of an exciting time in our history. It's a Book Club natural! Who won? Really?..... Read the book!!

What a good beginning: Victorian London, dank and foggy ;a young woman slowly recognizing her possession of mysterious powers ; the sudden disappearance of a handsome young man after a seance ; an unseen parallel world. These add up to a fascinating, if creepy , story with a surprise ending. Settle into an old easy chair in front of the fire, with a candle of course, and enjoy.

Hang on for a wild ride in a small town called Niceville, state unknown ( definitely Southern).
The story begins with the mysterious disappearance of a ten year boy , and a bank robbery. In the space of 36 hours, twenty lives are disastrously affected , and people who should be upholders of the law........aren't. Both natural and supernatural , good and evil, are at work here. Sometimes it's difficult to tell who's who.
Though tense and exciting, it"s a little too violent for me. If you like murder, suspense, and a breathtaking pace, this is the book for you.

Katherine Roo has written an amazing story of people living in unimaginable poverty. An American writer married to an Indian man, she has seen the amazing transformation of many large cities in India; "skyscraping luxury condominiums with stirring views of other skyscraping luxury condominiums". She felt the need to find out what had happened in historically poor communities, the people usually overlooked or displaced by the frenzied rush for "bigger and better".
She chose the makeshift "city" of Annawadi , huddled in the shadow of the luxury hotels near the Mumbai airport. The people live in a range of hovels or shacks made of everything from dirt or cardboard to scrap wood or scavenged bricks. Children make pennies by scavenging garbage to sell to recyclers. In spite of living in horrendous conditions, some of the residents are able to create a standard of living that gives them some hope for the future.
The author has captured both the appalling poverty and the amazing courage and optimism of the people of Annawadi.
This is a book well worth reading.

The subtitle says a lot about the story: "George Gershwin, Kay Swift, and My Family's Legacy of Infidelities". Though not always a happy one, this is a fascinating story with a large cast of unusual, and often well known, characters. Katharine Weber gives us a behind-the-scenes look at some of the entertainers of a bygone era. A really good read.

As a longtime fan of Jacqueline Winspear's Maisie Dobbs, I really enjoyed this 8th book in the series. Maisie's career takes an unexpected turn when she receives an assignment from the British Secret Service to go undercover as a professor in a small university in Cambridge.
She encounters a group of Nazi party sympathizers , whose activities are suspicious and far reaching. Her experiences there and through her agency in London keep the reader on tenterhooks to the very end.
This is a great read for anyone who enjoys detective stories, especially those with historical overtones.