The Midnight News by Jo Baker
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, women's issues #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, feminist literature, historical fiction, literary fiction, women's issues

The Midnight News by Jo Baker

The Midnight News is unlike any other World War II era novel I’ve read. Part love story and part mystery, I found Jo Baker’s plot intriguing, her characters engrossing, and the twist at the end of the novel masterful. A riveting story about resiliency and survival.

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The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
character driven fiction, feminist literature, historical fiction, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury character driven fiction, feminist literature, historical fiction, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher

There were moments at the beginning of the book where I felt that more editing would have been helpful – a little too much book title dropping to establish Beach’s credentials as a bibliophile and set the historical stage, felt forced, but once I got into the story of Beach’s incredible feat – a woman in the 1920s who took on a publishing world largely run by men – I was encouraged to read to the end.

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The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett
Action adventure, character driven fiction, historical, historical fiction, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury Action adventure, character driven fiction, historical, historical fiction, sense of place, Sense of Place Fiction Lin Salisbury

The Evening and the Morning by Ken Follett

Ken Follett is the massively successful author of 36 books – selling over 178 million copies worldwide. He writes thrillers and mysteries but his most popular books are the Pillars of the Earth Trilogy. That first book, PILLARS OF THE EARTH, was published in 1989 was about the building of a medieval cathedral. It was number one on best-seller lists everywhere and turned into a major television series in 2010. Full disclosure: I have not read the trilogy – HOWEVER, I did just read the prequel to the Pillars of the Earth that came out in September 2021: THE EVENING AND THE MORNING. The prequel is set in the Dark Ages, which may explain my following comments.

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A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti
#literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, Global politics, historical fiction, Holocaust Literature, immigrant experience, literary fiction Lin Salisbury #literarynovel, author interview, character driven fiction, Global politics, historical fiction, Holocaust Literature, immigrant experience, literary fiction Lin Salisbury

A Play for the End of the World by Jai Chakrabarti

Chakrabarti has a keen sense of timing – oscillating the storyline backward and forward to reveal Jaryk’s motivation, his heart-wrenching past, and his fear of moving into a future as a sole survivor of the orphanage where his story began.

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