It Girl by Allison Pataki There’s something incredibly satisfying about finishing a 7 day loan from the library in under 7 days. This book was loosely based upon the life of an actual Broadway star of the day. This is the story of Evelyn Talbot. She’s a natural beauty who starts out as an artists’ model then moves to NYC and graduates to be a renowned stage star. Her benefactor ends up taking far too much advantage of her and she is pretty much “imprisoned” by him with her career and her earnings completely in his control. Then she meets someone else and gets out from under this benefactor’s control and marries another man who is even more controlling. It’s an interesting look into the life of young women in 1900 who really had no other option but to marry a man. Even the ones who had jobs eventually were forced to quit them when they married. Fascinating book.
Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin Aviva Grossman is 20 when she is an intern for a Congressman when she and the Congressman have an affair. Nobody is finding out, until they get into a car accident and then everyone wonders why she’s in his car and the truth comes out. When she graduates college she can’t get a job because all anyone has to do is google her and they see the whole salacious story. Of course, the Congressman continues to be a Congressman without any damage to his reputation but she takes the brunt of it—despite the fact that he was married. She changes her name to Jane Young and starts a new life in Maine, but the whole time she runs the risk of getting found out. And then her teenaged daughter figures it out. Awesome book with parallels to Monica Lewinsky, obviously, who also was the one who got completely destroyed after her affair with a president and he was largely unscathed.
The Sicilian Inheritance by Jo Piazza Loved this one. Sara is very close with her great aunt, who passes away. In the will Rosie left her a house in Sicily. Sara goes there to figure out whether this deed is even legit or not and ends up getting sucked into the mystery of Rosie’s mother, Sara’s great great grandmother who stayed in Sicily while her husband went off to America. Turns out the family folklore of Serafina’s death wasn’t an illness, she was murdered. Then she learns all about the life of Serafina and how ahead of her time she was. She became a healer in the village and the men didn’t like how educated and uppity she had gotten with her role as the village healer. The story bounces back and forth between Sara in the present and Serafina in the past. Sara’s trying to navigate the antiquated legal world of Sicily while tracking down the legitimacy of her inheritance while we learn Serafina’s story as well. Well done!
BJ Knapp is the author of Beside the Music, available for purchase here. Please sign up for the Backstage with BJ Knapp mailing list to get updates on events, signings, dog pictures and so much more.