Melrose's bookshelf: staff-picks
History is sadly neglectful of the supporting players in the lives of great artists. Fortunately, fiction provides ample opportunity to bring these often fascinating personalities out into the limelight. Gaynor Arnold successfully resurrected the much-maligned Mrs. Charles Dickens in Girl in a Blue Dress (2009), now Paula McLain brings Hadley Richardson Hemingway out from the formidable shadow cast by her famous husband. Though doomed, the Hemingway marriage had its giddy high points, including a whirlwind courtship and a few fast and furious years of the expatriate lifestyle in 1920s Paris. Hadley and Ernest traveled in heady company during this gin-soaked and jazz-infused time, and readers are treated to intimate glimpses of many of the literary giants of the era, including Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, James Joyce, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. But the real star of the story is Hadley, as this time around, Ernest is firmly relegated to the background as he almost never was during their years together. Though eventually a woman scorned, Hadley is able to acknowledge without rancor or bitterness that "Hem had helped me to see what I really was and what I could do"? Much more than a woman-behind-the-man homage, this beautifully crafted tale is an unsentimental tribute to a woman who acted with grace and strength as her marriage crumbled. --Margaret Flanagan
Though less mesmerizing than her international bestseller, Sarah's Key, de Rosnay still manages to captivate readers with this poignant slice-of-life novel. Though, the secret is rather thin and obvious, the fractured orbit of a once-happy family man searching for answers.
"Romance fan alert! Bestselling author Balogh has recently released the fourth entry in her irresistable Regency quintet centering on the members of the Huxtable clan. After finding
perfect matches for sisters Vanessa, Katherine, and Margaret, she turns her attention to their angelic younger brother Stephen, the newly minted Earl of Merton. Historical romance addicts will eagerly await the fifth and final chapter in the saga—devlish cousin Constantine’s story.”
-Margaret
“If you are looking for a readable, authentically detailed retelling of the Battle of Gettysburg, this is the novel for you. Shaara not only draws readers into his compelling story arc, but he also provides the historical background necessary to comprehend the significance of the battle in the larger and more complex context of the war itself. A standout among Civil War novels.”
-Fidencio
"A Dawn Like Thunder tells the story of Torpedo Squadron Eight, a US Navy squadron that was virtually wiped out during the Battle of Midway in 1942. The unit was resurrected to fight on at Gudalcanal before being disbanded in late 1942. Author Robert J. Mrazek describes not only the unit’s sacrifice and heroism, but the critical command mistakes that led to so many of their deaths."
-Fidencio
No one spins the Italian-American family scene better or with more warmth than Trigiani, author of the popular Big Stone Gap series. In this first of a projected trilogy she zeroes in on the Roncalli family, owners of Angelini Shoe Company, one of the last family owned and operated business in contemporary Greenwich Village. As Valentine Roncalli attempts to push and pull the company into the twenty-first century, she encounters romance along the way. Another stirring family-centric novel from the always reliable Trigiani.”
-Margaret