Melanie Benjamin Pages: 396 Published: 2013
The book: Anne Morrow first meets the dashing Colonel Lindbergh when she’s a shy college senior spending her Christmas vacation with her family in Mexico. Whilst Anne is in awe of the great hero, she is sure Lindbergh has barely noticed her. However, she has most definitely made an impression on him, and they will soon be married. This is a fictional account of Charles and Anne Lindbergh’s marriage. Read more
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Pages: 530 Published: 2014
The book: A blind twelve-year-old, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, and her father flee Paris, which is under German occupation. They seek refuge with her great uncle in Saint-Malo, an ancient walled French town by the ocean.
In a mining town in Germany, an orphan boy, Werner Pfennig, becomes obsessed with radios and learns how to make and repair them. His radio skills take him first to a Nazi youth camp and from there into the German army, where he tracks resistance radio operators.
This novel is the story of Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives as their paths intersect during the war. Read more
The Paris Wife by Paula McLain
Pages: 314 Published: 2011
The book: Hadley Richardson met Ernest Hemingway in Chicago in 1920. A whirlwind romance followed, and despite objections from friends and family, they married then moved to Paris. There they became part of a group of writers and artists – sometimes referred to as the “Lost Generation”- that included Gertrude Stein, Erza Pound, and F. Scott Fitzgerald. This book is a fictionalized account of Hadley and Ernest’s life together.
You might like it because: Hemingway and Richardson had an incredibly passionate relationship, and the story of their lives during their marriage is interesting and interspersed with famous literary and artistic figures. McLain does a marvelous job of bringing these people to life. Read more
The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure
Pages: 367 Published: 2013
The book: During the German occupation of Paris in 1942, Lucian Bernard, a talented, young architect, is struggling to find work that will support himself and his wife.
He is offered a commission designing factories for the Third Reich, but it’s contingent on him taking another better-paying job that must remain a secret. He is to design hiding places for Jews so cleverly constructed that the German’s won’t find them. Read more
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