The Dressmaker by Kate Alcott

Desperate to get away from her life as a servant and establish herself as a real dressmaker, Tess lucks into a job as the personal maid of Lady Lucile Duff Gordon on the Atlantic crossing of the maiden voyage of the Titanic.  Tess can't believe her luck in getting this job with a renowned fashion designer.  Lady Duff Gordon (who insists on being called "Madame") is difficult to work for and like but there are other advantages to being onboard the ship - like catching the eye of two completely different men.  On the fourth night at sea, however, disaster strikes.

Tess is one of the last people to get on a lifeboat (Molly Brown's) and one of her suitors makes it into another lifeboat along with Lady Duff Gordon.  There he is able to witness her actions on a lifeboat only partially filled.  Once in New York, Lady Duff Gordon's actions are called into question and Tess finds herself torn between the woman who can guarantee her future and the man (or men?) she might love.

Unlike many people, I'm not as up on my Titanic history as I could be.  Much of what I know I learned from movies or musicals!  ("The Unsinkable Molly Brown" is a favorite.)  I knew that some lifeboats weren't completely full and that there weren't enough for all the passengers.  I didn't know that the Duff Gordons were real people.

I enjoyed this look at real events through the eyes of fictional characters.  The writing style might have been a little too instructional at times but the history and look at how things played out after the ship landed were welcome.  Tess is a determined young woman excited at being in a new country with new possibilities and I pulled for her to make the right decisions.

The Library owns this book in hard copy and ebook format.  I checked out the ebook format.

red ruby heart in a cold blue sea by Morgan Callan Rogers FIC Rog

    This is Rogers' first novel and it is very impressive.  She has done a wonderful job with the characters.  The story takes place in a small Maine fishing village where Florine's father, Leeman,  has a lobster boat.  Her mother, Carlie, is a waitress.   When her parents are working Florine is taken care of by her grandma whom she calls Grand.  Life is simple and predictable until the summer she was twelve.   Every year Carlie and her best friend Patty went to Crow's Nest for a few days of girl stuff.  Carlie had promised Florine that when she turned 13 she could join them - sort of a rite of passage.  This time Carlie went to pick up a present for Florine and never returned to the hotel.  This is the story of a girl growing up with lots of questions and few answers.  If you like a coming-of-age book check out this one.

Flags of our fathers by James Bradley 940.5426 Bra

      This book has been out for over a decade but I decided to listen to it when I saw it on the WILBOR site. (I ended up also checking out the book because I wanted to see the pictures!). One of the most iconic photos in history is that of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.  This book was written by James Bradley, the son of one of those men in the photo.  Although James and his family knew this about his father it was never discussed - his father's choice.  Whenever reporters wanted to do an 'anniversary' article the children were instructed to say that their father was in Canada fishing.   There was no copy of the photo in their home.  That was just the way it was in the Bradley household.  When John Bradley died at the age of 70 they found letters and photos - and the Navy Cross that he had been given and then kept  secret.  If the younger generations want to understand  "the Greatest Generation" they need to read this book.  I know that every soldier in WWII had a story that deserved to be told.  This book tells about six of those soldiers.  Very powerful.

Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung FIC Chu

       I liked this book a lot!  It's the story of a Korean family  who came to the U.S.  because of  political dangers. .  The two young daughters quickly adjusted to their new country and the American names the school insisted on - Hannah and Janie (not very politically correct!).   The older one, Janie, is now busy working on her doctorate in math.  Hannah has quit college and left - breaking ties with her parents and sister.  No one in the family understands why she has done that and the parents put a lot of pressure on Janie to find her. Janie does track down her cell phone but Hannah doesn't want to speak to her family.   A medical problem sends Janie and her parents back to Korea where more of the family story is revealed.   I liked the characters, the story and and the cultural background included in the story.  Well-written and entertaining!

The Expats by Chris Pavone FIC Pav

Even though this book is not in the mystery section, it has a lot of mystery in it! Kate Moore had a rough family life and because of that she never expected to get close enough to someone to get married. Of course she did and it caused her a few problems. You see she was an operative for the CIA. She couldn't blurt that out on a first date. Then it got serious - when do you tell a secret like that? She never found the right time. So she had a sham job and a lot of guilt. When her first child was born she took herself out of the field and took a desk job. When her husband is offered a great job in Europe she quits her job and thinks that she can keep that part of her life a secret forever. She tries to be a normal mom but she quickly becomes suspicious of another 'expat' couple. And then she becomes suspicious of her husband. A very interesting novel!

E-mergency by Tom Lichtenheld & Ezra Fields-Meyer

Sometimes picture books have such sophisticated humor that it's a shame they get relegated to the children's area of the library. E-mergency is a perfect example. It's an alphabet book, sure, but the letters of the alphabet are the characters in the story, which is the tale of E being injured and unable to work. After sending E to the ER with the EMTs, A gathers the remaining letters and addresses the problem of the missing E. As you know, E is the most-used letter in the English language, so her absence is huge. A assigns O to fill in for E because he's "so well-rounded." The announcement is made in a "spocial bullotin" on the TV, where the public is admonished "do not uso E until sho rocovors." The real treat, though, is the accompanying illustrations -- done by a 14-year-old -- and the comments from the letter characters (N tells P and U that they shouldn't sit togothor, for example, and guess what P is doing on the opening spread, showing all the letters at home in the house they share).
Just because it's in a picture-book format doesn't mean it's for little kids. Grab this one for some quality yuck-it-up time with your fourth-grader.

A Grown-up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson

I listened to this book although we do own the book. I began listening to it as I started out on a walk. I have to say that I really didn't enjoy the audio part of this book. The accents were a bit much for my tastes. However, by the end of the walk I was caught up in the story and was able to overlook (overhear????) the accents. The story is told in three different voices by the Slocumb women. Jenny (also referred to as Big) became a mother at 15. Her daughter Liza became a mother at 15. Liza's daughter, Mosey, is now 15 and although everyone is a bit nervous, there are more pressing issues facing the family. Liza has suffered a stroke and is barely able to communicate anything. In order to facilitate Liza's recovery, Big is going to put in a pool. On the day the big willow tree is being removed to make room for the pool their worlds explode when a box with a small skeleton is unearthed and in a garbled voice Liza cries out "My baby". Even though Liza and Big both made mistakes along the way they are family and they will protect each other. And how about Mosey ? Is she really family too?