Fingersmith is a term used for a pickpocket in England, which is appropriate since this is a novel about one such young lady and her profession. Susan is born into the life of a Fingersmith, but she has been asked by a colleague to trick a young woman to marry him and then place her into an insane asylum in order to steal her money. The plan goes well until Susan begins to like the victim and she finds herself a victim of her own plan. This book is divided into 3 parts. The first and last are from the point of view of the Fingersmith, the middle from the point of view of the victim. I very much enjoyed Susan’s voice but could not stand the point of view of the victim. Try this book for yourself, maybe it is just me.
Review by Leslie B.
During WWII, a few regiments of women piloted bombers and fighters in the Soviet Air Forces. The Germans called them Night Witches, because they bombed German bases during the night. This novel tells the fictionalized story of these women through the eyes of Katya. From an early age, Katya decides she wants to be a pilot. She studies hard in school and gets her military training. As women, Katya and her peers have to prove themselves better than the men to be taken seriously at all, and they accomplish this marvelously, with far more sorties than any of the male regiments, and better records in general.
After the annexation of the Baltic countries, the Soviet Union began mass deportations of Latvians, Estonians, and Lithuanians from their native countries to labor camps and prisons, claiming they were enemies of communism. Lina is a Lithuanian girl whose family is deported in 1941. She is an artist with a particular love for Edvard Munch because he painted things as he actually saw them. During much of the book, Lina is hopeful that one of her drawings will make its way to her father and he will come to rescue them. The story takes us through a couple of years of Lina’s life during this deportation. She makes friends along the way and through all the hardship, she tries very hard to keep hope alive, if not for her own sake, then at least for her mother and brother.
Historic novels based on a person from history can be very interesting, but can also be very boring as they follow all of the life of an individual, the exciting and the mundane. Paula McLain is able to take the exploits of Beryl Markham a British-born Kenyan aviator, adventurer, racehorse trainer and author and keep her interesting. When I first began this novel, I was excited to learn more about who this woman who was the first female to fly solo non-stop across the Atlantic from east to west, but very little of the book has anything to do with her flying, but more about her early years leading up to the decision to take to the sky. Despite my disappointment of not having much time in the air, her early life being the first female racehorse trainer in Kenya made up for it and then some.
In the present day, Avery Stafford is being groomed to take her father’s place as Senator, since he has recently fallen ill. She takes the responsibility seriously but at a photo-op taking place at a nursing home, a resident approaches Avery and leaves her with so many questions. Decades ago, Rill Foss lived on a houseboat on the Mississippi River near Memphis, TN. When her mother went ashore to hospital for a rough delivery of twins, Rill and her siblings were left alone and then kidnapped and sent to an orphanage. How do these two women’s stories intertwine?
