Books Set in North America, Los Angeles, California

Daughters of the Sun and Moon, by Lisa See (2026)

This novel is based on historical facts and some of the characters in the book were actual individuals.  The novel follows three women: Dove, Petal, and Moon.

The novel begins in 1870 when two young Chinese girls/women were sold by their families in China and sent to Los Angeles to begin a new life.  Dove was just 17-years-old, when she was sent to be Old Man Sing's second wife.  She came from an elite family that had fall on hard economic times.  Her feet were bound, so she had difficulty walking on her own.  Petal was a young peasant girl who had grown up on a farm.

When they arrived in San Francisco, Dove was whisked off to Los Angeles to her new husband.  She dreamed of a formal Chinese wedding, but was sadly disappointed.  In her new home, she was basically kept hidden in their apartment except for being on "display" in her husband's shop.  Petal was placed on auction to become a "wife of many men" and sold to the highest bidder, Headman Sam.  Sam was the leader of one of the Chinese gangs in Los Angeles.  Moon, the wife of a Chinese doctor who treated both Whites and Chinese, saw both of the young women arrive in what passed for Chinatown.  

The novel depicts life of the Chinese in the Los Angeles in 1870.  They were discriminated against by the whites.  There were very few Chinese living in Los Angeles and only a small handful of women.  The women were caught between living in traditional Chinese culture and the wild West of American culture.

The novel culminates with the Night of Horrors, the October 24, 1871 massacre of Chinese.  What began as a dispute between two rival Chinese gangs turned into a massacre when a mob  of about 500 white and Latino residents tortured and lynched many of the Chinese immigrants.

Read: November 9, 2026

5 Stars

Books Set in Asia and North America: Tehran, Iran and Massachusetts

The Stationery Shop, by Marjan Kamali (2019)

In 1953, Iran was on the verge of something new.  Politically, the country was in turmoil.  Mohammad Mosaddegh was the prime minister and was to lead his country into a democracy.  Other fractions included the communists, with support from Russia, and the monarchists, who supported the Shah.  

17-year-old Roya was a young schoolgirl who loved to frequent Mr. Fakhri's stationery and book shop that was across from her school.  One Tuesday afternoon, Roya met Bahman Aslan in the shop.  Each Tuesday, Bahman would frequent Mr. Fakhri's shop to pick up and distribute political flyers.  After he and Roya met, they slowly fell in love and planned to marry, despite their young age.

Roya's parents welcomed Bahman, despite their dreams for their daughter to become a famous scientist.  Bahman's mother, however, was not in favor of the arrangement.  She felt that Roya was not of the same class as her son and had already selected a more "suitable" wife.  Bahmam's mother, who was emotionally fragile, tried to keep her son from Roya.  Mr. Fakhri, however, arranged to be the conduit passing love letters between the two young lovers, until ...  The two planned to elope and had plans elope, but Bahmam failed to show up at their designated location.  Sixty-years later, Roya was still looking for answers.

Read: October 11, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Mississippi, United States

The Calamity Club, by Kathryn Stockett (2026)

This novel takes place during the Great Depression and is told from the persecutive of two individuals.  There is Meg, an 11-year-old girl who has been sent to an orphanage, thinking that her mother abandoned her.  Then there is Birdie, a young woman struggling to keep her family from starving and losing their house during the Depression.

Birdie traveled to visit her sister, Frances, who she married into money, to ask for financial assistance.  Frances was a volunteer at the orphanage where Meg was living.  Meg and Birdie met and became close until Meg was adopted into a wealthy family.

All is not what it seems.  To say more would be to spill the beans, however, the story does become dark.

Read:  September 29, 2026

3.5 Stars

Books Set in North America, Georgia, United States

When Crickets Cry, by Charles Martin (2006)

When seven-year-old Annie was hit by a vehicle and collapsed, Reese, a reclusive stranger, went to her rescue and a performed life-saving procedure on her.  He seemed to know far too much medical knowledge that the average person.  He passed it off as having been a first-responder when in college.  Unbeknownst to the town folks, he had been a gifted heart surgeon, but had given up the practice after his wife died of heard disease.

This book is heavy on medical descriptions of the heart, heart anatomy and heart transplant surgery.  It is also very heavy on Christian theology.  This book falls under Christian Fiction.  It was selected by a reader in my book club, hence how I came about to read it.  It was a fast read and I did enjoy it, although there were no surprises as the reader knew from the beginning how it would end.

4 Stars

Read:  September 17, 2026

Books Set in Europe and North America, Germany and New York, New York

The Girl Who Rode the White Lion, by Yishay Ishi Ron (2026)

This novel moves back and forth from the late 1930s in Germany to New York City in the late 1950s.  Mark Spence is a veterinarian for the Central Park Zoo in 1957.  When a rare white lion dies, he performs the autopsy.  He finds an SS Nazi silver ring in the lion's gut, which leads him on a hunt to find the story behind the ring.

The story then takes the reader to Nazi Germany on Kristallnacht, where a vicious SS officer used the violence to terrorize the family of a former Jewish friend.  He immediately sent his former friend to a concentration camp, but plays a cat-and-mouse with his friend's wife and young daughter.  The mother takes her daughter, Sarah Frank, to the circus, which is in town, hoping they can hide out in the crowd there.  Sarah is unofficially adopted by the circus manager and his wife.

Meanwhile, Mark Spence begins an international hunt to find clues as to the origin of the Nazi ring.

The mystery slowly unfolds with lots of twists and turns.  The story of young Sarah Frank is more interesting than that of Mark Spence.  Still, it was a fascinating novel that I read in one sitting.

Read:  September 16, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in North America, Washington State, United States of America

Somewhere Out There, by Amy Hatvany (2016)

Jennifer was a 20-year-old woman with 2 children.  Her family had kicked her out and she was living in her car.  With basically no choice, she relinquished custody of her daughters.  She believed that they would be adopted together into a loving family.  Instead, the 6-month-old baby was quickly adopted, but the 4-year-old went through a number of foster homes until she aged out of the state system.

Thirty-five years later, both daughters independently seek information about their birth mother.  This novel is told in the voices of each daughter and their birth mother.  While not great literature, it was a compelling book that kept my interest.

Read:  September 14, 2026

4 Stars

Books Set in Europe; Croatia

The Hired Man, by Aminatta Forna (2013)

This novel takes place over the summer of 2007 and is narrated by Duro Kolak, a life-long resident of a small Croatian village.  An English woman and her two children suddenly appear and move into the "blue house", a house that holds memories for Duro.  The house had been empty for some time, so Duro approaches her and offers to help make repairs.

As Duro recounts the summer and his relationship with the English family, Laura and her teenaged son, Matthew, and daughter Grace, memories of the recent Balkan Wars come flooding back.  As a child, Duro and a close friendship with Fabjan, Kresimir and his younger sister, Anka.  Together, they would go hunting in the nearby woods.  Duro had a secret romance with Anka, but when it is discovered, he was forced to leave town.  When he returned to the village a decade later, life seemed to pick up where it had left off, except Anka was married and now lived in the Blue House.  Civil War has erupted in Croatia.  Who to trust?

As Duro and Grace work to repair a mosaic on the wall of the Blue House, she guesses that Duro is hiding dark secrets from an earlier time.  Slowly, the layers of Duro's past are peeled away, and we learn what keeps Duro and the other villagers attached to their small community.

This was a wonderfully written novel.

Read: September 3, 2026

5 Stars