The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier

 I found the structure of this story both jarring and intriguing. The Rosso family, glassmakers on the island of Murano, age much more slowly than the rest of world. The main character, Orsola Rosso is nine when our story begins in 1486. She is sixty-five in 2019 when it ends. She and her family have lived through the plague, floods, two world wars and the upheaval of technology. Orsola, being a woman, cannot be a glassblower but she finds a fellow woman in another glass blowing family who teachers her to make beads.  There are times when these beads are all that sustain the family. So many changes in art, in Venice, in the world  that this family is forced to accommodate and in rare cases, embrace. I didn't find the charachter of Orsola as angaging as some of the characters in Chevalier's other novels but this was a history I never thought about and a perspective that was also new.

The Book Club for Troublesome Women by Marie Bostwick

 In 1963, Margaret Ryan has decided that the best way to meet her neighbors in the privileged planned suburb of Concordia, VA is to start a book club. Enter outsider Charlotte Gustafson and her book suggestion, The Feminine Mystique by Betty Friedan.  Subversive? Enlightening? It is at the very least disruptive to Margaret, Charlotte. Bitsy (who is the horse trainer for Katharine Graham of the Washington Post) and Vivian ( mother of many who adores her enlightened husband).  Each finds a path from keeping up appearances to individual strength.  I was 14 in 1963 and this was not yet on my book shelf. I am sure it was never on my mother's. But this was as interesting a look at the journey from Mrs. to Ms. as was Lessons in Chemistry.

The Portrait of a Thief by Grace Li

 The Godivas gave this a thumbs down because of the quality of the writing but I thought it sounded just like a bunch of twenty year olds fumbling through life. Five Chinese-American students are convinced to pull off the theft of five bronze figures from five different museums and return them to China. Of couse you base your plan on watching Oceans Eleven. You're in your twenties and muddling through all kinds of conflicting thoughts about your hyphenated place in the world, your future, colonialism, sex. Oceans Eleven seems reasonable. Each character shares their private woes and insights in a separate chapter so there is a lot of repetiton of events but I thought the ending was a brilliant way to make it all work out. Li was a Standford medical student when she wrote this so I assume she could have leaned in on the dense, complicated theme of colonial ownership but this was a much truer voice and more accessible read.

People of Means by Nancy Johnson

 Fisk University, 1960. Chicago, 1992. Two African American women - mother and daughter. Beautiful. Educated. Successful. What sacrifices are required to be an "excellent Negro" in the times of drug store sit-ins and Rodney King? 
In 1960 Freda, a math whiz and the privileged daughter of a successful Chicago doctor, is torn between Gerald, a med student, who would provide the life she always intended to live, and Darius, a fellow Fisk student who offers a risky life in the search of justice and equality. 
In 1992 Tulip, Freda's daughter struggles to climb the corporate ladder of her PR firm. When her involvment in the Rodney King protests threatens her chance at success, she must also make a choice.
I didn't expect the ending and loved the moments of enlightenment throughout the story. Five stars!

An Unfinished Love Story by Doris Kearns Goodwin

 A story of the 60's as seen through the eyes of Robert and Doris Goodwin. The reader is a fly on the wall as they go through boxes of memorabilia gathered by Robert during his years attached to the Washington,DC powers of the 60's. He was more often than I ever knew "in the room where it happened".  Two brilliant minds explaining the era that defines my generation.  I should have been paying better attention. Also a reminder of how in a kinder, wiser time, two people could disagree and still love one another.  An amazing story.

There are Rivers in the Sky by

 I read this book while cruising down the Danube passing historical cities on an ancient waterway. It was a perfect match for that mood.  So many passages to stop and ponder.  Both poetic and political.

From the ruins of the library of King Ashurbanipal of Ancient Mesopotamia on the Tigris River a copy of The Epic of Gilgamesh is saved.

In 1853, Arthur Smyth lives in the slums along the River Thames. He will crack the cuneiform code to translate the poem.

In 2014, Narin, a young Yazidi girl is trying to avoid ISIS and return to her home in Lalish, Iraq to be baptized in its holy waters. 

In 2018, hydrologist Zaleekhah lives on a houseboat on the Thames and bring all their stories together. 

All the water that exists in the world now is all the water that has ever existed on Earth.  What does the water remember and does it connect us one to the other?

Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li

 I need to start by saying that rarely do I think the ending of a book is what I want it to be. This was perfect.  Five college kids - all Chinese-American - some more one than the other - try to steal five bronze statues from five different museums - very Ocean's Eleven. But there is so much more. What is it to be just one generation away as a hyphenated American? Who really owns the art appropriated in the colonial era. What would you do for the promise of $10 million. But really - the ending - genius!