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.
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
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!