This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger

In 1932, Odie O'Banion and his older brother Albert have had it with life in the Lincoln Indian Training School in Minnesota.  They may have be white but are just as poor and even more isolated. With the help of Mose Washington, a young Sioux who had his tongue cut off when he was young, they devise a plan to escape. The plan becomes action when a fatal accident makes it necessary to leave immediately.  Another tragedy adds little Emmy Frost to this band of lost children.  In true Huck Finn manner their journey is fraught with both danger and unexpected kindness.  It is another look at life during the Depression and a time when social struggles tended toward a sense of communal support not selfish hoarding and is all framed by Krueger's love for this part of the world.

A Long Petal of the Sea by Isabel Allende

 During the Spanish Civil War, Roser a talented musician falls in love with Guilliam, a passionate Republican.  He dies in the war and Roser, pregnant and unmarried, escapes to a refugee camp in France.  Guilliam's brother Victor, a medic in the war, finds her and hatches a plan for their escape to South America but to make it work there must be a sham marriage between the two of them.  And so the real story begins.  They board the ship Winnipeg, an escape route organized by the poet Pablo Neruda, and head for Chile.  We observe the plight of the immigrant and struggles against the code of economic status. We watch a practical relationship become something much more.  We see the political world shift through Salvador Allende and Pinochet.  We hear wise observations that echo the world we are living in now and pause to consider the poetry of Neruda that begins each chapter.  It is a universal story and a hopeful one, rich in history and sometimes surprisingly snarky - but maybe that's just the translation 😏

The woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

American Virginia Hall was brought up to marry well and behave. Not likely.  A lover of adventure and great with languages, she aspired to a job in the state department in Europe.  An accident while on holiday in Turkey resulted in the loss of her leg below the knee and she soon found her career offers limited to secretarial positions.  But Europe was in the midst of WW11 and she was not going to safely sit at a desk and watch.  Refusing to accept any limitation from her prosthetic leg (who she names Cuthbert ), her language skills lead the British espionage agency to place her in France and eventually as an organizer for the resistance.  At some points this seemed a very journalistic impersonal telling of the events of the war when it was England alone against Nazi Germany.  When she is the center of the story, when it is her amazing story being examined, it reads much better.  Add it to Hidden Figures, The Woman who Smashed Codes and all the other stories now being told of the contributions that women have made and for some reason just never seem to be part of the bigger history we have learned.

Virgil Wander by Leif Enger

A recent accident leaves Virgil with a head injury that affects his memory and his speech which makes his story both reflective and the dialog often internal.  He operates a marginally restored movie theater in a small town on the shores of Lake Superior in northern Minnesota.  The town is just as quirky as the rest of the people who inhabit it.  There is mystery, longing, regret and ultimately love to be pondered in the context of this town as it tries to recover from economic collapse.  The writing is frequently beautiful.  As Virgil recovers, we see the town react as only a small town can - in a way that in fact makes it one of the characters.  If you are looking for action, look elsewhere but if you are in the mood to reflect on his life and maybe your own, there are some lovely passages to guide you.

Washington Black by Esi Edugyan

The year is 1830 and 11 year old George Washington Black is a slave on a sugar plantation in Barbados owned by the Wilde family of England.  Christopher Wilde arrives with the hopes of testing his "cloud-cutter" flying machine and invites "Wash" to be his assistant when he discovers the young boy's incredible drawing skills.  "Tilch" is the first white person who has ever treated Wash as a human being and a fierce loyalty is cemented between the two.  Because of an unfortunate series of events, the two are forced to take off in the hot air balloon in the midst of a storm.   Then the adventures begin -for the next decade - from America to the frozen Arctic to Nova Scotia to Europe.  At first they are together but eventually Wash must make his own way - never letting go of the memory of the friendship that provided his life path. 
Slavery and science - sometimes hard to believe but a well written imagining.

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

From 1999 to 2009, Reichl was the editor of Gourmet magazine.  This "plum" of a job was something she never imagined to be in her reach.  This latest memoir is a close-up look at an iconic piece of foody history as she makes bold changes and then watches the internet make the magazine superfluous.  Name dropping abounds but Reichl is the same funny, practical person readers met in her earlier memoirs.  Plus - there are great recipes.

There There by Tommy Orange

Gertrude Stein wrote that when she returned home to Oakland, California where she had spent her childhood, "There was no there there."   Using multiple orators, Orange reveals that this is also the plight of the urban Native American.  As this host of characters prepares for a powwow in Oakland, we look back on all the challenges they have experienced.  Some are generic - the poverty, family disagreement.  But others provide insight into the unique sense of isolation experienced by the urban Native American.  Interspersed are narrative essays by the author which were some of my favorite parts.  It is beautifully written but hard to wrap your head around. Particularly the ending.

My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

Axie Muldoon begins her story as one of the thousands of poor Irish immigrant children sent west on an orphan train.  But the pull to return to her Mam and the plan to reunite her family is too strong so she and the renegade Charlie head back to the slums of NYC.  She is eventually taken in by a "Dr." Evans and his wife, who practices in the "area of female care." What she learns under their tutelage will one day make her Madame DeBeausacq - one of the wealthiest - and most dangerous - women in the city.  She not only becomes adept at delivering babies but also at making sure that there is an alternative to an unwanted pregnancy.  The story spans from the 1860's to the beginning of the 20th century and is loosely based on the life of Ann Trow Lohman who originally earned the title of "most notorious woman in NYC".  Both came under the hammer of the Comstock laws enacted in the late 19th century.  The chance to explore the role of women in this time make this a compelling read.  And the ending is great.