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1940s

FictionFiction - Featured

Coming-of-Age Near the 1940s Chicago Baseball Scene

Ernie’s Bleachers was clearly a passion project for author Tim Pareti, whose family owned the Ernie’s Bleachers tavern in Chicago’s Wrigleyville neighborhood just across from Wrigley Field. It’s the tavern that became Ray’s Bleachers, home of the 1969 Bleacher Bums, and then Murphy’s Bleachers, which is still going strong eight decades…
Dennis Hetzel
August 17, 2022
Thrillers

War, Criminality, and “The Right Sort of Man”

“Did your hunch prove correct?” asked Gwen. “It did,” replied Iris, as she began typing her notes of the interview. “What was it about?” “Her stockings.” “Were her seams not straight?” “The seams were straight,” said Iris. “The girl is crooked.” It is June 1946 in London. The war is…
Neil Nyren
May 31, 2019
Fiction

“The War Widow” Is a Feminist Twist on Noir in 1940s Sydney

“Completely gripping and entertaining from beginning to end." — Hugh Jackman —∞— The War Widow is poised to be Tara Moss’s breakout novel in the U.S., especially given the book’s saucy leading lady, Billie Walker, a war reporter turned Private Investigator in post-WWII Australia who — much like Moss herself…
BookTrib
December 29, 2020
Fiction

Novel Highlights Real Danger of Hitler’s Food Tasters

Sharing a meal is typically viewed as a binding activity, creating closer relationships with all present. However, you may want to toss your assumptions of intimate connections over food straight in the garbage after reading Rosella Postorino’s latest novel! Based on truth, At the Wolf’s Table (Flatiron Books) is a historical…
Jennifer Blankfein
March 1, 2019
Fiction

Pursuing the Dragon Lady in Italy, London and Rhodesia

Louisa Treger's The Dragon Lady (Bloomsbury) offers a nuanced perspective on British and African cultures during precarious times, the 1920s through the 1950s. It’s a wonderful mystery, love story and odyssey, all rolled into one. What's even more incredible is that this story is based on a real person. Yes,…
Claudia Keenan
August 13, 2019
Fiction

A Gorgeous Distraction in Time of Turmoil

In 1947, the world set its weary eyes on a royal wedding when Princess Elizabeth married Philip Mountbatten. The war had ended just two years earlier, and the British were still living in hard times, with food and gas rationing and insufficient housing. And so, as winter approached, the prospect…
Claudia Keenan
December 19, 2018
AudiobooksFiction

Adriana Trigiani and a Sweeping Big Band Era Novel

Novelist Adriana Trigiani joins us to talk about her latest audiobook, Tony's Wife, and narrator Edoardo Ballerini’s engaging performance. In a story about the music of the last century—the Big Band music of the 1940s—two talented working class kids, Tony & Chi Chi, marry and become a successful singing act until time, temptation, and the responsibilities…
AudioFile
February 1, 2019