The Widows of Champagne

Wow, what a book! I dove into The Widows of Champagne thinking it might be just another sad World War II tale, but boy, was I in for a treat. This novel took me on a journey with three generations of resilient women fighting to safeguard their family’s vineyard during a tumultuous time in France. Gabrielle Leblanc Dupree, a woman with a secret mission, is at the forefront. Instead of gearing up for a grand celebration of two centuries of champagne excellence, she orchestrates a covert operation to protect the vineyard’s most precious vintages from the clutches of the Nazis. The tension is palpable, and you can feel the weight […]

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When We Had Wings

When We Had Wings is inspired by the real-life “Angels of Bataan and Corregidor.” Seventy-seven American military nurses taken prisoner in the Philippines, provided lifesaving care to the civilian POWs in the Santo Tomas and Los Banos Internment Camps where they were held from 1942 to 1945. The book is a collaboration between historical fiction heavyweights Ariel Lawhon, Kristina McMorris, and Susan Meissner. The story unfolds through the perspectives of Eleanor Lindstrom, who leaves her Minnesota dairy farm for the U.S. Navy Nurse Corps, Penny Franklin, an army nurse escaping personal troubles in Texas, and Lita Capel, who has a Filipina mother and American father and works as a nurse […]

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October 2022 Picks and Pans

  Hello fellow book lovers! For me, October was a month filled with reading variety: historical fiction, contemporary fiction, historical mystery, thriller, Christian fiction (and straight-up-fiction, of course). Most of my books were advance reader copies from publishers, but I enjoyed catch-up books in a couple series. My total isn’t very impressive this month… I started reading Shogun by James Clavell, which comes in at staggering 1,140 pages, but I didn’t finish. It’s a slow read and a definite time suck. Not sure if and when I’ll finish it. I turned on comments for this post… I’d love to hear your thoughts on these books! I’ll be transitioning to video […]

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