Review of The Book of Daniel by EL Doctorow

I wanted to park space this month, but stay with the 1950s Red Scare theme from Liberty One, to talk about one of my favourite historical fiction titles.  The Book of Daniel put Doctorow on my three-strong list of recommended fiction authors. By that, I mean an author who’s consistently good across at least two titles (Billy Bathgate excepted). That seems like a very low bar, but, with limited time, I guess I’m just picky. This is all very subjective and I don’t read all genres, but if you like modern historical fiction - which happens to be…

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Review of The Astronaut Wives Club by Lily Koppel (NY Times Best Selling Author)

A few of you asked me to share my research for Liberty One and late last year I recommended Rocket Men (review link below if you missed it). Today I want to share a book with a different perspective. What did the American astronaut wives experience when the nation first went to space in the 1950s and 60s? I drew from The Astronaut Wives Club to understand and create Jim and JoAnn’s life in Liberty One. In 2015 the book became a TV series which is still available on Amazon Prime. The book begins with the Mercury seven announcement in 1959…

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