Best Historical Fiction

Historical Fiction from Dennis Lehane and Women in Business from Lois Frankel

By flashgordon on | From newgreatbooks.blogspot.com

The Given Dayby Dennis Lehane

Throughout his excellent private detective series and his superlative stand-alone mysteries, Mystic Riverand Shutter Island,Dennis Lehane has explored how individuals become who they are.

This theme is also the bedrock of The Given Day,Lehane's most ambitious novel.

While it retains some elements of crime fiction, The Given Dayleaps into historical fiction with ease and grace, exploring the beginnings of the 20th century and culminating in the 1919 Boston Police Strike. The Given Dayhas more in common with E.L. Doctorow's Ragtime or Edward Rutherfurd's London; yet it is as much a thriller as any of Lehane's previous work.

Even beyond the historical events, The Given Dayqualifies as a sprawling, sweeping epic. The story elegantly moves from Boston to Ohio, Florida, Oklahoma, Missouri and several other parts of the country, giving the reader a clear sense of place for each locale.

Throughout the story, Lehane examines racism, xenophobia, workers' rights, the economy, terrorism, religious repression, union violence, communism, politics and social change. But The Given Daynever seems crammed with ideology and never loses sight of the story.

Read more about David Lehane's new book here....

Author follows Nice Girlsbooks with See Jane Lead

Having read Lois P. Frankel’s Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Officefor a previous Women in Business issue, choosing another of her books to review now was an easy choice. Frankel’s latest offering is See Jane Lead: 99 Ways for Women to Take Charge at Work.

I expected a book simply built around 99 bullet points aimed at giving advice for how to become a leader in the workplace. But this book offers a lot more than that. Like her other books, which also include Nice Girls Don’t Get Rich,this book offers real-life examples, and self-assessments that readers can use at the end of each chapter.

What’s interesting, though, is that this book has a very different tone than Frankel’s “Nice Girls” books. Frankel notes specifically that in those books, she honed in on 176 mistakes women make in pursuing their professional and financial goals. “See Jane Lead” zeroes in on strategies for unleashing leadership capabilities – many of which women might not recognize in themselves but have gained through their roles as daughters, wives and mothers.

The book is broken into nine chapters, and Frankel’s 99 tips are shared among them. Beyond those tips, however, are multiple bulleted lists of additional tips, along with anecdotal stories from and about influential women, including Mother Teresa and Mary Kay Cosmetics founder Mary Kay Ash.

Clearly, there’s not room here to go through each chapter of this book, which was a fairly quick read, even for 266 pages, plus a suggested reading list. Read more about Lois Frankel's new book here....