Becoming Madam Secretary by Stephanie Dray

Title: Becoming Madam Secretary
Author: Stephanie Dray
Publication: Berkley, hardcover, 2024
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: United States

Description: This fascinating historical novel about Frances Perkins, Franklin Roosevelt’s Secretary of Labor, begins in 1933 when FDR asks her to join his Cabinet and she presents him with a list of ground-breaking goals she would need him to support – get rid of child labor laws, limit working hours, create a minimum wage . . .  .

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

Title: The Diamond Eye
Author: Kate Quinn
Narrator: Saskia Maarleveld
Publication: HarperAudio, 2022
Genre: Historical Fiction
Setting: Soviet Union and United States

Description: When Lyudmila (Mila) Pavlichenko is sent to the United States during WWII to join Eleanor Roosevelt’s international student conference, Stalin’s goal is to showcase a military sniper whose skill has earned her the nickname Lady Death, hoping she and the rest of Russian delegation can generate American support on the Eastern Front.

The Heritage (Book Review)

Title: The Heritage

Author: Frances Parkinson Keyes (pronounced to rhyme with size)

Publication Information: Hardcover, McGraw-Hill, 1968

Genre: Historical Fiction

Plot: 1882. Peter Bradford, an indulged member of a prominent Irish-American Boston family, is traveling to Ireland to visit his great-uncle, James O’Toole, the Earl of Cloneen, whose heir he is. On the train en route, he meets a beautiful young woman, falls instantly in love, and they spend the night together. Desperate attempts to find her the next morning are unsuccessful. When Peter reaches Ireland, he has two shocks: his uncle has just died, and his uncle’s much-younger widow is Anne, the woman with whom he just spent the night. Deeply ashamed of her infidelity, Anne will barely speak to Peter, but there is an added complication: if she is pregnant with a son, their child will displace his own father as the new earl!

What I liked: I remembered this book while watching Downton Abbey because of the issue about the heir, and wanted to reread it right away.