Title: Modern Girls

Author: Jennifer S. Brown

Publisher: New American Library

Pages: 363

Summary (from back of book): In 1935, Dottie Krasinsky is the epitome of the modern girl. A bookkeeper in Midtown Manhattan, Dottie steals kisses from her steady beau, meets her girlfriends for drinks, and eyes the latest fashions. Yet at heart, she is a dutiful daughter, living with her Yiddish-speaking parents on the Lower East Side. So when, after a single careless night, she finds herself in the family way by a charismatic but unsuitable man she is desperate: unwed, unsure, and running out of options. After the birth of five children – and twenty years as a housewife – Dottie’s immigrant mother, Rose, is itching to return to the social activism she embraced as a young woman. With strikes and breadlines at home and National Socialism rising in Europe, there is much more important work to do than cooking and cleaning. So when she realizes that she too is pregnant, she struggles to reconcile her longings with her faith. As mother and daughter wrestle with unthinkable choices, they are forced to confront their beliefs, the changing world, and the fact that their lives will never be the same…

Happy Fourth of July to all my fellow Americans! 🙂 I apologize to those of you who read this blog and don’t like historical fiction set in the first half of the 20th century, because that seems to be all I’ve been reading lately. Even if you aren’t a fan of historical fiction, however, I think you’ll find something to enjoy in Jennifer S. Brown’s debut novel, Modern Girls, because it’s just a really fantastic piece of fiction. Continue reading “Modern Girls – A Novel About Life, Second Chances, and the Importance of Family” →