52 Books in 52 Weeks discussion

This discussion thread is the home of any and all book recommendations for members in the 52 in 52 group.

If there is a book you have read (or want to read), feel free to talk about it here.

I'll start this off with a non-fiction book that totally surprised me and I now recommend to everyone. I haven't gotten a negative reaction from anyone yet.

The book is Dark Tide: The Great Boston Molasses Flood of 1919 (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...). I know, right, the title grabbed me, too.

The author tells the story of the 1919 collapse of a 2.3 million gallon tank of molasses into an immigrant Italian residential area in Boston and discusses the importance of molasses to the WWI war effort (who knew?), the post-WWI anarchist movement, the change of the Boston immigrant population over time (Irish to Italian), corporate irresponsibility and greed, and the impact of the flood on the lives of those affected. I read it a few years ago and was mesmerized by the event itself and how well the author interwove all of the different aspects of the story and made it personal. It continues to be one of my favorites.

Palace of the Drowned
I received an advanced reading copy of Palace of the Drowned to review and evaluate for my library’s collection. I am glad that I did.

Christine Mangan, author of the Bestselling Tangerine, set this novel in Venice, primarily in November of 1966. Mangan sets the scene well. Having been to Venice in December, I can attest that it is cold and dreary. I could feel the damp in the story. Venice is also can feel like a labyrinth with all of the bridges and canals. This comes across in the novel particularly when the excitement comes up.

The protagonist, Frankie Croy, goes to a friends’ home in Venice to recuperate from a scandal and work on her next book. When she arrives, her friends are not there. There is only an Italian houseworker and something or someone else….

If you enjoy thrillers and/or historical fiction, you might want to try this one. It is a slow build up, but by the end, I stayed up past my bedtime to finish the novel.