Historical Fiction Set in 1950s England | Book Reviews

[@TheOrganizedPineapple]

I loved Renee Rosen's White Collar Girl. Set in the 1950s, a big city I think Chicago, she works at a newspaper and it was really interesting seeing the old newspaper world, with a love story thrown in, but turned out unexpectedly, more real-life ending.

[@hayleyc5594]

Really liked these book reviews. It is nice to see some books I haven’t heard of instead of the latest and greatest. Will be looking out for all three.

[@rdculb945]

Agree with another person in the comments that your preparation and attention to detail do not go unnoticed. I have a lot of respect for you and your videos 📚🌱 I’m not a huge fan of slow burners so it sounds like A Lovely City would be more my cup of tea so thanks for recommendation! Slightly off kilter but, I have nearly finished The Eighth Life which I have no doubt you will appreciate.

[@HardcoverHearts]

I am so excited for these reviews. I haven’t heard of any of these three so thank you

[@septembergold8095]

The River Within reminds me a lot of Waterland by Graham Swift. Waterland is also very much about landscape (the Fenlands) and nature (eels, silt, water) and it jumps between different time periods. There is also a mystery around a drowned boy, so there are quite some parallels. I particularly enjoyed how nature is linked with storytelling and family histories in that one. Great video, as always :)

[@MercysBookishMusings]

Ohhh, I've never read that one so thank you for the recommendation 😊

[@Emmie4497]

Thank you for reviewing these in more depth :) This Lovely City sounds wonderful. Will be adding it to the TBR

[@SavidgeReads]

Oooooh I’ve been excited for you thoughts of all of these. Small Pleasures I really want to get to and think it could be on the Women’s Prize longlist, it’s one of the many I forgot to include. I’m looking forward to The River Within. I thought This Lovely City was such a superb book. I couldn’t talk about it because it was in the HWA longlist 😤

[@FHMS97]

these all sound so good!! i just added them all to my TBR ☺

[@Tutankhamun18Reads]

really sold me on the river within and this lovely city! Really like how you speak about books 😊

[@pastorytime2683]

I love the cover for The River Within!

[@shamelessshelf-indulgence817]

All three of these are going on my TBR list now! Thank you for an excellent review video

[@katyfolk3433]

I picked up 'This Lovely City' in Tesco for £3.50! Really looking forward to reading it.

[@anthonydolan9555]

Wonderful reviews. Thank you.

[@abigailwalker5154]

Really enjoyed this video 😍 I love 1900's historical fiction, I want to pick up this love city and small pleasures ☺️ would love a similar video with 1930s fiction (always find that era tricky to find) 💞

[@bettyreads222]

i've had lovely city for a while and i'm looking forward to reading it soon. gosh the river within sounds so interesting. great reviews; love this type of video of a theme/thread in books and reviewing them that way!

[@rinceyreads]

OK I'm going to need to get my hands on This Lovely City

[@MarilynMayaMendoza]

I was born in1950 in Brooklyn New York, but I love novels set in the UK. I just finished reading Two of the novelist Elizabeth Taylor’s books set in the 60s in London. It’s very intriguing and different to my background. I’m Latina and Jewish. For an after the war London and New York Books about books, there was 84 Charing Cross Road which is a delight. Aloha

[@rosegreensummer]

the first one sounds amazing. I'm not into dead bodies, though i love plot. I'm reading a republished WW2 novel From the City, From the Plough, it's a bit trite but very good (he has to establish the characters fast, which i find trite)

[@TheNovelSanctuary]

I love reading chunky fantasy books in cold months for some reason!

[@MercysBookishMusings]

Me too :)

[@ahmedtheegyptian8297]

Thank you sister ❤️

[@RoisinsReading]

The River Within sounds so interesting! Last year I read The Island Child by Molly Aitken which is set in a similar time but on a very small island off the west coast of Ireland and because of that, and the poverty of Ireland at the time and the strength of the Catholic Church, it felt way more historical than things like A Single Thread by Tracey Chevalier even though the Chevalier is set in an earlier time period.

[@Candie183]

Good video!

[@helenhickey3479]

I've got both Small Pleasures and This Lovely City and after watching this video, I really want to get to them soon. The River Within sounds intriguing, I love Thomas Hardy. I'll add it to my very long wish list. Have you read Wake by Anna Hope? A beautiful book set just after the second world war.

[@MercysBookishMusings]

Yay, I'm so glad you liked the sound of them both 😊 Oh, I hadn't heard of Wake but I have read and enjoyed Expectation by Anna Hope so I'll definitely pick Wake up! Thanks for the recommendation!

[@laurakuhlmann1626]

Has anyone here read "The Nightingale"? I heard some very mixed reviews and I have a feeling it's an average book, but most KZbinrs seem to rave about it. I'm curious to hear some opinions about it from this channel, I've noticed Mercy's recommendations align more with my reading tastes

[@Tabbiecat]

Small pleasures sounds lovely Unfortunately This Lovely City was a miss for me, partly because I felt the actress who read Evie's sections in the audiobook was way weaker than the actor who read Laurie's. But I also really didn't like the stuff to do with Rose, I thought it was over the top and not believable. And Laurie's friends didn't have distinct enough characters in my opinion, I kept forgetting which was which.

[@MercysBookishMusings]

I actually started This Lovely City on audio and switched to a physical copy. I found that with the time shifts and the amount of characters I was quite confused with the audiobook. That's interesting re Rose's story, I feel like situations like that were fairly common at the time. I hope you get to Small Pleasures and enjoy it 😊