Blogs in January 1970

Gardenias 1st January 1970

The novel begins in 1942, when nine-year-old Lark and her newly separated mother and aunt Betty travel by train from southern Minnesota to San Diego. Eager to obtain war work and as much distance as possible from her estranged...

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Summer Nights 1st January 1970

There’s nothing quite like a holiday with your boyfriend. Flora Fielding can’t wait for Barney to join her in San Francisco so they can begin their dream holiday. Until Barney dumps her, leaving her stranded. Luckily, Flora’s cousin Bella...

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The Orchard Keeper 1st January 1970

Set in a small, remote community in rural Tennessee in the years between the two world wars, The Orchard Keeper is a classic from one of America’s finest and most celebrated authors. It tells of John Wesley Rattner, a...

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Playing Dead 1st January 1970

The Letter: A few weeks after her father’s death, Tommie McCloud receives a letter in the post from a stranger. The woman claims that Tommie is her biological daughter, kidnapped from her as a baby over thirty years ago....

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Tomato Red 1st January 1970

The hero of Daniel Woodrell’s Tomato Red is the most endearingly out-of-control loser you’re likely to meet. Sammy Barlach looks like a person “who should in any circumstances be considered a suspect”: clerks follow him through the supermarket when...

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