Giving an early thanks for some fall reading finds

No doubt you're familiar with the old saying about a blessing in disguise and that was certainly true for me in a bookish sense this past weekend.

I made a trip to the library sooner than I had intended, due to one of the books that I borrowed last time having a hold put on it, and while rushing my reading of that title was a tad irksome, it was worth the increased pace.

So, upon returning that particular book, I wound up replacing it with two more that I hope will last a bit longer on my TBR. The first one is Lady Cop Makes Trouble by Amy Stewart, which follows up her fabulous Girl Waits With Gun a couple of years ago.

We are reintroduced to Constance Kopp, a New Jersey woman in 1915 who lives with her two sisters, the mild mannered Norma and dazzlingly ditzy Fleurette. Constance, due to her unexpected adventure with a local gangster, has been made a sheriff's deputy which was a groundbreaking role for a lady in those times.

Unfortunately, when she is assigned to guard a high priority prisoner named Baron Von Mattheisus, the devious con man escapes her custody. While Constance can handle being demoted to jail matron, the effect of the incident upon Sheriff Heath, who she must admire from afar since he's married, fires up her detective skills and she vows to hunt down the escapee on her own.

I fondly recall enjoying the lively energy that Girl Waits With Gun had and have wanted to take up more of the Kopp Sisters titles(there's two more books after this one) but didn't have the right opportunity to do so. Well, now is as good a time as any and learning more about Constance Kopp, who was a real person, in this fictional fashion is truly good old school fun:

It was also fun to come across Jennifer Chiaverini's latest historical fiction entitled Resistance Women. This novel chronicles four female friends who worked together in Germany during WWII to take down the Nazi regime.

Mildred moved to Germany from America to reunite with her native born husband Arvid but the political change in the country has made it difficult for both of them to find work and be happy. Meanwhile, Greta returned home from her studies aboard to become a writer for the theater, an art form under direct attack from the new government.

Along with Martha, the daughter of a diplomat who is playing in dangerous waters, and Sara, who is rethinking her impending marriage to a man outside of her Jewish faith, these ladies join a secret network of resistance fighters that gather information to help bring down the Nazi reign. Their work is vital and risky, with one false move from anywhere being enough to endanger them all.

I've read several of Chiverini's stand alone historical novels and she has a great flair for making the women of history spring to vivid life on the page. This new work, which has three of it's major characters based on actual people, should be as riveting as any classic espionage thriller set upon the silver screen:

 I was also lucky in a thrift shop find around that time as well, with Park Avenue Summer by Renee Rosen, set in New York of 1965 as Helen Gurley Brown becomes the editor-in-chief at Cosmopolitan magazine. Her daring new approach to women's issues in print is shaking things up, to say the least.

The leading lady of this novel, however, is Alice, a new hire at Cosmo, who is very impressed with the changes that Gurley Brown is bringing. She's hoping that her dream to be a major photographer can be a reality with such an amazing example right in front of her.

As Alice becomes part of the Cosmo scene, a few of her new friends want her to join them in taking HGB down but she is determined to have no part in their plans. However, that refusal could make Alice a target as well, dooming her future career plans. Will she be able to stick to her principles or have to make a compromise that disappoints more than just herself?

I've heard this book be called "Mad Men meets The Devil Wears Prada" and since I like both of those pop culture sensations, this ought to be some twisty dramatic fun. Who knows, this story might lead me to some more fine stories along the same lines, we shall see:

As for my new library loans, I'm hoping to keep them with me until Thanksgiving is over and done with(renewals are a library patron's best friend, in my opinion!). Don't get me wrong, I have no intention of depriving someone of such good reading material but I would like to have a nice amount of time with them, plus it would be easier on my budget not to make another trip back right away.

Granted, this is far from a big league problem yet it is a challenge needing to be met. While it's not as daunting as say, attending four Thanksgiving dinners on the same day, any reader worth their salt should be able to do this and not have to skip the bread rolls either: