The Pattern Artist by Nancy Moser

The Pattern Artist by Nancy Moser is a wonderful look inside a young woman's life at a time when women's roles were changing, Society was changing and the world was no longer an entirely predictable place. Annie begins as a servant, with very little choice in her life. Every hour dictated by those in positions above her. When the family she works for travels to the States, she discovers , a completely different way of life. After finding out others have been taking credit for her work, she gets a Job at a department store, ending up as a pattern Artist for the very new idea of home sewer patterns. She suffers the loss of a good friend, an attack on herself and the terror of a stalker. A thoroughly enjoyable book you will not want to put down!

#88 The Changing Season by Steve Manchester

Steven Manchester has done it again! Told with compassion, the heart wrenching story of young men and women on the cusp of adulthood, who discover that there are actions and choices that will effect the rest of their lives. Billy has responsibilities and an old dog, Jimmy, who has been a constant companion for years. He knows that his friends take chances that he won't, but he tries hard to stand by them. He meets a girl, Vicki, who hits him like a ton of bricks. This is someone he really could spend the rest of his life with.  But he makes a choice to stand by a friend, even when it feels not quite right and he will have to live with the consequences.
You feel like you know these kids..heck you feel like you WERE these kids once. You relive the moment when you realized that some things can never be undone. Some choices change your life..Forever. Powerful, haunting, joyful and painful. This is one book you don't want to miss and will never forget.

#87 The Nightingale Nurses by Donna Douglas

Book Three in the Nightingales series. The final year in the Nurses training.

Helen finally stands up to her mother...now what? Marriage?, but maybe not happily ever after.

Dora can't seem to get over Nick, who is married to her best friend.

Millie finally commits to Seb, but will he come back from the war? A visit to a fortune telling patient gives a dire warning.

Dora's brother is in deep with the anti semitic "Blackshirts".

All the Nurses are looking forward to finishing school, and wondering who will win the Nightingale Medal, and with it, a job at the Hospital.

Dora tries dating Joe, but her heart is just not in it. Helen finally  connects with her mother after learning the secret she had so long tried to hide.

I would love to see more stories from the Nightingales!

ASIN: B00DOL0GHY

#86 The Nightingale Sisters by Donna Douglas

Book two in the Nightingales series.  We meet Violet, the new Night Sister, mysterious, secretive, she has something, or someone, to hide.

Dora continues her studies, She really misses a special guy, but that seems to be a lost cause.

Millie is searching for what her future should be. A new friend, an elderly patient, makes her even more unsure.

All of this while the whole country mourns  King George the V.

Sister Wren rules with an iron hand, and the students suffer for it!

Millie feels horrible when an abrasive patient ends her own life.  Comfort comes from an unexpected source. Another fascinating peek into the lives of the Nightingales in 1930's England.

• ASIN: B00BY7NJPG

#85 The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas

Dora Doyle was tough, she had to be. Growing up in Bethnal Green meant you had to fight for what you wanted. You had to earn the respect of the others in your life by being tough. 

But she had a dream, to be a Nightingale Nurse. So her she was, sitting in  front of the Matron at the Nightingale Teaching Hospital trying to explain why she felt she had earned a place there.

Lady Amelia Charlotte Benedict was supposed to be engaged following her Grandmothers plan. Instead, here she was, at the Nightingale Teaching Hospital, standing in the Matrons office, again, this time being told she had failed her preliminary training. Millie tried, but she tended to be clumsy, distracted and not at all like the proper lady she was supposed to be.

Helen Tremayne was quiet, kept to herself and did what she was told.

They were unlikely roommates. 

It is fascinating to look inside the training and society of 1930's England as we follow the trials and tribulations of their time at the Nightingale.

If you love PBS's Call the Midwife, you will love this series.

• ISBN-13: 978-0099569350

#84 The Hollows Limited Edition Boxed Set, Skeleton Song and Skeleton Lake, by Angela Kulig

Raiden and Conrad are Skeletons. So is Cassie. Their world is strange, foreign, confusing. Don't worry and keep reading. The farther you descend into their world, the more you will understand.

It all has to do with the Lake. 

At first you are repelled, but then you begin to empathise, and later even to understand Cassie. When she dies for the last time...you ache a little. 

When Marlow dies for the first time, you realise, slowly, that she will struggle to not make the same mistakes Cassie did. Cassie is there helping too...in a way.

These books, Skeleton Song is the prequel to Skeleton Lake, are disturbing but fascinating. 

I have never read anything quite like them. I hope you find your way to them and through them. 

I can't wait to continue the story.

• ASIN: B00H0OFXJM

#83 A country Doctor's Casebook by Roger A. MacDonald, M.D.

Wonderful tales, told with the wit, wisdom and common sense of a true Country Doctor. Having spent time in the medical field myself I could immediately connect with the truth in his stories. He is not afraid to shine a light on the failures of the system, and sometimes just the failure of medicine itself. Sometimes, the patient steers the boat, no matter how hard we try to bring it to shore! These are the stories of a Doctor from a more principled, more open time. A simpler time maybe, but certainly no easier than now. He did what needed to be done, simply because there was no one else to do it. 

• ASIN: B002J05HBG