Fannish Fifty: Jennifer Ryan novels
Jun. 21st, 2023 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
smallhobbitContinuing the theme of series of books I enjoy, although these are slightly different. The books do not have the same characters in, although the types of people, the majority of whom are women, and the situation remains the same. Each of the books is set within WWII in England, generally what is known as the Home Counties, and based on what was called the home front.
This means that there's a lot of emphasis on what life was like at the time and Ryan is very good at incorporating many details, whether from government issued leaflets and instructions, to non-fiction on the subject to talking to people with first hand experience. They are all love stories, where girl or older woman meets boy or older man, but that is only one strand. The main emphasis is on women taking on more roles and proving to both themselves and others how capable they can be when given the opportunity.
The first book is The Chilbury Ladies' Choir. Set in Kent with many of the men departing for the war, the vicar decides to close the choir. However, the women set up the ladies' choir and friendships, a major theme in all the books, are made. The Spies of Shilling Lane takes a village busybody into the London blitz in search of her daughter, who is working there, with a interesting collection of characters along the way. The Kitchen Front has as its centre a competition to co-host a wartime cookery programme on the radio, and looks at the effect of rationing and how people sought to make food as appealing as possible with limited ingredients. And The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle sees a village sewing club which aims to repurpose clothing due to the very limited number of clothing coupons available and which branches out into providing wedding dresses to borrow using donated dresses which are adapted to each bride. I finished this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.
This means that there's a lot of emphasis on what life was like at the time and Ryan is very good at incorporating many details, whether from government issued leaflets and instructions, to non-fiction on the subject to talking to people with first hand experience. They are all love stories, where girl or older woman meets boy or older man, but that is only one strand. The main emphasis is on women taking on more roles and proving to both themselves and others how capable they can be when given the opportunity.
The first book is The Chilbury Ladies' Choir. Set in Kent with many of the men departing for the war, the vicar decides to close the choir. However, the women set up the ladies' choir and friendships, a major theme in all the books, are made. The Spies of Shilling Lane takes a village busybody into the London blitz in search of her daughter, who is working there, with a interesting collection of characters along the way. The Kitchen Front has as its centre a competition to co-host a wartime cookery programme on the radio, and looks at the effect of rationing and how people sought to make food as appealing as possible with limited ingredients. And The Wedding Dress Sewing Circle sees a village sewing club which aims to repurpose clothing due to the very limited number of clothing coupons available and which branches out into providing wedding dresses to borrow using donated dresses which are adapted to each bride. I finished this last night and thoroughly enjoyed it.
