Rebecca Rotert's Last Night At The Blue Angel
Oh man, this book was beautiful. I had to force myself to put it down last night so I wouldn't stay up too late, because it would be all too easy to devour this in a single sitting. It's about Sophia, a ten year old girl in 1965 whose single mother is a struggling singer at a downtrodden jazz club--except we find out right away that she's about to become famous. Then we flash back to the year leading up to that one big night, interspersed with the story of mother Naomi's teen years in the 50s and the start of her career. It's fascinating to see the two stories start to collide (especially as we meet Sophia's beloved family friends one at a time through Naomi's eyes) and I loved every minute of both of them. Also high marks for Sophia's friendship with the one little black girl at school (ah, the 60s) and their library trips, and the photographer besotted with her mother who is basically her dad. Seriously, everything about this book was just great. A.
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A review copy was provided by the publisher. This book will be released on Tuesday.
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