The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki
Despite humble beginnings in Michigan, Marjorie Post, heiress to her father’s Post Cereal Company, lived a life of luxury. This historical novel spans from the 1890s to the 1960s, including (and these are just highlights) Marjorie’s four marriages, three daughters, expansive properties, life abroad in Russia and a personal yacht. She lived the high life but was generous with her new-money fortune, too. Pataki’s use of first-person narrative makes this read like a memoir, and readers will be taken in both by the twists and turns of Post’s life events and by the well-researched writing itself.
Through No Fault of My Own: A Girl’s Diary of Life on Summit Avenue in the Jazz Age by Coco Irvine
This little diary is just the thing for readers looking for a short, entertaining story with local connections. Coco Irvine received a diary for Christmas in 1926, and as a young teen, she filled it with stories of her adventures, scrapes and first glimpses of romance. Tales of her siblings and parents are lively and dramatic (“Bossing me around, really!”) and capture her childhood on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue and at the family’s summer home in White Bear Lake a century ago. Coco’s writing style showcases her big personality, and it all adds up to a sweet, giftable nonfiction gem!
Karen Mackey is the adult services librarian at the Wescott Branch of the Dakota County Library. Read more at dakotacounty.us/library.
