eyes.2c Reviews

Grace of the Empire State  by Gemma Tizzard       ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ All I could think of was that iconic photo of workers sitting on a steel girder way above New York as the Empire State building was being built. It’s after the Wall Street  crash and finding work is difficult. Grace O’Connell and Patrick her twin are fortunate. He’s employed on the Empire State, as part of a four man crew, placing beams and riveting them together. Grace is employed as a dancer. She’d previously trained as  a  tight rope walker and dancer in the circus  her father had sent her to for training. Only when Pat injures his arm , and the club Grace works at closes down, the obvious, despite Grace’s fears, happens. (The problem is the other men would lose their jobs without the full team.) Thus Grace’s dilemma. It’s a cutthroat world. Grace takes her brother’s place, dressing as a man. There’s danger—of being exposed, of falling, and other complications. One workman has it in f...

Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris     Against the background of 1931 Philadelphia, during the Prohibition and the depths of the Great Depression, hardship is but a moment away. That moment is captured by newspaper man Ellis Reed. Accidentally really. Ellis had taken the photograph of two young children huddled under a sign "2 children" for sale whilst covering a a quilting exhibition. Newspaper secretary, Lily Palmer, had seen the photo and shown it to her boss. Ellis' career was launched. The accidental destruction of the photo just prior to publication called for a hurried intervention. The picture was reconstructed using a different family, and from this comes a story that spans counties and opens the door on medical misdiagnosis, the separation of families, the "selling" of children, the complicity of children's homes and related social issues that persist even today. The question of what lengths parents are willing to go to in the hope of en...