Harper Collins sent me this book to review as part of their "First Look" program. 



It's Dream Lucky by Roxanne Orgill

By using a series of vignettes, Orgill covers an overlooked period in American history--1936 to 1938. The country had just trudged out of the Great Depression and was not yet embroiled in World War II. Orgill cover such varied topics as Eleanor Roosevelt, Amelia Erhart and the birth of swing. The narrative thread that holds the book together is the rise of Count Basie from a bit player in a Kansas City dive to a headliner in New York. Through the book, Orgill manages to convey the day to day life of an era.

I really enjoyed this book, especially as it covers a period in history that my school classes largely ignored. It also covered the year my mother and my father-in-law were born (1937) and shows how drastically different the average American life is from 70 years ago. They were born in a time prior to the advent of civil rights or women's rights. As a child born after those revolutionary changes, it's sometimes difficult for me to grasp how far we've come in just a lifetime. 

My only criticism--which is really more a suggestion--is that the book would be greatly enhanced by a soundtrack. Orgill speaks often of Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Billie Holliday and Ella Fitzgerald and she does so with lush, moving descriptions. However, I am unfamiliar with the music of the era and so would have liked to have had a CD to play along as I was reading. Orgill does provide a "listening list" at the end and I'll be making a trip to Itunes very soon to catch up on the vibrant music of this era.

Overall, I highly recommend this book as a great, interesting read!