Book number 70 was The O’Briens by Peter Behrens. This book is the saga of a Canadian family that begins in the backwoods of Ontario with a family of five brothers and sisters of a mother who has been widowed by the Boer War and follows two of the brothers, Joe and Grattan, as they make their fortune in Canada in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the building of the railroads of Canada.
Joe marries Iseault, the orphaned daughter of a wealthy Boston banker, whom he meets in California. She follows him on his journeys through Canada, finally settling in Montréal. They have three surviving children and the book follows the lives of the three children as well. Joe has now established himself in the building industry and his son Mike is his partner. But then come the Second World War and life begins to fall apart.
This book is truly a saga of a family and their joys and sorrows and how they survive them. Seventy-nine down, 21 to go.
Sounds like a cool, “Down to Earth” story! Awesome!