Genre: Historical FictionPublisher: Harper/CollinsPub. Date: Oct. 6, 2020“Millions” is a richly entertaining historical novel that reconstructs the free speech riots that took place during the creation of the labor union during the early 1900s in Spokane, Washington. The novel is jam-packed with real-life people such as the passionate, 19-year-old union organizer, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (known as the Rebel Girl), the young labor lawyer, Fred Moore, and many others. Historical fiction is my favor...

In 1909, the city council of Spokane, Washington, issued an ordinance that banned public speaking on the city’s streets. Its goal was to silence union organizing activities by the IWW (International Workers of the World or wobblies). The Wobblies retaliated by launching the Free Speech Fight. On November 9th, soapboxes were erected throughout the city; IWW representatives would ascend, begin to speak, and promptly be hauled off to jail. Close to 500 unionists were incarcerated. Jess Walters rec

Okay. I liked it, but maybe at a different time I would have liked it more? For those who has HSP or other sensitive types it just felt like a lot with everything going on in the world. That aside I liked the writing style. The story kept me interested. I don't regret reading it one bit.

What was it about these steep, western, water-locked cities, Seattle, Spokane, San Francisco? All three I’d visited, and in all three, the money flowed straight uphill. It made me think of something I’d heard about the Orient, that water drained the opposite way there. Who wanted to live in a place where water spun backward or money flowed uphill. These towns that had no business being towns, straddling islands and bays and cliffs and canyons and waterfalls. ---------------------------------

At this time when our democracy is once again being threatened, Walters takes us back to 1909, and the fight for free speech, income equality and the right to make an honest, fairly paid living. The comparisons between then and now are palpable.Gig and Rye are brothers, Rye only 16, as orphans Gig feels responsible for his younger brother and does his best to keep him safe. In Spokane, where this novel takes place this proves difficult, there is change coming, hard-fought change, and it is hard

Surprisingly gripping, parsimonious, immersive and a real pageturner. The author excels in creating emotional and/or suspenseful moments in his narration, while keeping me on my toes and guessing on the path of the storyIt’s easy to be disappointed in people, but we do our best, and maybe what a person is and what he do is not always the same.Yes, but maybe it is?I flew through this book in a day, going from hesitant with the historic setting and the seemingly clear cut conflict, to being fully

Jess Walter's new book is terrific and, in my opinion, destined to be a classic. Reminiscent of Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, The Cold Millions documents a period of time in Spokane, Washington, in which the dividing line between rich and poor was about as profound as it is today, with the possible exception of today's ability to form labor unions without being beaten, robbed, jailed, murdered, or driven out of town on a rail. It follows the story of two brothers, Gig and Rye, who while loyal...

While this is only the second novel by Jess Walter that I have read, he has found that place in my literary heart reserved for writers whose every novel I want to read so I’ve just added several of his other books to my to read list. Mostly it’s because the writing is so impeccable that I am compelled to reread some sentences so I can experience that wow feeing again. It’s also because this is historical fiction at its best, reimagining a time, a place, events that really happened with a cast of...

This book wasn’t for me.“The Beautiful Ruins” wasn’t either. Only I never mentioned it till now. I know I’m in the minority—But I couldn’t find my enthusiastic-footing...Too many characters and points of views ...I felt no emotional attachment to any of the characters ...The fancy writing was just that: ‘fancy’.The artful prose was ‘pretty’... but I didn’t feel passion for it. Since I’m not going to finish this book - I won’t rate it.Two for two... books I didn’t finish by Jess Walter. Oh well.....

I chose to listen to Jess Walter’s “The Cold Millions” narrated by an amazing cast: Edoardo Ballerini, Gary Farmer, Marin Ireland, Cassandra Campbell, MacLeod Andrews, Tim Gerard Reynolds, Mike Ortego, Rex Anderson, Charlie Thurston, and Frankie Corzo. It is the cast that provided this historical fiction story with the depth and richness of the saga of a turbulent time in America’s history. Walter embeds historical figures in his creative story which lends the reader to research the figures and

4.5 stars, rounded upThis engrossing historical fiction takes us initially to Spokane, Washington, 1909. The 1907 recession is still causing the economy to reel. Workers are just starting to try to demand certain rights and the Wobblies (IWW) are attempting to organize. Enter the Dolan brothers, young men of no firm address, seeking work through the job agencies but also involved with the fledgling union. Walters paints a detailed picture of the time and place. His description of certain scenes,...

I had high hopes for this book, this author is a master craftsman, a true wordsmith. I have enjoyed many of his other books. That’s not to say I did not enjoy this one, I did, just not to the degree I expected. I loved the characters, their plight, the time period and setting. What more could a reader ask?Throughout the year I am stumbling in the dark looking for that great read that will immerse me into that ever elusive, “Fictive Dream.” I think most all avid readers are involved in this same

There are times when you walk into a library and a book calls out to you. This book falls in to category.It was very well written with a fictional story that blended so well the facts of the times depicted. The banding together of workers into what would eventually become very powerful union movements was a telling statement on the trials, the hardships, and the deaths experienced by the men and women who fought so hard for workers to earn a decent wage. It depicted those who became wealthy on t...

Hell, it took only your first day in a Montana flop or standing over your mother's unmarked grave to know that equal was the one thing all men were not. A few lived like kings, and the rest hugged the dirt until it cracked open and took them home....He flushed with sadness, as if every moment of his life were occurring all at once—his sister dying in childbirth, his mother squirming in that one-room flop, poor Danny sliding between wet logs, Gig in jail, and Jules dead—and how many more? All peo...

Too much hypeThis Debbie Downer was looking for an upper, but alas she didn’t find it. (You know it’s bad when I’m talking third person!) Before you throw tomatoes at me, let me say that I KNOW this is a good book. I KNOW the writer is fabulous. I just didn’t get pulled into the subject, which was the fight for workers’ rights. It was too political for me. So when I don’t like the subject and I get bored, all these nits keep flying around my head, insisting I drag my Complaint Board out of the s...

Boy, is this a good book!If I hadn't already been convinced that Jess Walter could write anything—a crime caper (Citizen Vince), a love story (Beautiful Ruins), short stories that range from heartbreaking to hilarious (We All Live in Water), a funny commercial literary novel (The Financial Lives of Poets), a nightmarish psychological story in the aftermath of 9/11 (The Zero), or a blatant literary writer's foray into money-making with a cop serial (Land of the Blind)—this complicated and highly

In 2012, Jess Walter’s breakout bestseller, “Beautiful Ruins,” brought movieland hilariously and brilliantly to life. The story offered an enchanting vision of glamorous old wrecks — from Tinseltown to an Italian village to Richard Burton himself.But now, with his new novel, “The Cold Millions,” Walter attempts to bring that same verve to the pitiless realm of Spokane, Wash., in 1909. Where once he satirized the meretricious appeal of Hollywood, movie stars and reality TV, here he’s hunkered dow...

For years, readers have mulled what it means to be a good writer versus a great writer so let me add in my two cents: a good writer creates a fictional world and a great writer makes it impossible to look away.With The Cold Millions, surely Jess Walter’s most ambitious book (and I’m a huge Jess Walter fan), this author lays claim to Great American Writer. Because this surely is a slice of America – the early 1900s where hobos, union agitators (Wobblys), tycoons, a red-haired vaudeville star, a s...

[3+] Set in the early 1900s, The Cold Millions vividly portrays a time of violence and repression against workers and activists in Spokane. I liked the characters fine, especially Rye Dolan, and the historical details were educational, but for me, the novel didn't ever take off ... it was one long plateau. This novel is the second in a row (The Keepers of the House) where I've liked the epilogue better than the rest of the novel. As a reader, I need more than a satisfying epilogue.

5 starsThis is second novel that I have read by Jess Walter. I have previously read Beautiful Ruins, which I enjoyed very much.I was fortunate to receive this advance reader copy from Goodreads and the publisher Harper Collins.This is the historical fiction story of real life people and some fictional characters from the 1909-1910 Free Speech Riots in Spokane. It is a very engaging read.The Dolan brothers, Gregory, (Gig) and Ryan (Rye) live their lives through adventure jumping from train to tra...