First, the reader meets the "golden people" – the Ambassador to Mexico, his socialite wife, his up-and-coming son, his youngest daughter, the pet of the family, and their Christmas guest who is the most famous person in the world. But then there is the "dull brown pine cone amidst all the tinsel...'' Her name is Anne Morrow, and Charles Lindbergh is her parents' holiday guest. That meeting results in the ambassador's daughter becoming the aviator's wife, then the murdered child's mother and then again the well-know author who is both scorned (when she writes as her husband's mouthpiece) and praised.

Along the way, she bears six children, fends off the relentless press (which she blames for her son's kidnapping) and attempts to be a perfect wife to an unapproachable, disconnected, aviation absorbed man who admits that one reason he married her was because she came from, "...good blood. No irregularities. Our children will be pure." By marrying America's darling, Anne Morrow denies her own personality in order to serve his. She does, however, come to her senses before it's too late.

This novel is historical fiction, so some dialogues and personal interactions fall into the imagined category but not the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby, the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where Hermann Goering was their host, the American public's hatred of her husband (and often her) when Lindbergh's anti-Semitism became widely known, and especially not the discovery that she was not the only love of his life and not the only mother of his children. It is all in these pages and it is compelling.

As for the Morrows, that family who exemplified "good blood," Dwight Junior has a series of breakdowns, Elizabeth deals with personal choices which make her miserable, and Con marries her sister's widower. Anne, as a senior at Smith, wins two of the college's most prestigious writing awards, becomes the first American woman to fly a glider, serves as her husband's

co-pilot and only crew member on many continental and transcontinental flights. Her book North to the Orient, ends up a best seller and award winner. Who knew?

To learn more about this and other books, visit the Boulder City Library at 701 Adams Boulevard, 293-1281, www.bouldercitylibrary.org