Sunday: Barbara Taylor at Lackawanna Historical Society in Scranton

KJB author Barbara J. Taylor will appear at Scranton’s Lackawanna Historical Society on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 2 p.m! Come pick up your signed copies, meet the author, and tour the beautiful Catlin House at 232 Monroe St., one of Scranton’s architectural treasures.

Both of Taylor’s books are set in Scranton: SING IN THE MORNING, CRY AT NIGHT in 1913 and its sequel, ALL WAITING IS LONG in 1930.

SING IN THE MORNING, CRY AT NIGHT is a story of two young sisters, set in 1913, when coal was king in northeast Pennsylvania and evangelist Billy Sunday visited Scranton to rail against the evils of drink. Its sequel, ALL WAITING IS LONG, meets the sisters in 1930 as 25-year-old Violet escorts 16-year-old Lily to the Good Shepherd Infant Asylum to deliver her child. Conflict in the coal mines and family secrets collide back home in Scranton.

Booklist gave ALL WAITING IS LONG a starred review: “Powerful . . . Every page is saturated with the 1930s milieu as the sisters navigate the adversities of their reality on a sea rough with the unrealistic expectations of well-intended idealists both religious and secular. As if to highlight those expectations, Taylor periodically interrupts her third-person narrative with Greek chorus-type commentary from the Scranton-based Isabelle Lumley Bible Class, including excerpts from a 1929 sex manual for women. The overall result is a thought-provoking book club discussion cornucopia.”