{"id":211,"date":"2020-03-10T13:30:00","date_gmt":"2020-03-10T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/staging\/4750\/?p=211"},"modified":"2020-03-10T13:30:00","modified_gmt":"2020-03-10T13:30:00","slug":"the-operator-by-gretchen-berg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/","title":{"rendered":"The Operator by Gretchen Berg"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

From the Publisher: <\/b>“A clever, surprising, and ultimately moving debut novel, set in a small Midwestern town in the early 1950s, about a nosy switchboard operator who overhears gossip involving her own family, and the unraveling that discovery sets into motion.<\/p>\n

In a small town, everyone knows everyone else\u2019s business . . .<\/p>\n

Nobody knows the people of Wooster, Ohio, better than switchboard operator Vivian Dalton, and she\u2019d be the first to tell you that. She calls it intuition. Her teenage daughter, Charlotte, calls it eavesdropping.<\/p>\n

Vivian and the other women who work at Bell on East Liberty Street connect lines and lives. They aren\u2019t supposed to listen in on conversations, but they do, and they all have opinions on what they hear\u2015especially Vivian. She knows that Mrs. Butler\u2019s ungrateful daughter, Maxine, still hasn\u2019t thanked her mother for the quilt she made, and that Ginny Frazier turned down yet another invitation to go to the A&W with Clyde Walsh.<\/p>\n

Then, one cold December night, Vivian listens in on a call between that snob Betty Miller and someone whose voice she can\u2019t quite place and hears something shocking. Betty Miller\u2019s mystery friend has news that, if true, will shatter Vivian\u2019s tidy life in Wooster, humiliating her and making her the laughingstock of the town.<\/p>\n

Vivian may be mortified, but she isn\u2019t going to take this lying down. She\u2019s going to get to the bottom of that rumor\u2014get into it, get under it, poke around in the corners. Find every last bit. Vivian wants the truth, no matter how painful it may be.<\/p>\n

But as Vivian is about to be reminded, in a small town like Wooster, one secret usually leads to another. . . .”.<\/i><\/p>\n

My thoughts:<\/b> As \u201cThe Operator\u201d demonstrates, living in a small town brings with it the good and the bad. As telephone operators in Wooster, sometimes listening in to calls to learn the latest gossip is exciting – that is, unless the call is gossip about you and your family. <\/p>\n

Vivian is the protagonist in this story and is a well-developed and interesting character – right down to her love of \u201cRevlon Fire and Ice\u201d lipstick and nail colour. Her story is set primarily in the 1950\u2019s but the author provides insight into her earlier life as a teenager and young bride. There are many humorous moments which demonstrated Vivian\u2019s free-spirit – I laughed out loud when she cleared her switchboard of cables in one sweep of her arm. <\/p>\n

The book kept me entertained throughout and I couldn\u2019t wait to see how several of the town\u2019s mysteries would unfold. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and recommend it for those readers who enjoy a lighter, humorous read. <\/p>\n

Thanks to Edelweiss and William Morrow for the ARC of this book in exchange for the honest review provided here.
My rating: \u2b50\ufe0f \u2b50\ufe0f \u2b50\ufe0f \u2b50\ufe0f\/5.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the Publisher: “A clever, surprising, and ultimately moving debut novel, set in a small Midwestern town in the early 1950s, about a nosy switchboard operator who overhears gossip involving her own family, and the unraveling that discovery sets into motion. In a small town, everyone knows everyone else\u2019s business . . . Nobody knows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Operator by Gretchen Berg - That Happy Reader<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Operator by Gretchen Berg - That Happy Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the Publisher: “A clever, surprising, and ultimately moving debut novel, set in a small Midwestern town in the early 1950s, about a nosy switchboard operator who overhears gossip involving her own family, and the unraveling that discovery sets into motion. In a small town, everyone knows everyone else\u2019s business . . . Nobody knows […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"That Happy Reader\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-03-10T13:30:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"thathappyreader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"thathappyreader\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"thathappyreader\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8\"},\"headline\":\"The Operator by Gretchen Berg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-10T13:30:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\"},\"wordCount\":487,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Fiction\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\",\"name\":\"The Operator by Gretchen Berg - That Happy Reader\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-03-10T13:30:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Operator by Gretchen Berg\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/\",\"name\":\"That Happy Reader\",\"description\":\"I'm a woman who wants to share her joy of reading!\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8\",\"name\":\"thathappyreader\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7340388653e82305a95ea112857b66d3954d53640cc4c25148cd8f906230fd1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7340388653e82305a95ea112857b66d3954d53640cc4c25148cd8f906230fd1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"thathappyreader\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Operator by Gretchen Berg - That Happy Reader","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Operator by Gretchen Berg - That Happy Reader","og_description":"From the Publisher: “A clever, surprising, and ultimately moving debut novel, set in a small Midwestern town in the early 1950s, about a nosy switchboard operator who overhears gossip involving her own family, and the unraveling that discovery sets into motion. In a small town, everyone knows everyone else\u2019s business . . . Nobody knows […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/","og_site_name":"That Happy Reader","article_published_time":"2020-03-10T13:30:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"thathappyreader","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"thathappyreader","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/"},"author":{"name":"thathappyreader","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8"},"headline":"The Operator by Gretchen Berg","datePublished":"2020-03-10T13:30:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/"},"wordCount":487,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg","articleSection":["Fiction"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/","url":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/","name":"The Operator by Gretchen Berg - That Happy Reader","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg","datePublished":"2020-03-10T13:30:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/-XFn_oJDlgAg\/Xkyf8_6r0LI\/AAAAAAAAGsY\/evjO3g99Hd0oGY-UcsUl4yKPG17Q3ys3QCLcBGAsYHQ\/s640\/IMG_6212.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/the-operator-by-gretchen-berg\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Operator by Gretchen Berg"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/","name":"That Happy Reader","description":"I'm a woman who wants to share her joy of reading!","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/c9252c67cd13709db68992baec7dc6c8","name":"thathappyreader","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7340388653e82305a95ea112857b66d3954d53640cc4c25148cd8f906230fd1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7340388653e82305a95ea112857b66d3954d53640cc4c25148cd8f906230fd1b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"thathappyreader"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"}}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thathappyreader.ca\/staging\/4750\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}