I very much enjoyed reading Erin Bartels fine novel, We Hope For Better Things. The title says so much in the difficult and confusing times we're in, although the book isn't about current politics. It follows the lives of three women from the Balsam family, and the house all three live in. The three time lines are covered in interlocking chapters. Characters, both major and minor, are well-developed and come alive. The house that holds so much of the history of these women is also a character, and it, too, comes to life. While relating events around the Civil War and the Detroit riots in 1967, the story focuses on the lives of three women, from three different time periods, whose history overlaps in interesting ways, and who learn about the events in the lives of the women who went before them, although secrets remain.