Wenchby Dolen Perkins-Valdez Author Dolen Perkins-Valdez peels away another layer of the slave narrative we all know existed–that of the black women, treated “well”, who were mistresses of their white owners. Even school children know of Thomas Jefferson’s Sally Hemings, and Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs rose in popularity …
The Postmistressby Sarah Blake Nineteen-forty, small Massachusetts village, the London blitz, a single Postmistress … it all had the sound of the charming Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And like many who didn’t experience the war, I’ve encountered World War II through my dreamy Tales of South Pacific and Norman Rockwell goggles. Granted, …
One Thousand White Womenby Jim Fergus I fear I may be the last woman standing who hasn’t read the popular novel by Jim Fergus, One Thousand White Women. I’ve read the reviews, heard the scuttlebutt among friends, but it seemed too much of a good thing, considering I’d read Thirteen Moons and Color of Lightening …
The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bagby Alan Bradley It took me a more pages than I was comfortable with to admit I liked Alan Bradley’s first Flavia DeLuce novel, Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I am not a murder-mystery fan, so that may have been part of it. Or maybe what kept …
If I Stayby Gayle Forman Recommended on NPR’s “You Must Read This” feature, If I Stay is a young-adult novel that doesn’t read like one: the writing is evocative, the story isn’t maudlin, the romance almost (!) believable. The novel does have the quick-read characteristic of YA, though–no dense writing here. The premise, however, is …
Little Beeby Chris Cleave Almost a year ago now, a friend of mine ask me excitedly whether or not I had read Little Bee. “What’s it about?” “I can’t tell you much about it … ‘something’ horrible happens on a beach in Nigeria to a little girl … that’s all I can say.” As her …
Major Pettigrew’s Last Standby Helen Simonson I settled into this book like a cat on a lap–it was a comfortable story, warm and familiar, and not overly challenging. Kind of a second or third cousin to Elegance of the Hedgehog with a nod to Remains of the Day, I felt right at home. (It need …
Sarah’s KeyTatiana De Rosnay Tatiana de Rosnay’s Sarah’s Key was another novel on the book club table at Schuler’s that I picked up and put down for over a year. Alternating chapters between World War II (July 1942, to be exact) and present day France, we get the stories of two women, Julia Jarmond and …
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letterby Tom Franklin Post-Christmas open house found me sluggish, lounging on the sofa in my pj’s until 4 PM–and devouring Tom Franklin’s Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter in a mere ten hours. Set in Mississippi in the early seventies and the present, the novel explores the lives of two men, one black, one …
Remarkable Creaturesby Tracy Chevalier I was anxious to begin my first Christmas read, a novel by Tracy Chevalier, who also wrote Girl With A Pearl Earring, because of the time period: early nineteenth century, the place: Lyme, England, and the topic: women in the sciences, as rare as the fossils these women discovered. And although …
This is my symphony 