I
love stories about ordinary women fighting the norms of their times, often unwittingly
or out of necessity. What makes this book so compelling is that the entire
story is told in the first person, as Lilli writes in her journals.
Consequently, each page is an account of her daily life and interactions,
complete with observations and assessments about the late 19th-century
world she inhabits. Her mindset is refreshingly modern, and what she shares
with the reader can be applicable to the present day.
Lilli is a likeable
character who elicited so much empathy from me. I couldn’t wait to return to
her every evening; I wanted to hug her, to help her. The story is also set in
Philadelphia, my hometown, making the references that much more interesting.
“A powerful, authentic voice for a generation of women whose struggles were erased from history—a heart-smashing debut that completely satisfies.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
A young woman finds the most powerful love of her life when she gives birth at an institution for unwed mothers in 1883 Philadelphia. She is told she must give up her daughter to avoid lifelong poverty and shame. But she chooses to keep her.
Pregnant, left behind by her lover, and banished from her Quaker home and teaching position, Lilli de Jong enters…
I read this book based on a recommendation from a friend,
and I enjoyed it so much that I suggested it to my book club.
First of all, I am
impressed by female authors who can adeptly write male protagonists (and
vice-versa), and Rutledge does a great job with both her main character (Woody)
and a secondary one (Riley Jones). She captures the vernacular of the time,
with the characters’ word choices and slang feeling very authentic, as if she
did her homework where that’s concerned.
It was fun to read descriptions of the
infrastructure of this country in the late 1930s as well. The descriptions of
human cruelty to animals, and to other humans, while not fun to read, were
perfectly juxtaposed by the goodness of the main characters.
An emotional, rousing novel inspired by the incredible true story of two giraffes who made headlines and won the hearts of Depression-era America.
"Few true friends have I known and two were giraffes..."
Woodrow Wilson Nickel, age 105, feels his life ebbing away. But when he learns giraffes are going extinct, he finds himself recalling the unforgettable experience he cannot take to his grave.
It's 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day…
This story captures the realities of surviving
the Alaska winters before the advent of the internet, cell phones, cable TV, or
increased commercial development. The descriptions of the rugged terrain, the
wild animals and the harsh weather put me right there in the story.
This is
nothing I was at all familiar with, so it was fascinating to read what daily
life was like before more modern-day technologies made things a little easier.
Yet my takeaway was that the absence of those very things actually made
communities in Alaska stronger because folks up there had no choice but to
depend on and look out for each other.
I also loved the evolution of the
protagonist, Leni, and what she experiences throughout the book made me chew
off most of my ten fingernails.
In Kristin Hannah’s The Great Alone, a desperate family seeks a new beginning in the near-isolated wilderness of Alaska only to find that their unpredictable environment is less threatening than the erratic behavior found in human nature.
#1 New York Times Instant Bestseller (February 2018) A People “Book of the Week” Buzzfeed’s “Most Anticipated Women’s Fiction Reads of 2018” Seattle Times’s “Books to Look Forward to in 2018”
Alaska, 1974. Ernt Allbright came home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes the impulsive decision to move his wife and daughter…
Inspired by a letter found hidden in the wall
of a 100-year-old house, this psychological thriller moves through seven
decades and imagines the life of a complex woman seeking validation and
respect.
Born into a prominent
Philadelphia Quaker family in 1915 and raised with privilege and opportunity,
Joan wrestles with her turbulent thoughts and unfulfilled desires—an internal
battle often resulting in self-destructive tendencies.
When she attempts to
push against the norms for women of her time to forge her own
identity, she is met with resistance. Yet she might also be her own worst
enemy, often alienating those who care deeply for her. Both manipulative and
vulnerable, naive and conniving, Joan is, like many people, complex and
misunderstood.
