Every
family has secrets, some more devastating than others. Lisa Wingate's
historical novel about a young woman who uncovers secrets related to the
Tennessee Children's Home Society in the 1930s brings a great wrong to light.
It made me wonder if some secrets are better kept hidden or if families deserve
to know details about the past, even if those details may derail the present.
The novel made me wonder what secrets my family may be keeping. Do I want to
know?
THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—Over two million copies sold! A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller
“Poignant, engrossing.”—People • “Lisa Wingate takes an almost unthinkable chapter in our nation’s history and weaves a tale of enduring power.”—Paula McLain
Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage,…
Geraldine Brooks creates fascinating characters in a
small English village in 1666 who must deal with a devastating plague. The
village agrees to isolate itself to avoid spreading the plague to
other communities.
The catastrophe hit at a time when modern medicine did not
exist, nor did accessible communication. Superstition abounds in this time when
witchcraft flourished in Europe. The characters are engaging, and their
struggles with issues of faith are intriguing. It was a book I couldn't put
down once I began reading.
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'March' and 'People of the Book'.
A young woman's struggle to save her family and her soul during the extraordinary year of 1666, when plague suddenly struck a small Derbyshire village.
In 1666, plague swept through London, driving the King and his court to Oxford, and Samuel Pepys to Greenwich, in an attempt to escape contagion. The north of England remained untouched until, in a small community of leadminers and hill farmers, a bolt of cloth arrived from the capital. The tailor who cut the cloth had no way of knowing that the damp…
As a writer of history books for children, I read adult history books for research and pleasure. Paul Revere and the World He Lived In is a beautifully written biography, full of details about Paul Revere, as well as about life in Boston before, during, and after the Revolutionary War.
Forbes provides great background information on the times and the people who lived through the "rebellion." Paul Revere was far more than a well-known silversmith who rode to Lexington and Concord to warn of a British attack. He was instrumental in providing intelligence about British moves to men like Samuel Adams and Dr. Joseph Warren. And he helped procure supplies, and he invented a process for producing much-needed gunpowder.
His life after the Revolution is fascinating, as well. This book won the 1943 Pulitzer Prize for History.
The Kentucky frontier was
a beautiful place, but it was also a dangerous one. Jemima Boone and John Gass
often heard wolves howling, bears growling, and snakes slithering through the
tall grasses.
There was no store, no school, no doctor at Fort Boonesborough.
The settlers were on their own to deal with whatever threats arose. On a sunny
summer day in July 1776, the crisis they faced was a kidnapping. A Kidnapping in Kentucky is based on an actual event.
