I
love historical fiction. If the history is set within the wilderness, you grab my
attention even more. I admired this book from the first poetic sentence to the
last.
It’s one of the best historical fiction books I’ve read. Hudson’s
research is impeccable, as is her ability to create different, believable
characters. I also need a book
to have depth and to keep moving. I stayed up late wanting to know the fate of
these pioneers in their latest quest.
While the book is complicated by increased
awareness of how land was stolen from indigenous tribes, I admired Hudson’s
walking a fine, nuanced line. Acknowledging the wrong, while educating readers about
what pioneer women were made to endure by their men.
An early American adage proclaimed: "The frontier was heaven for men and dogs- hell for women and mules." Since the 1700s, when his name first appeared in print, Daniel Boone has been synonymous with America's westward expansion and life on the frontier. Traces is a retelling of Boone's saga through the eyes of his wife, Rebecca, and her two oldest daughters, Susannah and Jemima.
Daniel became a mythic figure during his lifetime, but his fame fueled backwoods gossip that bedeviled the Boone women throughout their lives, most notably the widespread suspicion that one of Rebecca's children was fathered by Daniel's…
This novel surprised me. Now and then, I read a small press book that I think should have been published by a major publisher. It’s exquisitely crafted, with gorgeous sentences that push the movement ever forward and keep readers on the edge of their seats.
Layden depicts an exotic Mexican locale that beautifully captures the setting and the culture (I’ve been to the same area of Mexico, so I know she is spot on). She explores a fascinating romance through the memory of a bright but unreliable narrator. There is also a mysterious disappearance and a love triangle, and the reader is kept guessing till the end. It is an enthralling literary novel with genre appeal.
I won’t ever forget this story or Carey, the flawed but realistic narrator.
"Trip Through Your Wires is compulsively readable."-Porter Shreve, author of Drives Like a Dream A clue to her boyfriend's murder draws Carey back into the mystery that led to his death, forcing her to re-examine her own culpability and the self-delusion that blinded her to the dangers of his world. As she follows the clues and searches her memory, searing loss and guilt take over her life.
I have always had an interest in the Earth sciences and happily studied anthropology and archaeology in college. But especially as a writer and lover of stories about women in the wild, I was totally in awe of the skilled narration and intensive
historical research that Sevigny brought to the table and wove skillfully into
each paragraph of this brilliant nonfiction account of two female botanists
blazing a water trail down the deadly Colorado River in 1938.
It is absorbing,
educational, and an important contribution to women’s history and nature
writing in general. Ken Burns, take note!
In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off down the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious expedition leader and three amateur boatmen. With its churning rapids, sheer cliffs and boat-shattering boulders, the Colorado River was famed as the most dangerous river in the world. But for Clover and Jotter, it held a tantalising appeal: no one had surveyed the Grand Canyon's plants, and they were determined to be the first.
Through the vibrant letters and diaries of the two women, science journalist Melissa L. Sevigny traces their forty-three-day journey, during which they ran rapids, chased…
Inspired
by actual Holocaust events, this poignant, multi-award-winning debut novel is a
powerful coming-of-age story that will resonate with fans of The Book Thief and Between Shades of Gray.
Hanna
Slivka is on the cusp of fourteen when Hitler’s army crosses the border into
Soviet-occupied Ukraine. Soon, the Gestapo closes in, determined to make
the shtetele she
lives in “free of Jews.”
Sparse, resonant, and lyrical, weaving in tales of
Jewish and Ukrainian folklore, My Real Name Is Hannacelebrates
the sustaining bonds of family, the beauty of a helping hand, and the tenacity
of the human spirit.
