Crow Mary feels very authentic - the setting, characters, Indian language , culture and customs - the history is interesting, compelling and at times exciting and terrifying.
Kathleen Grissom, the author, relies on her extraordinary author's ear to actually receive communications from real people long-gone from this world. She authenticates her writing with extensive research so that the reader quickly becomes a part of the story. Her characters are real, full of human emotions every reader can connect and sympathize with.
Crow Mary did not change my outlook on the oftentimes sad history of the Native American people and how they were exploited and cheated by whites, but it did corroborate what I have learned about this ugly time for all Americans.
Crow Mary is the kind of book readers will think about long after reading it.
The New York Times bestselling author of the book club classics The Kitchen House and Glory Over Everything returns with a sweeping and “richly detailed story of a woman caught between two cultures” (Sandra Dallas, New York Times bestselling author) inspired by the real life of Crow Mary—an Indigenous woman in 19th-century North America.
In 1872, sixteen-year-old Goes First, a Crow Native woman, marries Abe Farwell, a white fur trader. He gives her the name Mary, and they set off on the long trip to his trading post in Saskatchewan, Canada. Along the way, she finds a fast friend in…
Shakespeare has long been a favorite, so I was intrigued with HAMNET, a fictional rendering of young Will Shakespeare and his wife, Anne (called Agnes in the novel).
The story unfolds in alternating periods of the protagonists' lives - from early childhood to their romance/marriage, ending with Shakespeare's success at the Globe production of HAMLET. We get a full picture of mid-1500s England, Shakespeare's troubled youth and growing genius, as well as his traumatic relationship with his wife and family and the tragic death of his son.
O'Ferrell's writing is hypnotically smooth; she manages to convey so much with an economy of words. For example, the scene where a flea infected with the plague escapes from one host to another and finally makes its way to London is a tour d' force in setting, character, plot and theme - all accomplished in two pages.
A hint of magical realism is the final touch to make HAMNET a masterpiece of historical fiction
WINNER OF THE 2020 WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR FICTION - THE NO. 1 BESTSELLER 2021 'Richly sensuous... something special' The Sunday Times 'A thing of shimmering wonder' David Mitchell
TWO EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE. A LOVE THAT DRAWS THEM TOGETHER. A LOSS THAT THREATENS TO TEAR THEM APART.
On a summer's day in 1596, a young girl in Stratford-upon-Avon takes to her bed with a sudden fever. Her twin brother, Hamnet, searches everywhere for help. Why is nobody at home?
Their mother, Agnes, is over a mile away, in the garden where she grows medicinal herbs. Their father is working in London.
Young Adult historical fiction Salt to the Sea is a masterful character study of a disparate group of individuals trapped in a WWII drama. A teenage rape victim, a nurse, a weakening Nazi, and a poet are all being evacuated from Nazi Germany to a rescue ship.
The dangers and impediments they meet along the way make for a tense read: Who will make it? Who will not? The author's horrifying descriptions of war on the seas make for nerve-wracking but compelling reading.
With a clear picture of the terrors of war, and what such refugees faced, the reader comes away with a renewed vow to block dictators and fascists from destroying democratic regimes.
It's early 1945 and a group of people trek across Germany, bound together by their desperation to reach the ship that can take them away from the war-ravaged land. Four young people, each haunted by their own dark secret, narrate their unforgettable stories. Fans of The Book Thief or Helen Dunmore's The Siege will be totally absorbed.
This inspirational novel is based on a true story from the Second World War. When the German ship the Wilhelm Gustloff was sunk in port in early 1945 it had over 9000 civilian refugees, including children,…
Five-year-old Lani, adopted in infancy from Japan, lives with her Hawaii mixed-race family. Though festive, her adoption day celebration brings Lani's focus to an ongoing concern: Has my mother in Japan forgotten me? Lani seeks reassurance that her birth mom remembers—both her and her special day.
Realizing the depth of Lani's perturbation, knowing it can affect their relationship both now and in the future, her family finds ways to put to rest her worries, while emphasizing Lani's importance to their family.
Using a book she has received as an adoption-day gift, Mommy, Daddy, and sister Vivi help Lani learn about her Japanese heritage, pointing out that her adoptive Hawaiian family is mixed-race, a positive example of modern-day diversity. With her worries soothed, Lani dreams that night of the meeting/melding of Japanese and Hawaiian-American cultures.
