It's rare that a novel wraps itself around my heart like this one. In it, a mysterious older man moves into a small Georgia town, and something magical unfolds. That's really all I can say without spoilers.
This is a book about kindness, about all the sadness that each and every one of us accumulates in this life, and about the beauty and joy of life in spite of the sorrows. It's richly imagined, beautifully crafted, and packed with love and hope.
Dreadful Wind and Rain is named for an old folk ballad which describes the drowning of one sister by another, but it also echoes the story of Rachel and Leah in the Old Testament and elements of many ancient myths.
Gilliam crafts a powerful poetic voice that uses the framework of sibling rivalry to tell the story of a contemporary woman who throws off society's limited expectations for women, leaves a destructive marriage, and disentangles herself from the web of manipulative family members to find her own fierce voice and build a life for herself.
Even if you think you don't like poetry, I think you'll be enthralled by this stunning and lyrical collection.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl whose story was not her own. . .
So the story goes: Neglected and abused by her family, eclipsed by her elder and more beautiful sister, a young girl longs for happily-ever-after, for something, someone to rescue her. She is soon swept away into the next chapter of her life: marriage-a promising world mirroring Old Testament stories and fairy tale traditions. But loving just anyone and living the age-old "ever-after" narrative, as it turns out, fails to bring true happiness after all. Dragged down by a destructive marriage, her sister's continued manipulations,…
After a triggering incident at work reactivates paralyzing memories of her childhood sexual abuse, neuroscience professor Stacey Hettes reenters therapy. Her courageous account of therapy from the client's perspective is all the more powerful because of her clear explanations about the ways that trauma rewires the brain.
This is an exquisitely written, sometimes gut-wrenching, and ultimately hopeful story about a woman's strength, a family's complicated love, and a therapist's intelligence and persistence.
Stacey is living exactly the right life before she hits the psychological equivalent of a patch of black ice.
As Professor Hettes, her classes focus as much on neuroscience's beauty and wonder as its facts and theories. Fellow faculty members see her as a fair but outspoken leader on a campus steeped in the blended patriarchies of academia and southern gentility.
At an emotionally charged forum on sexual violence, she takes a stand against a colleague's reckless verbal assault, outing herself as a sexual abuse survivor in the process. Professor Hettes must continue her work even as Stacey finds herself…
The American South is so identified with the Civil War that people often forget that the key battles from the final years of the American Revolution were fought in Southern states. The Southern backcountry was the center of the fight for independence, but backcountry devotion to the Patriot cause was slow in coming. Decades of animosity between coastal elites and backcountry settlers who did not enjoy accurate representation in the assemblies meant a complex political and social milieu throughout this turbulent time.
The Battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens brings to light the world of the Southern backcountry that engendered its role in the Revolutionary War. With careful attention to political, social, and military history, Walker concentrates on the communities and events not typically covered in books on the Revolutionary War.
