Saturday, December 16, 2017

All the Little Live ThingsAll the Little Live Things by Wallace Stegner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Read this probably 30 years ago, but the story, characters and their relationships, and the feelings are stillin my memory. Because of the prose Stegner is one of my all time favorite writers.

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A Thousand AcresA Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Modern King Lear. Sounds just like the hard life Iowa farmer/ rancher personalities of my husband's large paternal ancestor family. They were hard working, hard Swedes and 100 years later none of their descendants has much to do with each other. Sad, but very good reading.

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The Other Boleyn Girl (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #9)The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A bookclub choice, read several years ago. Very interesting, but loses 2 stars due trite writing style, and to overall unnecessarily crude language & sex.

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Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBIKillers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I am not a big fan of nonfiction but this read like a mystery and I found it an extremely interesting, and upsetting, history of both the Osage Indians in late 19th and 20th century and of the formation and growth of the FBI. It is terribly wrong that this story is not told in school history books.

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Worth the WrestleWorth the Wrestle by Sheri Dew
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Absolutely excellent, especially for those who are struggling with their faith.

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Love and Other Consolation PrizesLove and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Based on a true story this book is enjoyable and intriguing, and it's definitely a tale with a lot of heart.

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The Whole Town's TalkingThe Whole Town's Talking by Fannie Flagg
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I have been a Fannie Flagg fan, but was very disappointed with this last novel. It has a promising beginning with her quaint descriptions of small town rural Amercana and unique personalities, but it deteriorates into a boring assortment of births, comings, goings and deaths covering the period of a century. It includes a small mystery beginning in the last chapters, however the epilogue destroys any satisfaction therein with its ridiculous assertion that nothing on earth, or ever after, matters as even the bad guys live in happiness and bliss in an eternity of reincarnations. SERIOUSLY?! I think Flagg is trying to be Neil Gaiman, and she fails miserably.

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Chains (Seeds of America, #1)Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

It is 1776 and the Colonies are fighting for freedom from England. In New York a 13 year old girl, Isabel, is looking forward to her own freedom from slavery. She has witnessed her loved elderly owner sign a release from slavery for herself and her younger sister Ruth upon the lady's death. Buy when her owner dies, a distant nephew and the lady's only heir states the promised release from slavery does not exist, and claims the girls as his property.

Isabel and her sister are sold at auction when she meets Curzon, an older boy with ties to the Patriots. He tries to convince her to spy upon her new Loyalist owners. But she is unsympathetic and declares she will aid either Patriot or Loyalist as long as they can help her to break through her own chains. The girls endure harsh work conditions and hateful treatments that are getting worse and worse. "Madam," her mistress is an especially nasty piece of work. Isabel becomes spy for the Patriots after they promised her freedom. She becomes disenchanted with them when it becomes clear they only want freedom for white people. When she learns the Royalists offer freedom to slaves who escape and join the army she switches sides to help them. However, once again she becomes disenchanted when she learns that if a slave does escape from a Loyalist household, that’s a whole different matter.

Her friend Curzon is captured and cruelly treated in a Royalist Prison and she is reluctantly drawn back into the Patriot cause against the Crown, carrying messages from prison to captured officers and back.

The historical context isn't simplified, the Patriot cause isn't glorified, and the characters on both sides are flawed, complex, and rich. A masterful use of period turns of phrase and vocabulary along with a touch of dialect give Isabel a narrative voice that conveys a convincing picture of her times.
Each chapter begins with a quote from a primary source of that time period, which could spark discussion around blending multiple texts, author's craft moves, and integrating non-fiction sources.

Extremely well-written with wonderful metaphors and similes, impeccably researched, exciting, and heart-clenching, this is a fabulous read and a definite contender for the Newbery Award.

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