Reese’s Book Club
Where the Crawdads Sing takes place between the 1950 and 1969 in Barkley Cove, North Carolina. The book begins with two events that seem unrelated, but over the course of the novel intertwine. The portion of the story that takes place in the 50s is that of a young girl named Kya living in the marsh, the latter events revolve around the murder of local football celebrity Chase Andrews.
Kya’s lives on the outskirts of town in the marshland, which unfortunately comes with many preconceived notions from the town’s people. Throughout the novel the reader sees the prejudice the town holds towards those of the marsh. The people of the Barkley Cove assume Kya is uneducated based on her only having attended one day of school. However, Kya has learned the ways of the land by surviving when her family abandons her. She was also able to make a lifelong friend Tate who decides to help Kya learn how to read and write. During their teenage years the two of them fall in love; however Tate leaves Kya to go off to college, to study the marsh, and breaks her heart. As the story progresses, they reconnect and Kya becomes a published academic on the marsh.
During the time of Tate leaving for college, Kya gets involved with Chase Andrews. Chase and Kya also develop a relationship; however it’s not what Kya hopes for. Instead, Chase turns out to be an arrogant character that simply sees Kya as the dumb marsh girl, and assumes that he can use her however he wants. Kya eventually discovers that Chase is intending to marry another girl so she cuts off ties with him. However, when Chase turns up dead the people that were aware of their connection automatically assume it was Kya’s doing, including the local law enforcement. This escalates into them bringing charges against Kya based on questionable evidence at best, spurred on by the town’s bias of the marsh. To learn how the court case unfolds and the stories of Kya, Tate, Chase and the rest of Barkley Cove you will have to check out Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens.
I personally enjoyed this book, and found it to be a quick read with well written characters. While I will admit at times the character of Kya may be a bit hard to believe in the sense of realism, I found it easy to dismiss based on the likeability of the story. Originally I simply read this book for the Historical Fiction book club I host at the library without many expectations. When I picked the book I simply based it off of knowing it was a popular book with book clubs and was making its rounds through the library system. After having read it I can understand its popularity and would also recommend it. If this book or historical fiction interests you, I invite you to check out the library’s Historical Fiction Book Club. We currently meet every third Saturday of the month at noon on Zoom where we discuss books such as this one.
The
Dutch House by Ann
Patchett
The Dutch House tells the story of Danny and his sister Maeve who grow up in the suburbs of Philadelphia over the course of five decades. Danny is the book’s narrator. The two children are brought up in what the locals of their hometown refer to as the Dutch house. The house was obtained by their father Cyril Conroy after WW2 as a gift for his wife, but instead of a gift this house leads to ruin for those he loves. After the war their father pursues a career in real-estate renting out apartments in New York.
This book is often referred to as a dark fairy tale, and I would have to agree that the onset of this novel shares commonality with fairy tales. At a young age Danny’s mother leaves their father to pursue other interests in life. After she leaves, Cyril takes an interest in another woman and remarries, and moves his new wife into the Dutch house with her two daughters. This new wife despises both Danny and Maeve and is determined to make their lives miserable. In this narrative we can draw various parallels with the wicked stepmother motif often found in fairy tales. This can be drawn from the way in which the stepmother views Danny and Maeve as second class citizens in their own home. After their father passes away, their stepmother wastes no time kicking Danny out of the Dutch house. With Maeve no longer a minor, Danny takes up residence with his sister.
As the novel progresses, the two siblings learn their father has left a fund for Danny and his two stepdaughters to attend college. With Danny being the oldest of the three children, Maeve devises a plan to have Danny attend medical school to drain the fund, as a way to get revenge on their stepmother. While Danny goes along with Maeve’s plan, he is none too enthused. Instead his goal is to follow in his father’s footsteps and pursue real estate. As the book progresses we see how both of the siblings lives unfold, and while they both may have been unwelcomed in the Dutch house by their stepmother they always seem to be drawn to meeting just outside of it.
I recommend this book if you have an interest in historical fiction taking place in the decades after WW2, with regards to family dynamics. This book may also appeal to those looking for something that feels like a fairy tale written in modern times, but with a historical context.
Goodreads – 4.11 out of 5, Amazon – 4.4 out of 5
The Book Of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd
Ana is a force to be reckoned with; she is brilliant, ambitious, and has a daring spirit. When the reader first meets her, Ana is 14 and living with her wealthy family in first century Galilee. Ana rebels against the expectations for women of her time and encouraged by her father, she learns to read and write. When Ana’s rebellious nature gets her into trouble, she is recused by an 18-year-old Jesus.
Jesus and Ana marry and live in poverty with his family in Nazareth. Ana has her Aunt Yaltha with her but is not used to poverty and the work required to keep the family alive. The union is a happy one although Jesus is often away from home looking for work. It is after Ana travels with Jesus to meet John the Baptist that Jesus begins his ministry. Ana is left behind as we know Jesus did not have female disciples.
Ana goes back to the family, but circumstances soon force her to flee. She and Yaltha find their way to the Therapeutae in Alexandria, a community of Jewish philosophers living simple lives dedicated to studying and writing. It is here Ana finds her true calling. She leaves Therapeutae briefly when she learns Jesus’ life is in danger and is able to see him before his death.
Grounded in meticulous research and written with a reverential approach to Jesus's life that focuses on His humanity, The Book of Longings blends perfectly with the New Testament stories we know so well. Be sure to read the Author Notes before putting the book down.
4.25 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on Amazon
The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Our Darkest Night by Jennifer Robson
Our Darkest Night is Robson’s sixth book and I have read all of them but this one I couldn’t put down. The story takes place in Italy during the German occupation, a dark time which brought out the best and worst of mankind. Antonina Mazin is a young Jewish woman who lives with her father in Venice, her mother in the equivalent of a nursing home. When Jewish roundups seem imminent, Antonina’s father sends her away with a friend of a friend, Niccolo Gerardi.
Antonina Mazin becomes Nina Marzoli and goes to live with Nico on his families’ farm, posing as his Christian wife. Nina was training with her father to be a doctor and has no knowledge of the work required to run a farm. Guided by the last words of her father, “Eat the food they give you. Do the work that is expected of you. Never complain.” Nina slowly adapts to life on the farm.
Nico’s neighbors are leery of the girl Nico suddenly married and their distrust is shared by the local Nazi official who has a vendetta against Nico. Karl Zwerger becomes obsessed with Nina and learning everything about her in his quest for revenge. As the charade becomes a reality, can Nina and Nico survive until the end of the war?
Jennifer Robson has a doctorate in British history from Oxford and relies upon conventional research sources as well as personal recollections for her books. She doesn’t shy away from the horrors of the time. Robson’s writing style brings the characters and historic events to life.
4.18 stars on Goodreads, 4.5 on Amazon
This book is not available at EPL. Ask any of the reference librarians to get it for you from an area library.
The Forgotten Room by Karen White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig (LT)
Three stories, told by three different authors, with one common thread, an address in Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Combined their stories become a complex mystery connecting three generations of women in one family to a single extraordinary room in the Gilded Age mansion at that address.
In 1945 the mansion is being used as a private hospital to which a critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought. He carries a portrait miniature featuring a woman who looks very much like his young doctor Kate Schuyler. And the ruby pendant she is wearing looks a lot like the pendant handed down to Kate by her mother.
In their pursuit of answers, the pair find themselves drawn into the turbulent history of the mansion. The reader learns about Olive Van Alen, a woman driven from riches to rags in the latter 1800s, who hires out as a servant in the very mansion her father designed. During the 1920s Lucy Young comes to the house in pursuit of the father she had never known.
Are Kate and Cooper ready for the secrets that will be revealed in the Forgotten Room? Find out for yourself.
White, Williams, and Willig have written two other historical novels together and each of them are very prolific as solo authors in the field of historical fiction.
3.90 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 on Amazon.
The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
New York Times Bestseller
The book is based on the true story of the writing and publication of Doctor Zhivago. In Washington, D.C. two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the task of smuggling the Doctor Zhivago manuscript out of the USSR, where the Communists wouldn’t allow its publication, and to aid in the distribution of the printed volume around the world. It is also the love story of Dr. Zhivago’s author Boris Pasternak and his mistress Olga Ivinskaya, the inspiration for Dr. Zhivago’s Lara. The story moves back and forth between the east (USSR) and the west (Washington, D.C.) which could be confusing for some readers.
3.69 stars on Goodreads, 4.2 on Amazon
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The Only Woman In The Room by Marie Benedict
Hedy Lamarr was so much more than a famous actress. She was also a brilliant, self-educated scientist who no one took seriously. Hedy began life in Austria as Hedy Kiesler and married a Nazi arms dealer. After her escape to America, she not only became a film star, she co-invented a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes. The technology was hidden away by the military until it became the backbone for today’s Bluetooth technology. Hedy and her partner, who never benefited from the invention as the patent had expired, were posthumously inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
3.76 stars on Goodreads, 4.4 on Amazon
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