Month: March 2023

Book Review: This Other Eden #Malaga Island #Maine #Historicalfiction #LiteraryFiction

BonnieReadsAndWrites6 Comments

This is a brilliant but heartwrenching story inspired by a real-life mixed-race island community off the coast of Maine–Malaga Island, from its settlement to its demise at the hands of the State of Maine. It is not a feel-good novel, but the true depiction of how a government can intervene without conscience and destroy a people. The book is full of biblical imagery, and the Island’s matriarch/prophet, Esther, who was raped by her own father and whose child is part of a story that evokes images of Moses, sees disaster coming.

Paul Harding’s ability to convey raw emotion is impressive and the audiobook version, narrated by Edoardo Ballerini, is well done. The characters become so real and their resilience is amazing. To me, the island in the story, Apple Island, is a symbol of purity in a way, and the outside world is the sin that invades and destroys. The title, This Other Eden, is perfect for this book. The people of Apple Island have their own Eden, but the outside world sees only poverty and race. They want to take the island for themselves and turn it into a resort. The interference of the government in something so innocent, peaceful, and good can be summed up in this quote: “Soon enough, she thought. Soon enough, Pharaoh will come after us, like he always does.”

Sometimes books can give us an escape–a chance to relax, laugh, or fantasize. This is not such a book. It is a book that causes us to look at hard truths. It causes discomfort. It is the opposite of an escape. It is a reckoning. We need such books as these too.

I received a free copy of the audiobook from the publishers via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Harding is the author of two novels about multiple generations of a New England family: Enon and the Pulitzer Prize–winning Tinkers. He teaches at Stony Brook Southampton.

BUY LINKS

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Google | Kobo

#BookReview: Go As A River by Shelley Read #HistoricalFiction @SPIEGELandGRAU #WomensFiction

BonnieReadsAndWrites13 Comments

BOOK DESCRIPTION (FROM AMAZON)

Seventeen-year-old Victoria Nash runs the household on her family’s peach farm in the small ranch town of Iola, Colorado—the sole surviving female in a family of troubled men. Wilson Moon is a young drifter with a mysterious past, displaced from his tribal land and determined to live as he chooses.

Victoria encounters Wil by chance on a street corner, a meeting that profoundly alters both of their young lives, unknowingly igniting as much passion as danger. When tragedy strikes, Victoria leaves the only life she has ever known. She flees into the surrounding mountains where she struggles to survive in the wilderness with no clear notion of what her future will bring. As the seasons change, she also charts the changes in herself, finding in the beautiful but harsh landscape the meaning and strength to move forward and rebuild all that she has lost, even as the Gunnison River threatens to submerge her homeland—its ranches, farms, and the beloved peach orchard that has been in her family for generations. 

Inspired by true events surrounding the destruction of the town of Iola in the 1960s, Go as a River is a story of deeply held love in the face of hardship and loss, but also of finding courage, resilience, friendship, and, finally, home—where least expected. This stunning debut explores what it means to lead your life as if it were a river—gathering and flowing, finding a way forward even when a river is dammed.

BOOK REVIEW

This is more than just a coming-of-age story. This is a story of a metamorphosis. It is about a girl who gains a level of fierceness, wisdom, and independence that doesn’t occur under normal circumstances. It is exquisitely written.

I’m not sure I’ve ever read the work of an author who made me feel everything she had written quite so deeply before. As I experienced this novel, I could see the mountains and feel the rain on my skin. I could taste a peach after a long period of starvation, and I could feel the agonizing, numbing heartache that vibrated off the page. Anger, terror, love, sacrifice—it is all there, and every bit of it envelops the reader and draws them in. Torie’s story was so well told I became a part of it as I drank in every word. It was an absolutely beautiful, sorrowful pleasure to read. Now I’m going to tell you this is Shelley Read’s debut novel. Yep. A star is born. And I’ll be looking forward to her next book.

My rating is actually 5.5 stars, because the one category I rate up to a 6, “How Does It Make Me Feel,” was over the top!

I received a free copy of this book from Spiegel & Grau via Netgalley. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Shelley Read is a fifth-generation Coloradan who lives with her family in the Elk Mountains of the Western Slope. She was a Senior Lecturer at Western Colorado University for nearly three decades, where she taught writing, literature, environmental studies, and Honors, and was a founder of the Environment & Sustainability major and a support program for first-generation and at-risk students. Shelley holds degrees in writing and literary studies from the University of Denver and Temple University’s Graduate Program in Creative Writing. She is a regular contributor to Crested Butte Magazine and Gunnison Valley Journal, and has written for the Denver Post and a variety of publications.

INSTAGRAM | WEBSITE

BUY LINKS

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Google | Kobo

Book Review: Deborah’s Gift #HistoricalFiction #WomensFiction

BonnieReadsAndWrites4 Comments

This is the last of the books I reviewed for the February edition of Historical Novels Review, the magazine of The Historical Novel Society.

This novel spans from 19th-century St. Louis to the island of Martinique and New York City in the 20th century.  When her controlling great-aunt dies, Deborah Huntworth, widow of a much older husband, can finally pursue her dream of becoming an artist.  She returns to Martinique to reunite with her child, but tragedy strikes, changing her life forever. She then moves to New York, determined to pursue her art.  There, despite disasters and mistakes, she attempts to share her work and support herself as the early 20th century unfolds around her.

Deborah’s Gift is the story of a woman who is intent on expressing herself, despite the attempts of others to control her.  She is a free spirit in both her art and her actions.  Her freedom of character explodes from the page, and we see quite a remarkable person who was born into times that tried to constrain her. There is an amazing cast of characters, who, whether wicked, judgmental, or loving, are vividly painted on the canvas of this book.  This portrait of a woman’s life is full of creativity, passion, tragedy, and loss.  It is a gripping read.  Fans of art and American history, plus anyone interested in the eruption of Mount Pelée in 1902, will be captivated.

My rating is 4.5 stars, rounded to 5 on sites with no partial star option.

I received a free copy of this book from New Wind Publishing via The Historical Novel Society. My review is voluntary and the opinions expressed are my own.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Lois Ann Abraham is a prize-winning fiction author and retired professor of English at American River College in Sacramento. She spent her formative years in Texas, the Panhandle of Oklahoma, and New Mexico, where she still has strong roots. Her pieces have been published in Sojourner, Chico News & Review, Writing on the Edge, Inside English, Burning the Little Candle, Convergences, and elsewhere. She lives on the banks of Chicken Ranch Slough in Sacramento with her sisters and two orange and white cats.

BUY LINKS

AMAZON | AMAZON UK