Book Club Reads

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

A story of class and race in suburb America. Valerie clashes with the entitled local celebrity Brad over losing her beloved oak tree. Meanwhile, their children are beginning a forbidden relationship. I loved this one, it kept me interested all the way through. I was rooting for Juniper and Xavier the whole time, and cried a bit by the end of it.

311 pages




Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

Rue is a midwife, healer, and conjurer trying to hold her community together in the aftermath of the Civil War. Meanwhile, she has to deal with a charismatic traveling preacher and keep the secrets of her former plantation owner's daughter. I really liked this one for the rich depiction of root work and spirituality during the period of slavery. Although it was a bit difficult to follow the shifts between pre- and post-Civil War, the story was totally worth it!

400 pages



All Adults Here by Emma Straub

Astrid basically has a three-quarter life crisis when she witnesses an old friend being struck and killed by a school bus. Now she regrets how she raised her children, and decides to open up about her relationship with her hairdresser. This was a good family drama, and I really liked the story of Cecelia and Robin's friendship. If you are looking for a lighthearted, fun read, that isn't completely devoid of wisdom and insight into modern families, this is your book.

356 pages



The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett

The identical Vignes twins dramatically diverge as adults, with one woman eventually returning to her local black community, and the other secretly passing as white in California, her husband and friends knowing nothing of her past. Yet their story intertwines, across the generations and the decades. This book was really great! I enjoyed the contrast between Stella's life and Jude's in late 1970's LA.

343 pages

Civil War Ghosts of Southwest Missouri

 Civil War Ghosts of Southwest Missouri
by Lisa Livingston-Martin
Pages: 128
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This book not only offers legends and folktales about ghosts but more detail about the Civil War in Southwest Missouri than I had studied in any of my history classes in school or college. Even if you are not interested in ghosts, IF you are interested in the Civil War this book is a good source of history. The author travels to spots that are supposedly haunted by spirits from Civil War times, mostly union or confederate soldiers who died in the area during the war. I even talked my husband into reading this because of his interest in the civil war. He is totally not interested in ghost stories and doesn't even like to watch scary movies or Grimm or Supernatural, but he read it for the history.

The Life of Frederick Douglass: A Graphic Narrative of a Slave's Journey from Bondage to Freedom by David F. Walker

Wow. So I've heard of Frederick Douglass from history class. Famous abolitionist and writer, right? He is so much more than that. He was a slave, a father, a runaway, a freedman, an orator, a poet, a newspaper publisher, and the most photographed man of the 19th century. This book takes you through his entire life story, and it is a fascinating one. The art is beautiful, and the author clearly did a lot of research to make the fullest story possible. It offers a very honest and revealing look into the realities of slavery in the early 1800's. I'm probably going to go pick up Douglass' autobiographies now.

Amazing! Read this. Fascinating history.

192 pages

"Between States" Trilogy by J.M. Snyder

This was an unusual set of novellas that feature two men who are bobcat shifters during the time of the Civil War.  Brance is a northerner, and Caleb is a southerner, but neither of them wants to be a soldier.  When they discover that they have the same involuntary ability to shift into bobcats during the full moon, they run away together and try their best to live as hermits knowing that their secret will cost them their lives if they are caught.

"Under a Confederate Moon" (Book 1):  This book details how the two men meet when Brance is captured by Confederate soldiers and how he and Caleb eventually desert their regiments.  49 pages (Kindle edition).

"Beneath a Yankee Sky" (Book 2):  This one describes a bit of Brance's background growing up as the eldest son of a cold Amish preacher as well as how he and Caleb escape to Pennsylvania but run into dangerous fur trappers.  50 pages (Kindle edition).

"A More Perfect Union" (Book 3):  Brance and Caleb are discovered by another shifter - a female who is pregnant and won't leave them in peace.  67 pages (Kindle edition).

Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese

Cutting for Stone is an absolutely beautiful story about love and medicine.  It is first the forbidden love of a beautiful Indian nun and a British doctor, both of whom are working in a small clinic/hospital in mid-twentieth century Ethiopia.  Next there is the love between their twin boys, who are left orphaned by her death during their birth and his disappearance.  Then there is the family love that evolves between their adopted parents, the two doctors who delivered them, and the babies.  Also, there is the love of the country, the images, sounds, and smells brought sympathetically to life by Dr. Abraham Verghese.  Conflict arises when both of the boys love a young woman they grew up with -- their housekeeper's daughter.
 
667 pages