The Sweetness of Water

Finished February 10

The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris

This historical fiction novel is set just after the end of the United States Civil War. George Walker and his wife Isabelle have a farm a little way outside of a small southern town called Old Ox. George often walks his land and the forest that is part of it, partly searching for a creature his father told him of, and partly to think. Towards the end of the day, one he spent wandering, he comes across two middle-aged black men. Their names are Prentiss and Landry and they were recently owned by Ted Morton, George's neighbour. The two men decided to leave once they were emancipated, but haven't got any idea of the outside world or where to head. George has a burden of sadness on him, one that he soon shares with Isabelle, and the two reconsider their future plans. George determines to clear and farm some of his land, and he approaches the two black men to offer them work helping him. When George offers them work, they are grateful to be able to earn some to take them away and into a new life. But George's actions cause issues with others that resent the loss of their traditional social order. 

Trust grows between George, Prentiss, Landry, and soon Isabelle as well, and another family member who has seen things in the war that changed him. 

When a tragedy happens to this group, it becomes a larger issue, one that both destroys friendships and creates new ones. The trust between them becomes something more, and while there is hope, more tragedies happen in the town and this household. 

I found this novel moving and thought-provoking. Crimes lead to insults, and insults become crimes. An engaging debut novel that won attention from celebrity book clubs and was longlisted for the Booker. 

Chains

Finished January 20

Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

This award-winning children's book is set from mid 1776 through to January 1777, and is told from the point of view of Isabel a black girl. She and her sister Ruth were owned by a woman, Mary, who had promised to free them on her death, but due to upheavals from the War of Independence, Mary's lawyer is away, and her heir quickly takes the girls and sells them to a loyalist couple, the Lockton's, from Charleston who are heading to their house in New York. 

Ruth is a bit simple, but a quiet and good girl, and Isabel is very protective of her. In New York, Isabel meets Curzon a young slave whose master Bellingham is in charge at the docks and suspects that they are loyalists, and will keep an eye on them. 

When Curzon asks Isabel to spy for them, she is at first wary, but pins her hopes on promises of freedom. Isabel is a smart girl, who can read and write, and knows how to keep her thoughts to herself, except in the case of her young sister. 

As we watch the changes in New York through her eyes as the war progresses, we see the bigger picture as well, and learn about the dealings of both the Americans who fight for freedom and the loyalists that want to remain king's subjects. Isabel struggles to understand the meaning of freedom to these men who use the word with such fervor, but still have slaves. 

As she continuously looks for ways to win her and Ruth's freedom, she finds herself torn between new loyalties and old. She undergoes cruelty and hardship as well as small kindnesses from a few. This is a tale that brings history to life as well as opening the young reader to human experiences foreign to them. It is the first book in a series.

The Last Runaway

Finished October 2

The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier

In 1850, Grace Bright was set to travel to the United States to marry a man from her community who had previously emigrated there, her sister Honor decided to go with her. Honor had recently been left by the man she had been supposed to marry and was feeling too many eyes on her in the Quaker community that she lived in. On the voyage, Honor was much more seasick than her sister, but as they traveled to the community in Ohio that they were going to, it was Grace who fell ill and died. 

On the way, the wagon that Honor was getting a ride on was accosted by a rough man, Donovan, looking for escaped slaves. They had an interaction that Honor found disconcerting. Arriving in the town of Wellington, Honor sent word ahead of her sister's death, but took time to recover by staying with a kind woman, Belle Mills, who is a milliner. 

When her sister's fiance, Adam Cox, arrives and takes her back to the village of Oberlin, where he lives, she finds that Adam's brother has recently died as well, leaving her living with Adam, and his brother's widow Abigail. It is an uncomfortable situation as Honor feels resented and when soon the elders determine that it isn't right for an unmarried man to be living with two unmarried women who aren't his blood relations, she realizes that things must change. 

Honor is a skilled quilter and seamstress and did some work for Belle when she stayed with her. She also quilts at home in Oberlin and at a community quilting session, where her skills are noted. Adam asked her to come work at the dry goods store he owned in a larger town nearby and she met another interesting woman there, a black woman who also took note of her. 

As Honor adjusts to life in this new land, she must also find the quiet inside that she always felt at home with her religion, but struggles to here. And she must balance the legal issues with her sense of morality in dealing with escaped slaves. 

This was a very interesting read, that gave a sense of the real struggles that people dealt with during these times. It also gave a sense of the Quaker religion of the time and how communities both set themselves apart and mingled. 

White Slaves

Finished June 15

White Slaves: 15 Years a Barbary Slave by Nicholas Kinsey

This captivating novel is based on real people and events, which the author researched. On June 20, 1631, 109 men, women, and children were taken by pirates from the community of Baltimore on the southwest coast of Ireland. Most of these people were English Calvinists who had started a fishery there. The ship that took them was working for the ruler of Algiers, and they were headed along with others, mostly men from France and Spain, back to Algiers to be sold as slaves. While the distance in a fast ship, like those the pirates used would have been a few days by sea, the need to avoid government ships of all nations, and the draw of more plunder meant the ship took more than a month to make the journey. 

Kinsey, takes us into the story of these people, giving them individual voices and bringing the characters to life. He follows quite a few of the people through the many years that they they were unable to return home, using what facts were available and inventing a story around them. The characters he covers include men, women, and children, and both English Calvinists and Irish Catholics. This book unveiled to me not just this historical event, but the entire culture of the times, giving us insight into politics, religion, and trade. 

Religion was interesting to see how people chose to observe, and the attitude of the British government of the time to any who had converted to Islam. Seeing how the different individuals dealt with their situation was also really interesting. Some were unable to stop longing for home and the way things had been, others moved on quickly, and others gradually found themselves new lives. The treatment of the individuals as slaves was also enlightening, compared to the limited information I remember learning about slavery of black people brought to North America. 

This is a book that immerses you into another time and place thoroughly, and the stories draw you on, making me want to know more about what happened to the different people Kinsey portrays. 

A wonderful read!

Yellow Wife

Finished March 27

Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson

This historical novel was inspired by and based on real historical characters, which I love. There are also some real historical figures who appear in the story. The author had recently moved to Richmond, Virginia when she saw a plaque about the couple who inspired this story and dug into their history to learn more.

The main character of this novel and the one we see through the experience of is Pheby Delores Brown. She was born on a plantation in Charles City, Virginia and raised unusually. The plantation owner's sister schooled her in everything from reading, math, and geography to piano, and even on one occasion took her out shopping as if she were not a slave. Pheby lived with her mother Ruth in a room in the Loom House and both worked as seamstresses and weavers for the plantation, doing both fine work and clothing for the other slaves. When the master's sister died and the master married, she did not continue this treatment, and took against the girl. 

As the book opens, Pheby has recently been moved to serve the master's wife when her maid that she brought with her died of fever. The master has made this choice, not his wife. Pheby is looking forward to her eighteenth birthday as she has been promised freedom then. 

But things conspire against this fate, and her hope of eventually marrying her fellow slave Essex Henry, who has been allowed to hire himself out to save money to buy his freedom. Instead, she is unexpectedly shipped to Virginia to be punished and sold at an infamous jail, nicknamed Devil's Half Acre. There she is taken by the jailor into his household and given both kindnesses and ill treatment by him as she figures out what she must do to survive in this hostile new world. Living right in the heart of the jail, she witnesses atrocities daily and is limited in what she can do to make a difference in the lives that pass through. 

I found this book very interesting, showing an aspect of the system of slavery that I hadn't seen before. The character of Pheby was interesting, but so were many of the secondary characters that emerged. I appreciated the author's note explaining her inspiration and research as well to place this work in context. 

Nowhere Is a Place

Finished February 2 

Nowhere Is a Place by Bernice L. McFadden

This is a book about a journey. There is a journey in a physical sense as the two main characters, Sherry and her mother Dumpling drive from her mother's home to a family reunion several states away. There is a journey into the past as Dumpling tells the story of their family and Sherry enlarges on that story, bringing it to life with new details and depth. And there is a journey of the relationship between these two women, who hadn't been close in a long time, perhaps not since Sherry was a young child, and how the story of the past laid bare the incident that came between them and gave new closeness to them, even more than Dumpling has with her other children.

This story goes back into the 19th century, with Dumpling's great grandmother, a young indigenous girl abducted from her home, separated from her siblings, and sold into slavery. We see how she gradually came to terms with her new reality, and started a family, with many losses along the way. And we follow one of her daughter's who becomes Dumpling's grandmother and starts again after the Civil War, and how her family also has loss and trouble. And then we see how Dumpling also has had to deal with issues outside of her control. And Sherry is the one bringing all these stories to life, as she also drives her mother across the country and along the way visits with a variety of people from her own past, people that helped make her the woman she is today. 

This is a book about telling our stories, even the difficult ones. And how doing that allows us to move forward into happiness and a more hopeful future. 

The Tinsmith

Finished July 30
The Tinsmith by Tim Bowling

This novel begins in the US Civil War, around the Battle of Antietam. Anson Baird is a doctor working for the Union Army. With a seemingly endless supply of injured man, Anson moved from one operation to the next, amputating, digging out bullets and stitching closed wounds. He has little time for sleep, and next to no assistance. So when he first notices a tall man in a torn uniform helping bring injured men to the medical area, he does so only to notice that he keeps bringing men in, unlike most who disappear quickly. When the man proves even more helpful by serving as a surgical assistant, he is very thankful.
When a civilian is killed in a shocking manner, and the body goes missing soon after, he doesn't connect it with the man until later when men come searching for the body. Once he's made the connection, he works to protect the man and give him a new identity. The man, previously John, now taking the identity of a soldier named William Dare.
We see backwards into John's life as a house slave, looked after by a slave family, and caught as a pawn between a violent and vindictive overseer and the culture he was born into. The story moves back and forth between first the war and John's past, and then many years later, the Fraser river in B.S. and John's past, as William Dare tries to save his fledgling salmon business by asking for Baird's help once again.
This is a story of race, of culture, of reputation, and men whose greed is larger than their morals.
I enjoyed the character of John/William Dare, a man who doesn't really fit in wherever he goes, and of Anson, a man who wants to do the right and moral thing.

Sister of Mine

Finished February 7
Sister of Mine by Sabra Waldfogel, performed by Bahni Turpin

This historical novel begins with a scene when two Union soldiers get separated from their scouting party and notice a Union flag on a well kept plantation. Approaching the house, they find a group of people gathered on the porch. A white woman and several black women and men. They are welcomed, fed, and their wounds are treated.
The story then jumps back twelve years to 1852, when Adelaide Mannheim, daughter of Mordecai Mannheim, a Jewish planter in northern Georgia was given her own maid, a slave named Rachel. The two girls become friends, much to the annoyance of Adelaide's mother, and soon realize that Rachel is also Mordecai's child, which explains Adelaide's mother's feelings toward her. Mordecai is a businessman, trading in many goods besides what he grows on his plantation, and he is pleased when Rachel shows an aptitude for figures as well, quizzing her when she has been tidying his study. Adelaide has secretly taught her to read as well.
When Adelaide gets to be a young lady, her mother insists that she leave school and travel to Savannah, where there is a large Jewish community, to find a suitor. Adelaide quickly meets a young man that she likes, but both her and Rachel discover that they are naive when it comes to relationships. When things go badly, both retire to the plantation, where Rachel learns more, and Adelaide's health suffers. A new opportunity for both leads them to new beginnings, but also more heartache and gradually they form a new different relationship.
This is a story of slavery and the realities of life in the South during the plantation era. While it is fiction, it is based in fact. Many Jews in the south did own slaves, as they adjusted to the society they moved into. As slave-owners, they ran the gamut from kind to cruel.
Many children were born into slavery despite being fathered by the white men who owned their mothers, growing up alongside their half-siblings, but with few of the advantages.
This book has depth for both the plot and the characters, and I found it enlightening.

Underground Airlines

Finished July 17
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters

This novel of is set in a United States with an alternate history. This is a United States that didn't go through a Civil War, where Abraham Lincoln was killed just a bit earlier than in our reality, where slavery still exists in some states.
Given the state of things in the U.S. today, this is a novel with a terrifying premise. Victor is a black man working as an undercover slave hunter for the U.S. Marshall Service, in their mandate to enforce the 1793 Fugitive Persons Law. Why would a black man take on such a job? Easy, Victor himself is an escaped slave, blackmailed into this role to maintain his own freedom from being returned to that life.
The Underground Airlines of the title is the modern name for the Underground Railroad, still trying to free people, move them north, and help some of them exit the country entirely, many to Canada. At the point of this novel, there are only four states that still have slavery, known as the Hard Four. Other slave states renounced slavery at various times, and for various reasons. There are rules around the products that come from the slave states. Some other states have enacted Clean Hands laws to keep such goods out of the hands of their citizens. Some countries won't trade with the U.S. because of their situation.
With this particular case, Victor finds himself less able to distance himself from what he is doing, caught up in his own memories of slavery, escape, and a life of looking over his shoulder. The file is messy and raises questions, and the reaction of his unseen handler back in Washington is not normal for their interaction on these cases.
Staying at the same hotel as Victor is a white woman and her black son. Victor also gets drawn into their story, and finds a connection he didn't expect.
Winters has built a world with a history, laws, international connections, and corruption that feels so possible it is scary. Black people's skin colour is classified with a numerical and textual chart. For instance the man Victor is searching for is classified as "late-summer honey, warm tone, #76". Slaves are tattooed on the back of their necks with the logos of their owning plantation corporations. I was completely caught up in the story, barely able to put it down. A wonderful, disturbing, and important read.

The Invention of Wings

Finished July 9
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd, read by Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye

This novel is based on the real lives of two sisters during the early 1800s. The sisters are Sarah and Angelina Grimké some of the first women to fight for abolition and women's rights. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday in 1803 in her home in Charleston, South Carolina. Her mother marks the occasion by a move from the nursery to having her own bedroom as well as the gift of a slave girl, Hetty, who is ten.
Sarah is appalled at the idea of owning a slave, but her efforts to free Hetty are stifled. As the novel continues over the next thirty-five years, the narrative moves back and forth between Sarah and Hetty. Hetty is the name that the owners have given this slave girl, but Handful is the name that her mother has given her and the one she uses for herself. Because of the girls' similar ages, and Sarah's attitude towards slavery, the girls grow closer than normal for an owner and a slave. The Grimké household treats slaves better than many, but still has many instances of cruelty. It is one of these instances that is linked to Sarah's intermittent speech issues.
Kidd mingles the real facts of Sarah and Angelina's lives and the world they lived in, with the invented life of Hetty and her experiences, to create a story that is enlightening and emotive.
Sarah experiences love, loss, betrayal, frustration, embarrassment, and triumph over this time, but never loses sight of her promise to Hetty's mother Charlotte to do what she can to free Hetty. Hetty undergoes love, loss, torture, and happiness in her life, always striving for the right to do as she chooses.
The interactions between the two are nicely done, with Hetty always more grounded in the practical and the confident than Sarah. She often supports Sarah emotionally when Sarah becomes despondent. Sarah, and her sister Angelina, support Hetty in different ways, with material goods, permissions, and the gift of literacy.

Dead Man's Cove

Finished December 31
Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John
This is the first book in a series featuring girl detective Laura Marlin. 11-year-old Laura has grown up in an orphanage, hoping for a home. When she is told an uncle exists and is offering her a home she is amazed, excited, and a little scared. Her uncle Calvin lives in St. Ives, and Laura adjusts quickly to life there. But there seem to be many secrets in town and Laura wants to know what is behind them.
What is going on with Tariq, the son of local shopkeepers? What does her uncle do, what is he hiding about his past, and where does he walk at night? Is the housekeeper up to something besides her wonderful cooking?
Laura is dedicated to detective work, and desperate for a friend.
A good mystery with interesting characters.

All Different Kinds of Free

Finished May 3
All Different Kinds of Free by Jessica McCann
This novel took its inspiration from a real situation where a black woman took her case to freedom to court.
Here we have Margaret, whose mother was freed by her owner, Mr Ashmore, and who therefore was born free in Maryland in the early 1800s. She became a seamstress and married a freed black man. After a few years, the two moved to Pennsylvania, a free state.
Margaret had been taught to read and write by Mrs. Ashmore, who is now a widow. Mrs. Ashmore is convinced by her daughter to send someone after Margaret and her family, claiming ownership. The man she sends, Mr. Prigg doesn't have any papers proving such ownership, so the Pennsylvania court disallows such action. But Mr. Prigg kidnaps Margaret and her children. The subsequent story is how Margaret first tries to prove her freedom, and then finds her family torn apart, sold into slavery. Mrs. Ashmore finds that guilt over her actions cause regret and she makes some steps toward assauging that guilt.
This was a very interesting story, drawing a picture of different types of slave owners and their outlooks. It shows the social feeling of the day and how once freedom has been tasted, it is hard to submit again.

Interesting Premise

Finished April 18
Blonde Roots by Bernardine Evaristo
This satirical novel begins with an interesting premise. What if the slave trade had been reversed and Africans had enslaved Europeans. Beginning from this point, we join the world of Doris Scagglethorpe, aka Omoreomwara, a middle-aged woman who was taken by slavers at the age of ten. As the book progresses, we see both Doris' struggle towards freedom, and learn of her past, both before and after enslavement. There is a lot of subtle humour here in the cultures on both sides and the customs. Evaristo uses this subtlety to tone down some of the more violent actions here.
I liked the premise and while I found the book lighter than I expected, it was an enjoyable read. The satirical humour is what really made this book for me.

Teen Historical Fiction

Finished September 19
Hush: an Irish princess' tale by Donna Jo Napoli
Melkorka is an Irish princess, first-born in her family, with a younger brother and sister. After her brother is injured badly, her father vows revenge and sends her and her sister away. Before they reach their destination, she is kidnapped by a Viking slave ship. On the ship, she is grouped with other slaves of many different nationalities. She must learn to survive. As she observes and reacts, she takes refuge in silence and soon finds that her silence gives her power.
This story is based on an Icelandic folktale, the story of which is included in the book, and crafted from that into a story of a young girl learning a new life.
Melkorka is well characterized and her growth in the book is natural and shows her as an individual. This is a strong female character, intelligent and quick and a good listener. The historical facts have been well researched and provide a good base for the story.

Pre-Civil War Novel

Finished August 11
Soul Catcher by Michael White, read by William Dufris
This saga of slave catcher Augustus Cain takes us from the Mexican-American War through to the civil war as Cain looks back on a life running from his past as he engages in what he intends to be his last job as a slave catcher. He has been drawn into the occupation due to a skill in tracking and finding slaves that he first identified as a young man.
Rosetta is the runaway slave that he has been hired to find. She runs from a master who has taken his ownership in every way he could and runs to save her soul from that subjugation.
As their lives become entwined, in the days before the Civil War, Cain must face the past he is trying to forget and face up to what his life has become. Rosetta fights to gain her freedom, and yet must also face the subtleties of human behaviour.
This is a journey in a very physical sense, but also a mental journey for both of the main characters. There is a lot of history contained in this story, as well as extremely well-written characters. The reading of the book by Dufris is excellent and captures the characters of the various players in the story.
I loved this novel.

Black History

Finished February 11
From Midnight to Dawn: the Last Tracks of the Underground Railroad by Jacqeuline L. Tobin
This history of the underground railroad concentrated on the movement of blacks from the United States to Canada, particularly into southwestern Ontario.
One thing that I really liked about the book was that Tobin looked at the women who played roles in this movement, an aspect often forgotten.
Some players came to Canada temporarily, going back for either the Civil War itself, or its aftermath. Some however returned to Canada, finding the new black codes implemented in the south after the war too imposing.
The tales of individual fugitives offer much detail and bring the history to life.

What I Read on Vacation

I was off on vacation last week (a big family get-together at a resort in Mexico) and got some reading done, both in transit and there.

Finished January 12
Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson, translated by Anne Born
This gem of a book was recommended by another librarian that I am on a committee with, and he was right about it being a good one. I had actually bought it before he recommended it, being drawn to it by both good reviews and an interest in Norwegian writing (I'm one-quarter Norwegian heritage).
The main character, Trond, has retired to the country a couple of years after the death of his wife in an automobile accident. He bought a run-down cottage on a nice piece of land near a lake and is gradually making the house habitable. One night he hears his neighbour calling his dog and goes out to talk to him. Afterwards he realizes that he knows the man from a summer when he was a youth. That summer a tragedy occured in the other man's family that impacted on both families and eventually caused both families to break up. As Trond recalls this summer from his past and the feelings that it engenders, he also looks at the more recent tragedy in his life and how he has reacted to that.

Finished January 12
Twilight by Stephanie Meyers
I bought this book on my stopover in the Houston airport as my niece had been raving about it and hinting that she'd like her own copy. I decided to read it and then give it to her. It is the first in a vampire romance series for teens, and therefore when I got a nosebleed on the plane and bled all over it, it somehow seemed appropriate! She thinks the bloodstains add interest and she can tell exactly what part I was it when it happened.
The main character, Bella, is seventeen and has chosen to go live with her police-chief father in a small town on Washington's Olympic peninsula (a very rainy part of country). Her parents have been separated for years and her mother and her have lived in Phoenix ever since, but she wants to give her recently-remarried mother some space. Her father has tried hard to make her as comfortable as possible including buying her a used vehicle. She makes friends fairly easily as school, but finds herself drawn to Edward, part of a family that seems to have ostracized themselves from the rest of the school. Edward is equally drawn to her, and as the two become closer she learns that he is a vampire. Edward's clan hunts wildlife rather than people, but still doesn't want others to know of their special nature. When other vampires come to the area to visit, Bella becomes involved in a lethal game where her life is at stake.
I found this a good read, and can see the appeal for my niece. I'll be reading the others in the series too (and maybe buying them for her).

Finished January 16
The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill
This historical novel is engrossing. The main character, Aminata Diallo tells her story as she looks back on her life from her final years in London, England.
Aminata was kidnapped from her village in West Africa when she was eleven after watching her captors kill her mother and possibly her father. She is forced to walk to the coast with other captives, a journey that takes months and that not all survive. Once arrived at the coast, she is put on a ship to South Carolina with other captives and endures many horrors during the trip to America. Once there she is sold to a slaveowner to work on an indigo plantation and is taken under the wing of the slavewoman healer there. Eventually, after being sold again, she ends up in New York during the American Revolutionary war and becomes one of the Black Loyalists who emigrate to Nova Scotia. Time and again, Deena, as she becomes known, is separated from the family she has created, and alone agrees to join the new colony of Freetown in Sierra Leone.
The book uses a combination of real historical events and good characterization to grab the reader and make the story come alive. This is definitely one of my favourite books of recent reads.
Hill has included an excellent epilogue where he talks about the history that he drew this story from and he also includes a list for further reading.

Finished January 16
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
This is another book I had been meaning to read for awhile and once I started I had to agree with one of the blurbs that said once started it was nearly impossible to put down. I found myself a spot in the shade and read all afternoon, taking a break for a swim and dinner, and then continuing reading in the evening until I finished the novel.
The postapocalyptic novel follows a father and his young son as they struggle to survive in a world that has been ravaged. They are making for the coast, although they don't know that things will be any better there. As they travel they must find provisions and avoid other travellers, particularly those that might do them harm. The relationship between the father and the son is a big part of this book, and really makes it what it is. The son is really the only thing that keeps the father going, with the hope that he can find a better life for him.
I have been recommending this book to others ever since I finished it, and it is one I will definitely be rereading.

Finished January 19
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali
I read this one on the plane coming home.
This story is set in Portugal and looks at life from the point of view of a number of residents and visitors to a small village there. Some are native Portuguese, others are long-term residents from England, and still others are tourists. There is a range of ages as well from ten up through eighty-four. Some are reminiscing about the past, some living in the present, and others looking to the future. As they deal with the world as its changes come to them, they also look at it in the context of their own familiar lives.
Ali writes beautifully and with great humour and her characters are what make this book. They come to life and illuminate the landscape they reside in.