The Forgotten Home Child

Finished August 25

The Forgotten Home Child by Genevieve Graham

This novel is structured as the story of a woman in her nineties, telling her story to her granddaughter and great grandson. The grandmother Winny was a British home child, brought to Canada through Barnardos. As the book opens she has just moved in with her granddaughter Chrissie and her great-grandson Jamie from a seniors home. Prior to that she had lived for years with her daughter Susan who died. One of the things that Winny brought with her was the small wooden trunk she brought with her from England, and that started the conversation that she gradually has with her family. 

Winny's family came to London from Ireland when she was young, and consisted of her, four younger brothers, and her parents. When her father died in an accident, her mother struggled, and Winny found herself unable to stay with the family when her mother took on another man. 

Struggling on the streets of London, she was befriended by Mary another girl her age and became part of a small group of children who resorted to theft to feed themselves. When the children are caught, Winny and Mary eventually find themselves in Barkingside Girls' Village, a Barnardo facility where the girls are taught useful skills so they can find gainful employment. While there, Winny befriended another young girl, Charlotte who had been left there by her mother until she could get her feet on the ground. The boys, Jack (Mary's brother), and brothers Edward and Colin were taken elsewhere and we discover what happened to them as the novel unfolds. 

Like many children in England at that time, they became one of the many sent overseas to Canada. Some children were welcomed into homes, but many were indentured servants and many of those led hard lives under sometimes abusive masters. 

Winny was made to feel ashamed of her origins as a home child, and thus never revealed this part of her past to her family until now. 

Graham has done a lot of research for this novel, and all of the experiences the children in her book have are real experiences that home children had. By personifying this experience, Graham brings history to life for her readers. 

I was totally caught up in the story, needing to know what happened to each of the children, and understand the repercussions of their experiences. 

An enlightening and entertaining read. 

The Mountains Sing

Finished August 24

The Mountains Sing by Nguyen Phan Que Mai

Covering nearly a century, this is a tale of one family, the Tran family, through multiple generations in Vietnam. Told by grandmother Dieu Lan who was born in 1920, and her granddaughter Huong, born in 1960, this story is also a history of Vietnam during the 20th century. Dieu Lan was a farmer, a teacher,  and finally a trader, the last a profession frowned upon by the government, but one that was more lucrative than her former teaching job. 

We see Dieu Lan's story as she relates it to Huong after they've survived the Vietnam War and Huong is struggling to understand her family as they all deal with the traumas they've undergone. 

The first is the time of Great Hunger, when the Tran's and their neighbours are dying due to lack of food. Two neighbours emerge from this time as close supporters from then on, Mrs. Tu, who takes on a role as a sort of honorary grandmother and housekeeper for the family; and Mr. Hai, who helps them find a source of food. Dieu Lan's father treated her as an equal to his song Cong and both her and Cong make good marriages. When she, Cong, and their father were taking a load of potatoes to market, they find themselves attacked by Japanese soldiers who have moved into their area, and her father is killed. 

Cong and Dieu Lan escape, but the event is a blow to the family, and soon after that the Vietnam forces that liberate them from the Japanese occupation engage in an act of Land Reform, and disgruntled peasants turn on all landowners, even those who treated their workers well, and landowners were driven from their homes and land, and, in many cases killed. Dieu Lan loses more family members during this time. 

Dieu Lan must find a way forward with her remaining family members. She had six children: Minh, born in 1938, who may have escaped with his life, but she loses contact with; Ngoc, born in 1940, and became a doctor, who goes on to marry Hoang and is the mother of Huong who also tells a large portion of the story of this book; Dat, born in 1941 and left his girlfriend Nhung to go to war against the Americans; Thuan, born in 1947, who also went to war; Hanh, born in 1948, who found a life in Saigon; and Sang, born in 1954 and who was still an infant as the family fled.

During the war, Huong was with her grandmother in Ha Noi, but they often fled to the nearby mountains during bombing attacks, sometimes for long periods. When they returned to the city, they had to rebuild and hope that the other family members who had left to either fight in the war or support those who were fighting will return home. Some do, but all suffer from trauma of different types. 

The author is a well-regarded poet and the writing here shows her skill with language and storytelling. 

I was totally captured by the story and the family members' stories, wanting to know how each one dealt with their issues and found a way forward. 

A book that was both enlightening and captivating. 

Before and Again

Finished August 21

Before and Again by Barbara Delinsky

This novel begins with a scene in the past that is life-changing. Taking her eyes from the road briefly to check her GPS as she drives her daughter to a playdate, Mackenzie Cooper misses a sign and ends up in a tragic car accident. 

The main storyline is nearly five years later, when Cooper, now living as Maggie Reid, is divorced and living in a resort town in Vermont. In her previous life, she was a successful sculptor. Now she is a makeup artist, working at a luxury spa. She has created a life where only a couple of people know about her past. She has a small rural home, and pets that she loves. We gradually see over the course of the book how she has created a new life for herself here, and has friends that truly support her as she does them. 

But things are suddenly getting shaken up, and Maggie must make choices. First her friend Grace's son Chris is arrested for hacking computers, and one of the victims is turning it into a media circus. Her friend Grace has reasons to be scared that go beyond her son's alleged crime.

Then she finds someone from her own past is involved in the new ownership of the spa, and her secrets may be in danger of being revealed. 

As we gradually get to see the people from her past and how they've struggled as well, this story becomes richer and more nuanced. 

This is a story of a woman struggling with grief and guilt, and trying to figure out how to move forward with her life, which she can't fully do without dealing with the past.

As usual with Delinsky, this novel explores relationships both with others and with oneself. 

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain

Finished August 18

For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain by Victoria MacKenzie

This short novel is about two real women, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. Both women were from well-to-do families in England and stories of and by them have survived beyond their lives, which ended in the 1400s. 

Julian was a name that was taken on by her once she became an anchoress, a woman who was sealed into a small room against one wall of a church. Her room had a window into the church, a window into a small room used by her maid who brought her food and other things she required, and took away waste products, and a high window to the outdoors. She lived in a time of hardship and disease and lived through more than one outbreak of plague. The first took all of her family except her and her mother and unmoored both of them for a while. She was able to get permission to learn how to read and write and eventually married and had a child. Sadly, the second plague took both her husband and child, and she moved back into her mother's home. During an illness of her own, she had what she called 'shewings,' where Jesus appeared to her and told her things and brought her comfort. This reinforced her natural interest in religion and led her to her choice to become an anchoress after her mother's death.  She had considered becoming a pilgrim or hermit, but was dissuaded by others due to her gender. As far as we know she never told anyone of the visions she'd had, but she did write of them and her papers were found years later.

Margery was married to a man she didn't love and had many children, but also great trouble during childbirth. During an illness after her first child was born, she had visions of Jesus and continued having similar visions during her life. She tried to communicate what she learned of these publicly by telling of her visions and weeping about what she had learned, but was criticized by many for this and was asked many questions by religious men trying to convict her of being a heretic. She sought counsel many places, including from Julian of Norwich, and travelled to Jerusalem later in her life. She couldn't read or write, but had a scribe write her story. 

This book is in three parts. The first is the longest and alternates the women's stories using their own voices as they tell us of their experiences and their search for meaning. The second part tells of their meeting, which they did on two subsequent days. The last part is the shortest and tells of Margery's careful keeping of Julian's story and how she planned to write her own.

There is also an epilogue that explains the facts about the women, how Margery's story came to be written down, and was the autobiography written in English; how both women's stories came to light, and the importance of these in terms of medieval literature. 

It is interesting how Mackenzie has combined these two lives, showing their differences and parallels and giving their voices life. 

The Dangerous Hour

Finished August 17

The Dangerous Hour by Marcia Muller

This is part of the Sharon McCone series, fairly far along, and she is celebrating a planned expansion for her agency when things start going bad. One of her agents in training is accused of stealing a client's credit card and purchasing items online with it. The client also files a complaint against the agency, meaning that Sharon's license could be in jeopardy. As she complies with investigators, she also researches old cases to see who might have a grudge against her and be capable of this kind of planned attack. 

Sharon is also mulling over a question her longtime partner Hy has posed to her.

This book has a fast-moving plot, with lots going on in terms of clues that Sharon and her investigators follow up on, both near and far. 

I also liked the storylines around helping people improve their circumstances through training and other social resources. 

A Death at Seascape House

Finished August 13

A Death at Seascape House (Jemima Jago Mystery, #1) by Emma Jameson

This is an intriguing mystery set in the Isles of Scilly off the Cornish coast in southwest England. It is part of a series featuring special collections librarian Jemima Jago. As the book opens, Jemima (Jem) has returned to the Isles to do a special project regarding a private collection of books on the island. Jem hasn't been to the Isles since she left after her grandmother's death when she was a teenager. That loss occurred shortly after another tragedy that we gradually learn about through the course of the novel. 

Jem is waiting to meet a friend at a pub, but her friend Pauley is late, and she subsequently engages in a new friendship with the bartender Micki. 

Pauley is also the owner of the large collection that Jem will be cataloguing, and has recently told Jem that one of the unique books in the collection has gone missing. When she finds out that the main suspect is Edith a woman who she hated back when she was a kid, she decides to go to Edith's house to try to recover the book. Instead she finds a crime scene, with Edith dead and the place ransacked. With the chief of police prejudiced against her, Jem must try to find the true culprit of the crime to clear her own name. 

As she encounters the locals, she must also deal with her own past there, and the tragedy that she was blamed for back then. 

I enjoyed the main character, as well as many of the supporting ones, from Micki and Pauley, to Jem's old boyfriend Rhys, and the new sergeant heading the local police force. 

This looks like it will be an interesting series. 

How to Hang a Witch

Finished August 9

How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

This is a great teen novel. The author is a descendent of Cotton Mather, on of the players in the Salem witch trials and uses that historical event to bring a current issue to a new level.

Samantha Mather has just moved to Salem with her stepmother Vivian, following her father's illness and hospitalization. Her father had always refused to return to this town, and Samantha doesn't remember her grandmother, whose house she is now living in, at all. 

While she is welcomed by her nearest neighbour Mrs. Meriwether and her son, Jaxon, she is still unhappy about being so far from her dad, who will be transferred from the hospital in New York City to a nearby city soon. 

The following day, at her new high school, is even more difficult as she is made to feel very unwelcome by a group of teenagers who are direct descendents of the women who were burned as witches in the 1600s. Samantha herself is a direct descendent of Cotton Mather, who played a large role in the historical event. 

As Samantha finds odd things happening around her and to people in town, she learns that her grandmother Charlotte had been studying similar happenings around descendents of the various players in the witch trials before her own death. 

Assisted by a resident ghost in her home, Samantha digs deeper into research, using her grandmother's notes and trying to reach out to the girls who have made her feel unwelcome. 

The parallels between to the past and the present highlight similarities that related to modern day bullying and scapegoating and show that we haven't come as far as we think in society. 

Samantha's efforts show ways to deal with real life issues even though she exists in a world where magic, superstition, and ghosts are a reality. 

This was a really interesting read, and is the first in a series of books.