The Thread Collectors

I really enjoyed listening to The Thread Collectors by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman. Had the story gone a little bit deeper, I think I would have loved it. That being said, it was an excellent story told in an effective way. I highly recommend it. It was too new to select as a book for my synagogue book club, but at some point I'm hoping we can discuss it.

The authors, Edwards and Richman, tell the story of the Civil War from perspectives we don't often hear from. William is a fugitive slave who enlists in the Union Army where he meets Jacob, a Jewish musician from New York, who is a musician in the Union Army. Through their chance meeting, William's experience in the war is very different from what it might have been had they not met.

Both men have left loves behind. William leaves Stella, a slave to the same master, back in New Orleans while Jacob leaves his wife, Lily, in New York City. While the men communicate with the world thru their music, the women have different ways of communicating. After Stella hand stitches a map to help William escape in order to join up, women on her street ask her to stitch maps for their loved ones. Lily shares her thoughts through her written words. She volunteers in New York City, trying to make a difference to the war effort. She writes articles for an abolitionist newsletter and is part of an organization of suffragettes. To make an early connection between Lily and Stella, Lily is part of a quilting bee even though as a motherless girl, she never learned how to quilt. Or sew. Or knit.

This isn't exactly a spoiler, but at the end of the novel, the authors' note indicates which parts of the story are based on facts from the authors' families' stories and which parts of based on historical research. I'm can't stop thinking about the connections.
 

The Vanishing Half

 

The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett has appeared on so many different lists of books to be read since it came out in early June. It’s the story of twins, Desiree and Stella, and their respective daughters.  Desiree and Stella grew up in the 1960s in rural Louisiana. The town they lived in wasn’t even on the map or in any atlas. Desiree couldn’t wait to leave. It took more to convince Stella that it was time to go.

 

The twins lived in a “colored town” where everyone was light-skinned. Did that impact the way they understood race? They witnessed something pretty traumatic in their young lives which shows itself in their later lives in small ways.

 

After running away to New Orleans together, Stella next runs away from Desiree. At that point, the two sisters who had always been two halves of a whole, Desiree’s and Stella’s lives go in totally different directions. Stella marries a very dark-skinned man and has a daughter who is described as “blue black.” Stella decides to pass as white which she does quite successfully. She marries a white man who has no idea about Stella’s past.

 

The plot is a bit contrived. There are lots of unlikely coincidences. However, this novel about being true to yourself – and what that means – gives the reader so much to think about. It would be a great book for a book club to discuss. There’s that much there, not all directly tied to the plot line.

 

I only gave this novel 4 stars on goodreads.com. However, I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to think about how he or she thinks about race and identity.

The Book of Lost Names

Even though The Book of Lost Friends was slow to get into, in the end, I really enjoyed Lisa Wingate's newest historical fiction novel. Wingate is the author of Before We Were Yours, another historical fiction novel that I really enjoyed reading.

I bet if you asked most people what this book is about, they'd tell you it's about Reconstruction and the post-Civil War years. And that is what it's about. "The Book of Lost Friends" is a book that former slave, Hannie, and Juneau Jane, illegitimate daughter of Hannie's former master, keep to hopefully help former slaves reconnect with their families. "Lost Friends" was an actual advertisement published in Southern newspapers after the Civil War and read by preachers at Southern churches. Lavinia, Juneau Jane's legitimate sister, and Juneau Jane are looking for word about their father, mostly to protect their inheritances. At first Hannie follows them to make sure that her sharecropping contract is protected, but gradually she is led to search for her family that had been sold away over 10 years earlier.

The parallel story is about Benny, a brand new English teacher who has been sent to Augustine in rural Louisiana for her first few years of teaching in order to get student loan forgiveness. Many of Benny's student come to school hungry, when they're able to come to school. She yearns to find a way to connect to these students. Although Benny's upbringing was much different, she sees a part of herself and her teen years in many of her students making her want to connect even more. When Benny meets some old-timers from Augustine, she becomes interested in their stories. And realizes that perhaps her students should be hearing those stories rather than reading books like Animal Farm.

Benny's story was the story that I connected to. I really wanted her plan to reach these kids to succeed. I found that story more engaging than the 1875 storyline, but I also wish that there was more backstory to Benny's tale.

I think you really have to be a serious historical fiction fan to like this sometimes slow-moving book, but I did enjoy it and would recommend it to some.

An American Marriage

Shortly after An American Marriage was published, I happened to catch Tayari Jones being interviewed on the radio. Her observations on the life of black men in America was thoughtful, as was most of her interview. I mentally added this to my list of books to read. It was available at the library last week. I gobbled it up.

The story was sort of basic, the plot followed a mostly expected (although not totally predictable) course. But I really wanted to see and understand the finer details of how Jones took the story from point A to point B.

Yes, marriage was the main focus of the story. But this novel was about so much more than marriage. It was a story about fathers and sons, fathers and daughters, mothers and daughters, mothers and sons and about friendship. It was about life paths. How do we get to where we're going? Who helps us along the way?

It doesn't appear as though my community book club is going to choose this as a book to read, but this would make one awesome book to have a conversation about. There's so much meat to this story. I highly recommend. And if you do read it and want to chat about it, give me a holler!