I found Horse, quite by accident -- this one a staff pick in a fun book store -- never imagining I’d find it so interesting. I’m not a horse-rider, knew virtually nothing about horses, nor did I share the fascination some women have for horses. But this book was incredible. By weaving a number of separate human stories around the individual horses that serve as the backbone of the book, Geraldine Brooks provides us with a fascinating and memorable read. She skillfully alternates interlinked present-day human stories -- featuring Americans (white and black) and Australians -- with those of the descendants of the horses famous during the American Civil War era. These too are cleverly meshed with fascinating stories of inter-racial friendship, oppression, and betrayal. It was a fascinating read, which I was sorry to finish. I wanted to go on reading!
"Brooks' chronological and cross-disciplinary leaps are thrilling." -The New York Times Book Review
"Horse isn't just an animal story-it's a moving narrative about race and art." -TIME
A discarded painting in a junk pile, a skeleton in an attic, and the greatest racehorse in American history: from these strands, a Pulitzer Prize winner braids a sweeping story of spirit, obsession, and injustice across American history
Kentucky, 1850. An enslaved groom named Jarret and a bay foal forge a bond of understanding that will carry the horse to record-setting victories across the South. When the nation erupts in civil war, an…
Like Horse, this story came to me by accident. The author, Nancy K. Turner, builds on a diary written just after the American Civil War. Sarah, the protagonist, is a young girl at the beginning of the novel, barely literate when she begins. She tells the story of her journey out West, beautifully, touchingly portraying the difficult, yet meaningful lives the pioneers experienced. Abandonment, illness, death, attack by Indians and scoundrels are interwoven with Sarah’s family life, including her slowly blossoming love for an attractive and admirable military man. I found Sarah’s sexual norms, shared by others in that period, surprisingly strict. She paints a detailed, believable, if harsh picture of life as a pioneer. I followed up reading The Star Garden, the final book in this series. I still have Sarah’s Quilt to anticipate.
Sarah Agnes Prine begins her diary in 1881 when her father decides to move the whole family - and their horse ranch - from Arizona Territory to Texas, where life will be easier. Sarah, at seventeen, is a tomboy: though she longs to be educated, gracious and beautiful like other women. But when the family sets out on the wagon trail and disasters strike in rapid succession, Sarah turns out to be the only thing that keeps them from certain death.
Sarah stays brave, strong and determined through everything that befalls her. But she longs to be loved, like any…
The authors of First Ladies, Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, write about the unusual, extraordinary even, friendship between Franklin D. Roosevelt’s wife, Eleanor, and the civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune. These two historical figures became friends at a time when friendships between blacks and whites were seriously frowned upon, even sometimes illegal. The story outlines the various ways in which they helped each other overcome barriers to black involvement in politics. In so doing, the authors delve into the personal lives of these two unusually brave and proactive women -- exploring their relationships with their husbands, children, and others. Although historical fiction, the story is soundly grounded in the facts available; and is a fascinating read.
A novel about the extraordinary partnership between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune—an unlikely friendship that changed the world, from the New York Times bestselling authors of the Good Morning America Book Club pick The Personal Librarian.
The daughter of formerly enslaved parents, Mary McLeod Bethune refuses to back down as white supremacists attempt to thwart her work. She marches on as an activist and an educator, and as her reputation grows she becomes a celebrity, revered by titans of business and recognized by U.S. Presidents. Eleanor Roosevelt herself…
This book is an unusual memoir, framed within the walls of my home in upstate New York. By focusing on the collectibles within, room by room, meaningful experiences from my life—spanning nearly eight decades and extending throughout the globe—emerge.
I have led an exciting life: from conducting long-term ethnographic research in remote forested areas of Borneo, Sumatra, and the US to advising senior officials to giving keynote addresses at international conferences, with many experiences in between. I have spent significant time in Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Asia. My life has been full. I hope this partial recounting will be as interesting to read as it has been for me to live.
