Hearts Made Whole
by Jody Hedlund
[Book]
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This book is part of Hedlund’s Beacon of Hope Series and is the Sequel to Love Unexpected. Set in 1865 Michigan, Caroline Taylor has helped her father tend to a lighthouse and care for her younger siblings. When her father dies unexpectedly, she is forced to give up the job and their home. Ryan Chambers, a wounded Civil War veteran with alcohol and drug addictions and no experience arrives as the new lighthouse keeper. This is a story of faith, hope, healing and romance.
Reviewed by Julie
Tagged: Christian fiction, Fiction, Historical fiction, Romance
What is Visible
by Kimberly Elkins
[Book]
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Kimberly Elkins’ What Is Visible is one of the best books I have read in a long while. I wept through its final chapters, and yet, upon finishing it I find myself already sorry that I had reached the end so soon. A work of historical fiction, What Is Visible tells the story of a number of celebrated figures at the Perkins School for the Blind in the mid-nineteenth century, including Samuel Gridley Howe and Julia Ward Howe, but most of all, the remarkable Laura Bridgman, who, at the age of two, lost her senses of sight, hearing, taste, and smell. Although she relied almost completely on her sense of touch to perceive the world, Laura would learn English, and could read, so long as the print was raised so that she could feel the shape of the letters, could write, and conversed with others using a manual alphabet in which the two conversationalists would write or sign letters into each other’s hands.
A world without sight, sound, smell or taste is difficult for most of us to imagine, but, as this book shows, none of these senses are essential, and it serves us well to spend some time imagining a life without them. Each chapter of the novel is written from the perspective of a different character. Most are written from Laura’s perspective, but many are written from the perspective of Julia Ward Howe, the suffragist and poet, or from that of Laura’s teachers, including her most famous teacher, the abolitionist, educator, and phrenology devotee, Samuel Gridley Howe (who was also Julia’s husband). Elkins writes a compelling and moving portrait of each of these characters, and the story they tell together is both Laura’s story and a fascinating glimpse at a small portion of 19th century America life. The stories told here are full of hardship and melancholy, but also of hope and perseverance and occasionally even joy. They are the stories of remarkable people with remarkable ideas, and of how they did, and did not get along.
I loved this story and the way it was told, and I can say with confidence that this is a book I will want to reread. I don’t feel that way often.
Reviewed by Forbes Library Staff
Tagged: Fiction, Historical fiction
The Hangman’s Daughter
by Oliver Pötzsch
[Book]
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Whenever I go to New York City I make a pilgrimage to the Strand bookstore.18 miles of books, how could I not?! During my last visit I became overwhelmed, and after 45 minutes of wandering, snatched The Hangman’s Daughter from the “books everyone loves table.” To my surprise, the book was a lot of fun.
Originally written in German, this mystery novel set in 17th century Bavaria has both an interesting plot and a plethora of historical detail. When the body of a local child turns up in a river with suspicious markings, the townspeople assume dark magic is afoot. Despite the lack of tangible evidence, the town midwife is accused of witchcraft. Jakob Kuisl is an unlikely detective (oh, and the town hangman) who stands out as the voice of reason in a world that is ready to accept witch hunts and gruesome medieval medical practices. Can the hangman prove that the midwife is innocent before it’s too late?! You’ll have to read the book to find out.
Those critical of language and authenticity may find the translation too modern but I found it approachable. An engaging whodunit!
Reviewed by Lilly
Tagged: Fiction, Germany, Historical fiction, Mystery
The Golem and the Jinni
[Book]
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Mythical creatures from Jewish and Arab folklore come alive in 19th century New York City when a Golem (a clay creature made only to serve another) and a Jinni (a fiercely independent being made of fire) trapped in human form find themselves living in adjacent neighborhoods.
The book begins with two separate plot lines… The Golem, though a fully formed woman, comes to life in the hull of a ship headed towards America and soon finds herself masterless in a world that she doesn’t understand. The Jinni on the other hand, awakes on the floor of a tinsmith shop in little Syria after a thousand years trapped in a bottle. As the novel continues the stories of the characters become entwined and, in a beautiful example of storytelling, all of the pieces of Wecker’s mythical world fall into place, leaving the reader satisfied yet sad to reach the end.
This genre bending novel has elements of historical fiction and fantasy. Wecker has clearly done a lot of research and paints a vivid picture of New York’s little Syria and Bowery neighborhoods during the turn of the century. Lovers of Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell and The Night Circus will enjoy the rich detail and intricate plot line.
Reviewed by Lilly
Tagged: Fantasy, Fiction, Folklore, Historical fiction, New York City
Dodger
by Terry Pratchett
[Book]
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Dodger is the latest novel by Sir Terry Pratchett, best known for his satirical Discworld series of fantasy novels. Pratchett’s usual wit and love of language shine through in this historical piece set in Victorian London and with a cast of characters that includes Charles Dickens, Benjamin Disraeli, Angela Burdett-Coutts, and Queen Victoria.
Dodger takes place above and below London, with the city’s ancient Roman sewers playing a prominent part. Much of the drama comes from the meeting of the upper and lower classes, the rich and poor, and the politics of the street vs. the politics of the state.
Pratchett has, very consciously, taken liberties with the setting and refers to the work as a historical fantasy, not a historical novel. The most obvious example is the inclusion of the almost certainly fictional Sweeney Todd. Less noticeable to most readers will be the the adjustment to the lives of Sir Robert Peel and John Tenniel whose careers did not, in fact, overlap as suggested in the novel. These changes may bother some, but if you take them in stride you will find Dodger to be a very enjoyable adventure story brought to life by its rich setting and colorful language.
Reviewed by Ben
Tagged: Adventure, Fiction, Historical fiction, Humor, London
Birth House
by Ami McKay
[Book]
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This book made me think about the births of my children as well as family tales I’ve heard from my mother and grandmother about their very different birth experiences. The clash between midwifery and “modern” medical care is at the center of this engaging story. The author does a great job of weaving in historical events and of setting the story during the nineteen-teens in a remote Nova Scotia village.
Reviewed by Lisa
Tagged: Fiction, Historical fiction, Women
Sarah’s Key
by Tatiana de Rosnay
[Book]
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This emotionally laden story starts off with two alternating voices. Julia Jarmond is an American-born journalist, who has been living in Paris for 20 years, complete with a French family, and a marriage that is increasingly unstable. She is tasked with writing the story of the 1942 Vel d’Hiv Jewish roundup by the French police on the 60th anniversary of that difficult but little known episode in French history. We also see the roundup from the perspective of Sarah, a 10-year-old who is taken to the Vélodrome d’Hiver with her family, but without her younger brother. The stories of these two lives converge, with a key unlocking many long-buried secrets. This is a story that will stay with you.
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: Fiction, France, Historical fiction, World War II
Murder Your Darlings
by J.J. Murphy
[Book]
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First in a new cozy series, Murder Your Darlings features Dorothy Parker and her Vicious Circle of friends at the Algonquin Round Table. Real people mingle with fictional characters in a historically-based setting. Not to worry, liberties are taken to make it more entertaining, and you don’t have to be bothered with the facts unless you choose to read the historical note at the end.
When a drama critic is found stabbed with his own fountain pen under the legendary Round Table, Mrs. Parker and Robert Benchley, together with the police and a team of bootlegging gangsters, chase down the murderer while spewing sarcastic quips, puns, and one-liners all over New York. William Faulkner makes a delightful cameo. The parody is hilarious and my only quibble is that some of the punch lines are too obviously set up. Still, I’ll be gleefully anticipating the next Algonquin Round Table Mystery.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: 1920s, Fiction, Historical fiction, Mystery
Widow’s War
by Sally Gunning
[Book]
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Set on Cape Cod (in the area which is now Brewster), in the year 1761 we meet Lyddie Berry, whose husband drowns while whaling. She defies convention and chooses not to live with her son-in-law (and who could blame her), and holds onto the law of being able to use (but not own) 1/3 of her husband’s property. She defies social, legal and religious strictures of her time, and makes her way through a world that is not made for independent women. Throw in some romance and intrigue with the details of daily life and you have a very captivating story. The author was led to the subject by her own historical research into her family, and her familiarity with the area is clear in the book.
Reviewed by Molly
Tagged: Fiction, Historical fiction, Literary fiction
Winter in Wartime
[Blu-ray, DVD]
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This beautifully shot period film follows 13 year old Michiel, a small town boy in Nazi-occupied Holland in the Winter of 1945. Michiel’s childhood innocence and restless desire for adventure lead him into increasingly dark and morally ambiguous territories when the realities of war, resistance and adulthood collide and converge upon his small town life. He is apprehensive about his father’s uneasy cooperation with their German occupiers and looks up to his uncle Ben, a resistance fighter whose connections, gifts and attitude intrigue Michiel. When an allied fighter pilot crashes near the village, Michiel and his sister, a young nurse, are drawn into the search for the pilot and must debate whether to take action or remain silent, and question who they can truly trust. The film, while somewhat conventional in some of its WWII era plotlines, offers enough twists and intrigue to keep the viewer’s attention, but its real appeal is grounded heavily in the films setting. The scenes are filmed beautifully and the village, woods, snow, bicycles, knitwear and natural light combine to give the film an enchanting sense of place, and ground the viewer in Michiel’s conflicted world, caught between action and fear, occupation and resistance and childhood innocence and the risks of adult responsibilities. This film is one of several Forbes films now added in Blu-Ray and DVD (both discs are included in one case, so patrons will not mistakenly get home and find the film unplayable), and the Blu-Ray is especially recommended for its crisp picture, which captures the film’s setting wonderfully.
Reviewed by Dylan
Tagged: Drama, Feature film, Foreign film, Historical fiction, History
The Lacuna
by Barbara Kingsolver
[Audiobook]
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Barbara Kingsolver reads her ambitious 2009 novel in a soft and expressive voice with deliberate pacing. The story unfolds over three decades in Mexico and the U.S., and each character has a particular voice within the author’s reading. It centers on the young man Harrison Shepherd whose parents (American father and Mexican mother) are marginal to the picture, and who keeps diaries in which he is a third-person narrator of his own life. Though he holds himself as a perpetual outsider, his life is in the middle of some serious action: as a teenager he gets a job as a plasterer and then a cook for Diego Rivera, living with the painter, his artist wife Frida Kahlo and the exiled Leon Trotsky for whom Shepherd does clerical work. Later, he moves to South Carolina on his own and becomes a successful novelist, until he is targeted by Joe McCarthy’s HUAC. The fictionalized descriptions of these larger-than-life figures and the historical events surrounding them are the focus of the novel, with the main character acting as quiet observer and chronicler, adding his own wry take on the proceedings. It’s an unusual device that creates an inside view of epic times through distant eyes that could be your own. Which is not to say there’s no emotion in it–there’s more than enough passion in the cast of characters, and plenty of historical context to arouse the reader’s.
Reviewed by Faith
Tagged: Fiction, Historical fiction, Mexico
The Good Earth
by Pearl Buck
[Book]
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Wang Lung, rising from humble Chinese farmer to wealthy landowner, gloried in the soil he worked. He held it above his family, even above his gods. But soon, between Wang Lung and the kindly soil that sustained him, came flood and drought, pestilence and revolution…
Through this one Chinese peasant and his children, Nobel Prize-winner Pearl S. Buck traces the whole cycle of life, its terrors, its passion, its persistent ambitions and its rewards. Her brilliant novel — beloved by millions of readers throughout the world — is a universal tale of the destiny of men.
Reviewed by Dylan
Tagged: China, Fiction, Historical fiction, Pulitzer Prize winner
