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Illuminations, by Mary Sharratt

Illuminations, by Mary Sharratt

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Illuminations illuminates the life of Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century nun who founded her own abbey and composed beautiful works of sacred choral music. Hildegard’s journey to becoming a nun began against her will, when her mother “tithed” her to the church at the age of eight (she was her family’s 10th child). Hildegard became a companion to Jutta, who chose to become an “anchorite” nun, bricked into two rooms in the church. In compensation for Hildegard’s companionship, Jutta’s…

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The Sleeping Dictionary, by Sujata Massey

The Sleeping Dictionary, by Sujata Massey

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The Sleeping Dictionary is the engrossing story of a poor young orphan in India who, through her own intelligence and bravery, fights her way through tragedy and discrimination to earn a good living for herself and to help with India’s struggle for freedom from British rule. The title refers to Indian women who acted as translators for their British lovers. Sujata Massey is a journalist and mystery writer who makes use of her research skills and her personal connection (through…

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Snow Child graphic from Georgia Stitt's web site
The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey

The Snow Child, by Eowyn Ivey

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The Snow Child is inspired by the Russian folk tale of an elderly couple who, unable to have children, used snow to form a girl who then comes to life. This novel takes place in 1920s Alaska instead of Russia, and the “elderly” couple, Mabel and Jack, are about fifty years old. Ten years have passed since Mabel gave birth to a still-born child in Pennsylvania, and her grief, and the loneliness she feels at family gatherings full of children,…

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The Blood of Flowers
The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani

The Blood of Flowers, by Anita Amirrezvani

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The unnamed narrator of The Blood of Flowers is a young woman of 17th century Iran who has fallen on hard times. The book begins with the narrator and her mother huddled in old clothes in a cold, leaking shelter, speaking in whispers to avoid disturbing others sleeping nearby. But the narrator reveals that she wasn’t always in such dire straits: “Only a few months before I had worn a thick velvet robe patterned with red roses, with silk trousers…

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eva moves furniture margot livesey
Eva Moves the Furniture, by Margot Livesey

Eva Moves the Furniture, by Margot Livesey

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I first read Eva Moves the Furniture when it came out in 2001. I enjoyed it then, and the characters stayed with me through the years. When I read it again to prepare this review, I enjoyed it even more. The novel begins in Scotland in 1920, with the birth of Eva and with her mother’s death. As a small child living a placid rural life with her elderly father and her aunt, Eva realizes that she has two companions…

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Waterlily, by Ella Cara Deloria

Waterlily, by Ella Cara Deloria

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Waterlily was originally written in the 1940’s but not published until 1988, after the author’s death. This novel about the life of a Dakota woman and her family in the mid-1800’s, just as European-Americans were beginning to encroach on the land where the Plains Indians lived, is based on the author’s ancestors. November is a great time to read this book, since we are celebrating Native American Heritage Month. Ella Cara Deloria was born on the Yankton Sioux reservation and…

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The Translation of Love book cover
The Translation of Love, by Lynne Kutsukake

The Translation of Love, by Lynne Kutsukake

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Before I read this book, I was familiar with the plight of the Japanese in North America who were forced into internment camps during World War II. But I had never given a thought to the situation in Japan after the war. The Translation of Love by Japanese-Canadian author Lynne Kutsukake shines light on the human story behind the American occupation of Japan after the end of the war. The story is told in third person through the eyes of…

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Wide Sargasso Sea cover
Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

Wide Sargasso Sea, by Jean Rhys

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Wide Sargasso Sea is the story of the “madwoman in the attic” of Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre—the woman who was the first wife of Edward Rochester, Jane’s lover. According to Jane Eyre, this madwoman was Bertha Antoinetta Mason, born and raised in Jamaica. She inherited the madness that ran in her family. Rochester claims that he was not told of this inherited insanity before his marriage. Later in the book, we learn that she sets fire to the house and…

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Women of the Silk cover
Women of the Silk, by Gail Tsukiyama

Women of the Silk, by Gail Tsukiyama

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Although there’s not much of a plot in Women of the Silk, the appealing characters, detailed descriptions of setting, and themes of women’s independence and communal living, kept me reading. The novel follows Pei from childhood as she leaves her poor family and joins a “sisterhood” of silk workers in a village near Canton, China in the early 20th century. I enjoyed learning about the production of silk thread from cocoons, as well as the communal houses the girls and…

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River, Cross My Heart, by Breena Clarke

River, Cross My Heart, by Breena Clarke

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One would expect a novel that starts with the drowning of a child to be a tragic book. River, Cross My Heart is anything but. It takes place in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, DC in the 1920’s, and is based on stories the author was told by her family about living in the African-American community of Georgetown at that time. One hot summer day, 12-year-old Johnnie Mae disobeys her parents’ rule and decides to go swimming in the Potomac…

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